Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - Institute of Asian and African Studies

Profile and Teaching

 

Research Area(s): Cold War History, Translocal Sonic History (focus on Radio during the Cold War years), India-German Democratic Republic Cultural Relations, Digital Humanities, Political Oratory/Rhetoric in India

 

Current Project:

Entangled Wavelengths: Translocal Affect and Affiliation among Radio Broadcasters and Listeners of East and West German International Radio Stations in Cold War India, 1964-1990.

 

Research Focus: South Asia, especially India; India–The German Democratic Republic–The Federal Republic of Germany entanglements

 

 

CURRENT JOB PROFILE

  • Regular teaching. Courses offered for BA (in Asian and African Studies) and MA (Modern South- and Southeast Asian Studies, Global Studies Programme) students.
  • On the Editorial Board of South Asia Chronicle, a bilingual open-access journal.
  • Thesis supervision of BA and MA students’ theses at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Currently (as of September 2019) supervising 4 BA Theses and 8 MA Theses.
  • Organiser of the Humboldt India Project (HIP) Workshops at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, 4 workshops every academic year.
  • Active contributor for an open access database (within the DFG funded Modern India in German Archives, 1706-1989 (MIDA) project), which enlists over 8000 sources on India to be found in German archives (www.projekt-mida.de).
  • Co-Editor (with Dr. Heike Liebau) of the MIDA Archival Reflexicon, an open-access online Archival Guide, which is a platform for theoretical and conceptual reflections on archival architectures/organizing logics as well as thematic contributions on India-related holdings of specific German archives. For further details: https://www.projekt-mida.de/rechercheportal/reflexicon/
  • Internship supervisor (Praktikumsbetreuerin) at Leibniz- Zentrum Moderner Orient  (2016–for Johannes Heymann and Domenic Teipelke (BA History, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)).

 

 AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

  • Awarded a scholarship as a visiting researcher to the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under the ‘A New Passage to India’ programme from January to May, 2014.
  • Awarded the DAAD Scholarship for doctoral candidates by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) from June 2009-March 2013 for Doctoral Studies.
  • Awarded the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship for pursuing MA in Global Studies (Universities of Leipzig and Vienna) from 2006-2008 by the European Union.
  • Held 1st position in the graduating Batch of BA Political Science students in Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi: Awarded the Geeta Chopra Memorial Scholarship in 2006 for holding first position in Political Science (2003-06) by Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, 2006.

 

HABILITATION PROJECT

Entangled Presences: The Cultural Politics of India-GDR Relations during the Cold War

 

PhD DISSERTATION PROJECT

Speaking the Nation. (E)merging faces of economic reforms and secularism in the rhetoric of India’s Prime ministers, 1991-2011.

University of Leipzig (submitted and defended July 2014)

 

MASTERS THESIS

The Catholic Church as an Education provider in Puerto Rico 1948-60.  

University of Vienna, Austria. (2008).

 

LANGUAGE SKILLS

  • English- Fluent, Academic level. All academic degrees accomplished with English as the medium of instruction.
  • Hindi -Mother Tongue.
  • Urdu- Fluent in speaking
  • German- Very Good, Appeared for the Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang DSH, September 18, 2009. Score- DSH 3 (above 80%)

 

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Summer Semester 2019

 

(Universität Wien

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

 

 

  • From Nation building to Nation Branding: New Nationalism(s) in India

[Teaching Exchange Residence, at

Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde, Universität Wien, March 2019, under the Erasmus+ Mobility Programme.]

 

  • The Partition of British India: 1947 and the afterlives of material objects, state discourses and Oral Histories
  • Consumed & Consuming: Of Gods, Jobs, Sexualities, Bodies in Neoliberal India

 

 

Winter Semester 2018-19

 

(Course offered for:

BA Asian and African Studies,

MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin

MA Global Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 
  • Introduction to Area Studies
  • Tracing India in a Berlin Archive (with Dr. Heike Liebau at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin)

Summer Semester 2018

 

(Course offered for:

BA Asian and African Studies,

MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin

MA Global Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 

 

  • The Ideal Citizen of the Cold War: Perspectives from India
  • (with Dr. Franziska Roy at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin)

 

Winter Semester 2017-18

 

(Courses offered for:

BA Asian and African Studies,

MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin

MA Global Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 
  • Tracing India in a Berlin Archive (Bilingual course in German and English for Methods Module) (with Dr. Heike Liebau at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin)

 

  • From Nation building to Nation Branding: New Nationalism(s) in India

 

  • Introduction to Area Studies

Summer Semester 2017

 

(Courses offered for:

BA Asian and African Studies,

MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin

MA Global Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 

 

  • Bureaucracy in/and the Indian City: Red Tape Webs and the Clean India Campaigns

 

  • From Nation building to Nation Branding: New Nationalism(s) in India

 

Winter Semester 2016-17

(Courses offered for: BA Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 

  • Spurensuche – Indien in Berliner Archiven /Traces of India in Berlin’s Archives (Bilingual course)

 

  • Understanding the languages of new nationalism(s) in India: An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis

 

 

 

Summer Semester 2016

(Course offered for: MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin

MA Global Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 
  • Indianness in a New India? From Nation Building to Nation Branding

 

Winter Semester 2015-16

(Courses offered for: BA Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, and as optional course for MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 

  • Arbeiten mit Dokumenten zum modernen Indien in deutschen Archiven (Working with documents on Modern India in German Archives (offered in German and English)

 

  • Critical Discourse Analysis: An Introduction

 

 

 

Summer Semester 2015

(Course 1 offered for: MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin

MA Global History, Frei Universität Berlin,

Course 2 offered for BA Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 
  • Betwixt and Between Rhetoric and Sound: Understanding Oral and Aural India

 

  • Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis

 

 

July 2013-March 2015

 

 

  • Break from teaching due to intensive writing phase for the completion of the Doctoral Thesis.

 

 

Summer Semester 2013

(Course offered for: MA Modern South and South East Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, optional for BA Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin)

 
  • Negotiating Secularism: The post-colonial state and its ‘trysts’ with the ‘religious’ in India

 

 

 

Summer Semester 2012

(Course offered for MA Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Programme, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philiosophy, Leipzig University,)

 
  • Externally Accorded Roles or Self-Portrayals? Discursive Constructions of an ‘Emerging India’ Post 1991

 

 

Winter Semester 2011-12

(Course offered for MA Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Programme, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philiosophy, Leipzig University,)

 
  • Empires and Nations: Case Studies and Global Comparison

 

 

Summer Semester 2011

(Course 1 offered for MA Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Programme, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philiosophy, Leipzig University)

 

Course 2 offered for Departments of African Studies, European Studies, Department of American Studies and Department of Sociology, University of Leipzig)

 
  • Regional Security Issues in South Asia with special reference to India’s role in South Asia’s emerging Security architecture

 

  • Post-Colonialism and Nationalism-An Introduction

 

 

Winter Semester 2010-11

(Course offered for MA Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Programme, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philiosophy, Leipzig University)

 
  • Emerging Trends in South Asia with special reference to India

 

 

Winter Semester 2009-10

Course offered for BA, Department of African Studies and Department of Sociology, University of Leipzig)

 
  • Post-colonialism: Women, Territory and Minorities

 

 

Summer Semester 2009

Course offered for BA Department of Sociology, University of Leipzig)

 
  • Human Rights in the Era of Globalization