Chakali Chandra Sekhar
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Indian literature
- Subaltern literatures
- Vernacular print cultures
- Archives and social history
- South Indian cinema
Biography
Chakali Chandra Sekhar holds a PhD and MPhil in English (Cultural Studies) from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad. His research focusses on the social and cultural history of Christianity in colonial South India, particularly the intersections of religion, caste, and gender. He studies missionary archives, vernacular Christian writing, and the everyday moral worlds of converts, drawing on print culture, oral histories, and regional literatures.
Prior to joining the University, he taught at Sri Rajah Rangayya Appa Rao and Chunduri Venkata Reddy College, Vijayawada. His writings have appeared in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, South Asia, South Asia Research, Mission Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, and in edited volumes. His teaching interests span English literature, cultural history, regional cinemas, and life writing.
Outside of work, he is interested in watching regional cinema, reading tranlated regional literatures in and exploring pedagogies for first-generation learners.
Courses
Drama as Text and Performance
Learn how drama evolved, and find out more about the complex relationship between the written word and its performance.
Publications
Journal articles
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2025). Cultural chronicles: Exploring Telugu Christian periodicals in colonial India. Mission Studies, 41(3). https://doi.org/10.1163/15733831 – 12342007
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2025). Rediscovering Hitavadi: A forgotten pioneer of Telugu vernacular print and missionary journal. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (February). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080440125000039
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2023). Christian women’s journals and vernacular Christianity: A case study of Vivekavathi in Telugu-speaking regions. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 46(5), 956 – 973. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2023.2218237
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2023). Famine, caste differences and missionary Christianity in colonial India: Burning hunger. South Asia Research, 43(2), 210 – 226. https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231163075
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2021). Dalit women and colonial Christianity: First Telugu Bible women as teachers of wisdom. Economic and Political Weekly, 56(11), 57 – 63. https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/11/special-articles/dalit-women-and-colonial-christianity.html
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2019). In search of a touchable body: Christian mission and Dalit conversions. Religions, 10(644), 1 – 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10120644
Book chapters
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2025). Recovering the legacy of Nanchari, 1830 – 2018: Dalits, conversion, and Christianity in South India. In R. S. Rawat, K. Satyanarayana, & P. S. Mohan (Eds.), Dalit Journeys for Dignity (forthcoming, SUNY Press).
- Chandra Sekhar, C. (2020). Dalits and the spectacle of victimhood in Telugu cinema. In J. Misrahi-Barak, K. Satyanarayana, & N. Thiara (Eds.), A Dalit Text: Aesthetics and Politics Re-Imagined (pp. 213 – 228). Routledge.