Associate Professor and Head
Department of English and Cultural Studies & Department of Languages
CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa Campus
Lavasa, Pune, India
[email protected] | [email protected]
I obtained my PhD in Linguistics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, in 2008, following an M.Phil. (2003) and MA (2001) from the same university. My doctoral research focused on unaccusativity, unergativity, and the causative alternation in Hindi, adopting a minimalist theoretical framework.
I currently serve as the Head of the Department of English and Cultural Studies and the Department of Languages at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa Campus, where I supervise PhD scholars and teach across a wide range of linguistics, literature, gender, and interdisciplinary courses.
Previously, I worked as a senior researcher at the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, where I was deeply involved in national linguistic data projects. I also contributed to the PropBank project at the University of Colorado, USA.
My research interests include theoretical linguistics, NLP, language pedagogy, gender and literature, psychoanalysis, and South Asian languages, Indian Sign Language and EkeGusii. I have conducted extensive fieldwork and published in both national and international journals and volumes. I have authored and edited several books and continue to work at the intersection of language, culture, and technology.
I have presented my research at conferences worldwide and have served as a plenary speaker, session chair, and resource person at numerous academic events. I am also a board member for several journals and active in organising faculty development programs and workshops on digital humanities, corpus linguistics, and AI in education.
I am a recipient of the CIIL Doctoral Fellowship and have qualified for the UGC-NET in Linguistics. My undergraduate thesis on Hindi-Urdu reflexives was published as a monograph in Germany.
In addition to scholarly work, I am also a creative writer, poet, and storyteller, with published collections of poems and short stories that explore themes of love, memory, and identity.
Research Interests
- Theoretical Linguistics and Syntax
- NLP and Corpus Linguistics
- Language Teaching and Pedagogy
- Literature, Gender, and Psychoanalysis
- Sign Language and South Asian Languages
- Intersections of AI, Language, and Education
Selected Relevant Publications
Hindi Verb Classes & Their Argument Structure Alternations, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011
“Transmitting Emotional Insecurities… in Autumn Sonata,” Studies in European Cinema, Routledge, 2020
“A Psychoanalytical Deconstruction of Surpanakha…,” International Journal of Jungian Studies, Brill, 2021
“ChatGPT in Education: Augmenting or Dehumanizing?” in Educational Perspectives on Digital Technologies, IGI Global, 2024
“New Populism, Religion and Social Media,” Encyclopedia of New Populism, Springer, 2024
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