Institute for Social and Economic Change

Established in 1972 by Professor V K R V Rao, ISEC is an All-India Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and Training in the Social Sciences

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Dr. Chandan Gowda – isec

Dr. Chandan Gowda

Chandan Gowda

Professional Experience

Ramakrishna Hegde Chair Professor of Decentralization and Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, April 2021 to present.

Professor of Sociology, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, May 2011 to March 2021.

Associate Professor of Sociology, National Law School of India, Bengaluru, July 2008 to April 2011.

Education

PhD, Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1998-2007.

PhD Certificate, Cultural Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 1996-1998.

MA, Sociology, University of Hyderabad, 1994-1996.

BA, Social Science, St. Joseph’s College, Bengaluru, 1994-1996.

Diploma, French, Alliance Francaise, Bengaluru, 1993.

Academic Recognitions

Schomburg Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Ramapo College, April 2024.

Visiting Fellow, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, March-May 2015.

Dissertation Research Grant, National Science Foundation, 2003-2004.

Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2002-2003.

Dissertation Fieldwork Fellowship, American Institute of Indian Studies, 2002-2003.

Regent’s Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1998-1999.

Junior Research Fellowship, University Grants Commission, 1996.

Gold Medal, MA Sociology, University of Hyderabad, 1996

Research Areas

Social Theory; Indian Normative Traditions; Kannada Literature and Cinema

Select Publications

Books

Birmingham in Mysore: The Origins of India’s Developmental State (Modern South Asia Series, Oxford University Press, Forthcoming, 2025).

Culture Matters, Simon and Schuster-India, New Delhi (Forthcoming, 2025).

Editor and Co-Translator, The Greatest Kannada Short Stories Ever Told, Aleph Book Company, (Forthcoming, 2025).

Editor and Co-Translator, Daredevil Mustafa: Short Stories of Purnachandra Tejasvi, HarperCollins-India (Forthcoming, 2025).

Co-Editor, The Ram Manohar Lohia Reader, New Delhi, Penguin Books (Forthcoming, 2026).

Another India: Memories, Events, People, New Delhi, Simon and Schuster-India, 2023 (Kannada and Hindi language editions will be published in 2025).

Co-Editor, The Essential UR Ananthamurthy, New Delhi, Aleph Book Company, 2023.

Editor, A Life in the World: UR Ananthamurthy in conversation with Chandan Gowda (Harper Collins-India, 2019).

Editor and Co-Translator, The Way I See It: A Gauri Lankesh Reader (DC Books and Navayana, 2017). (This book has been translated into Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu).

Translator, Bara, a Kannada novella by UR Ananthamurthy, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016. Shortlisted for the 2018 Raymond Crossword Translation Award.

Editor, Theatres of Democracy: Selected Essays of Shiv Visvanathan, HarperCollins-India, 2016.

Research Articles

Old Mysore: A Milieu for an Artist,” The Regional Modernism of K. Venkatappa (Editors) Deeptha Achar and N. Pushpamala, Routledge India (Forthcoming, 2025).

Bengaluru in History (in French),” Critique, Special Issue: L’Inde Colossale et Capitale (Guest Editor: Divya Dwivedi), Translated by Francoise Balibar, Volume 76, Number 872-873, Jan-Feb, 2020.

Institutional Dimensions of ‘Access’ and ‘Justice,’” State of the Indian Judiciary (Editors) Harish Narasappa and Shruti Vidyasagar, Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 2016.

Sir M Visvesvaraya: The Making of the Development Man,” Jindal Journal of Public Policy, Volume 3, Number 1, 2016.

Empire and Developmentalism in Colonial India,” Sociology and Empire: The Imperial Entanglements of a Discipline (Ed.) George Steinmetz. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013.

Many Lohias? Appropriations of Lohia in Karnataka,” Economic and Political Weekly (Guest Ed) Yogendra Yadav, Vol 45, No 40, Oct 2, 2010. (Translated into Hindi, Kannada and Marathi)

“‘Advance Mysore!’: The Cultural Logic of a Developmental State,” Economic and Political Weekly, Volume 45, Number 29, July 17, 2010.

Translations of Kannada Writings into English

Short stories by Panje Mangesh Rao (‘A Hotel in Kamalapura’), Kuvempu (‘Dhanavantri’s Healing’), Rajalakshmi N Rao (‘August 15’), Chaduranga (‘Sayyajirao Road’), and Na. D’ Souza (‘Colour’) in The Greatest Kannada Short Stories Ever Told, Aleph Book Company (Forthcoming, 2025).

The Dalai Lama and History,” “Mithuna,” “Gandhi’s Chappals,” “Gandhi and Henry VIII,” and “Love and Duty,” Poems of UR Ananthamurthy, The Essential UR Ananthamurthy, Edited by Manu Chakravarty and Chandan Gowda, New Delhi, Aleph Book Company, 2023.

The Retired Ones,” A short story by P. Lankesh, Out of Print, December, 2017 (Co-Translator).

The Girl from Pakistan,” An essay by Gauri Lankesh, Op-Ed, The New York Times, Sep 25, 2017.

Placing North Karnataka,” An essay by Amaresh Nugadoni, Seminar (Special Issue) “Karnataka Vignettes,” Edited by Chandan Gowda, August, 2010.

Food Et Cetera,” An essay by Rahamath Tarikere, Seminar (Special Issue), “Karnataka Vignettes,” Edited by Chandan Gowda, August, 2010.

An Indentured Spirit,” A short story by KP Purnachandra Tejasvi and “Reason,” A short story by Vivek Shanbagh, Sirigannada: Contemporary Writings in Kannada (Ed.) Vivek Shanbagh, New Delhi: Tranquebar Press 2010.

The Honour of Areca,” Community and Culture: Selected Writings of KV Subbanna, Heggodu: Akshara Prakashana, July, 2009.

Popular Press

The Living Stream, Monthly Lead Op-Ed Column, Deccan Herald (>50 columns, September, 2019 – present).

Culture and Politics, Weekly Lead Op-Ed Column, Bangalore Mirror (>250 columns, October, 2014 – April 2020).

Apart from regular columns, I have frequently contributed op-eds as well as book-reviews and interviews for Indian newspapers and magazines like The Hindu, The Mint, Indian Express, The Tribune, Seminar, Outlook, Prajavani, The Print, The Wire, The Quint and Scroll.

Invited Lectures

I have delivered over 30 lectures, including keynote addresses, at various universities: Brown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Ramapo College, Stanford, UCLA, UC-Irvine, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Texas-Austin, Yale, University of Toronto, SciencesPo, Paris, Ludwig Maxmillian University, Munich, Ashoka University, New Delhi, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, University of Hyderabad, National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru, S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Bangalore University, Christ University, Mangalore University, and Tumkur University.

Conference Talks

I have presented papers at numerous academic conference events at institutions such as Cornell, Yale, Brown, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Berlin, Centre Nationale Du Reserche Scientifique, Paris, Centre for South Asian Studies, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, Bangalore University, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, Kannada University, Hampi and at professional academic bodies such as the American Sociological Association, American Comparative Literature Association, Annual Conference on South Asia, International Sociological Association, International Institute of Sociology, Law and Social Sciences Network and Mombusho Scholars’ Association of India.

Interviews, TV Panel Discussions, Podcasts and Book Discussions

I have participated in numerous TV panel discussions on political issues in NDTV, CNN-News 18, India Today, TV 9, Rajya Sabha TV, NewsFirst, NewsX and Economic Times Now, given interviews in newspapers and magazines, recorded podcasts and participated in book conversations.

Video Documentation

Designed and Directed Sahitya Sahavasa (In the Company of Literature), an 8-hour video documentation of the distinguished Kannada writer, UR Ananthamurthy’s lectures on modern Kannada literature telecast as eight sixty-minute episodes on DD Chandana in 2014.

Other Professional Engagements

I serve on the Academic Councils of Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai and Mt. Carmel College, Bengaluru and on the Board of Studies, Department of Social Work and Sociology, Christ University. I have served on the juries for the Fiction (2017) as well as Non-Fiction (2018 and 2019) prizes at The Hindu’s Lit for Life festival and for the National Film Award at the Bangalore International Film Festival in 2015.

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