K Kalyani
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Social Stratification
- Popular Culture
- Feminist Philosophy and Epistemology
- Subaltern Discourse
- Sonic Practices
- Oral History
- Aesthetics and Culture
Biography
K Kalyani is a sociologist. She was awarded her doctorate degree in Sociology from the Centre for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
She has previously been the resource person at Julian J Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School, New York City, US and has served as a guest lecturer at Sri Venkateshwara College, Delhi University. She is also the core collaborator and resource person for the project Just Futures Initiative, Samata Foundation, Nepal.
Her ethnographic research has explored different forms and practices of resistance in popular culture, particularly engaging with the question of caste, gender, culture through a subaltern discourse. Her work has been published in several reputed academic journals.
She also engages with public discourse through her writings in The Print, NewsClick, and others. Kalyani has been a speaker at International forums like Darnal Award for Social Justice, Boston Study Group, Rosa Luxenberg Stiftung (RLS)-IIDS and others.
Kalyani is a believer in social justice through a bottom-up approach.
Courses
The Many Pasts of India’s Present
An inquiry into the 'origin' questions of India: Geological, ecological, cultural and political
India’s Present and Its Possible Futures
How do we address India's problems and our limited ecological resources in this globalised world?
Chapter in a Books
Contextualising the Emergence of Dalit Studies in Indian Academia
K Kalyani (2023)
Publications
Peer Review journals
- Kalyani, K. (forthcoming) “Repertoires of Anti-caste sentiments in the Everyday performance: Narratives of a Dalit woman singer”. J‑Caste, 4(2). US: Brandeis University
- Kalyani, K. (Forthcoming). दलित समाज में प्रतिरोध के गीतों का महत्व और सांस्कृतिक चेतना में इसका योगदान, सामाजिकी, 1(3).
- 2022 Kalyani, K. “Aesthetics and Politics of Dalit women’s writings within Indian Pedagogic
practices”. Contemporary Voice of Dalit. Sage Publication.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/245532… - Kalyani, K. (2022). Resistance in popular visuals and iconography: A study of Dalit-Bahujan calendar art in North India. Journal of Social Inclusion Studies, 8(1), 64 – 85. https://doi.org/10.1177/23944811221087489
- Kalyani, K. (2022). Emergence of Dalit Art entrepreneurs: Exploring anti-caste songs as the new-creative industry in North India. Local Development and Society, 2(1), 1 – 15. https://doi.org/10.1080/26883597.2022.2045087
- Kalyani, K. (2020). The Culture-economy of beauty industry in popular magazines. Journal of Sociology, Jadavpur University, 11(11),36 – 54.
- Kalyani, K. (2020). Tathagata Buddha songs: Buddhism as religion and cultural-resistance among Dalit women singers of Uttar Pradesh. Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion (J‑Caste). 1(2), 51 – 62. https://doi.org/10.26812/caste.v1i2.184
- Kalyani, K. (2020). ‘Gaze’ and ‘Bodies’ in Popular Print: Understanding the changing representation of women in visual culture. Journal of Media and Communication, 4(1),47 – 63. http://jmc.cutn.ac.in/docs/JM&C2020JunePaper4_21122020.pdf
- Kalyani, K. (2017). Gender violence, caste identity and their representation in media. The Voice, 4(3), 94 – 108.
- Kalyani, K. (2016). Changing patterns of sexuality in Caribbean: Indian diaspora and popular culture. Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism, 2(8), 5 – 14. https://grfdt.com/PublicationDetails.aspx?Type=Working%20papers&TabId=9088
Chapters in Edited Books
- Kalyani, K., & Singh, S. (2023). Music as the Language of the Bahujan Movement:
Locating the Social History of the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti. In S. Pai, D.
Babu, & R. Verma (Eds.), Dalits in the New Millennium (pp. 115 – 132). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
doi:10.1017/9781009231220.007 - Pathania, Gaurav J. and K. Kalyani. (2023). “Contextualizing the Emergence of Dalit
Studies in Indian Academia”. In ed. Critical Perspectives on the denial of Caste in
Educational Debate: Towards a Nonderivative Curriculum Reason by Joao M.
Paraskeva. U.S.: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324÷9781003155065−10
ISBN: 9780367725105 - Kalyani, K. (2020). Popular culture and changing gender roles: A study of Indian diaspora in the Caribbean. In A. Pande (Ed.), Women in the Indian Diaspora: Historical Narratives and Contemporary Challenge (pp. 211 – 225). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978 – 981-15 – 1177-6_15
Magazine article
- Kalyani, K. (2021, December 06). Dalit-Bahujan women in politics and the missing narratives. Outlook. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/opinion-up-polls-dalit-bahujan-women-in-politics-and-the-missing-narratives/403528
Online Articles
- The Print (2022, 26 th August). Ambedkar in a savarna mundu? Why Babasaheb’s clothes matter.https://theprint.in/opinion/ambedkar-in-a-savarna-mundu-why-babasahebs-clothes-matter/1099427/
- Kalyani, K. (2022, April 14). Seeing Ambedkar as Dalit icon is narrow. Understand his feminist vision for Indian women. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/seeing-ambedkar-as-dalit-icon-is-narrow-understand-his-feminist-vision-for-indian-women/915663/
- Kalyani, K. (2022, January 30). Songs of UP elections: Ka ba, sab ba, Mangat ba Akhilesh ke. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/songs-of-up-elections-ka-ba-sab-ba-maangat-ba-akhilesh-ke-and-maya-bahin-ke-jitiyaha/816401/
- Kalyani, K. (2021, December 21). You can’t exclude Dalits when talking feminism. See what bell hooks did for Black Women. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/you-cant-exclude-dalits-when-talking-feminism-see-what-bell-hooks-did-for-black-women/783259/
- Kalyani, K. (2021, November 04). Diwali isn’t what you thought it was- it’s actually Deep Daan Utsav, a Buddhist festival. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/diwali-isnt-what-you-thought-it-was-its-actually-deep-daan-utsav-a-buddhist-festival/761499/
- Kalyani, K. (2021, July 10). Ashok Vijayadashmi to Dhola — National archives, central libraries failed Dalit-Bahujan History. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/ashoka-to-vijayadashami-national-archives-central-libraries-failed-dalit-bahujan-history/693310/
- Kalyani, K. (2021, April 14). New Dalit women autobiographies are opening up private, intimate spaces, rewriting history. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/new-dalit-women-autobiographies-are-opening-up-private-intimate-spaces-rewriting-history/639569/
- Kalyani, K. (2021, March 14). Kanshi Ram’s Bahujan movement was also cultural, not just political. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/kanshi-ram-jayanti-bahujan-movement-cultural-political/621192/
- Kalyani, K. (2021, January 10). Why Dalit-Bahujan icons of Cultural resistance are under Attack. NewsClick. https://www.newsclick.in/why-dalit-bahujan-icons-cultural-resistance-under-attack
- Kalyani, K. (2020, November 25). This is why Dalit women are singing Tathagata Buddha songs in UP. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/this-is-why-dalit-women-are-singing-tathagata-buddha-songs-in-up/550635/
- Kalyani, K., Pariyar, S. (2020, August 27). What is similar between India and Nepal? Dalit Atrocities. NewsClick. https://www.newsclick.in/What-is-Similar-Between-India-and-Nepal-Dalit-Atrocities
- Kalyani, K. (2020, June 19). COVID-19 recession’s impact on women goes bbeyond the lipstick and kajal index. Feminism In India. https://feminisminindia.com/2020/06/19/covid-19-impact-on-women-recession-lipstick-kajal-sales/
- Kalyani, K., Ingole, P. (2020, July 27). Why arguments against reservation are flawed. NewsClick. https://www.newsclick.in/why-arguments-against-reservation-flawed
- Kalyani, K. (2020, June 07). Not just Mayawati, these are the unsung women who led Kanshiram’s Bahujan struggle. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/opinion/not-just-mayawati-these-unsung-women-led-kanshiram-bahujan-struggle/437317/
- Kalyani, K. (2018, July 27). My idea of India as a closed society was like a bedtime story: Kusum. Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT). https://grfdt.com/InterviewDetails.aspx?TabId=2048
Book Review
- Kalyani, K. (2022). Book review: Gaurav J. Pathania, The University as a site of resistance: Identity and student politics. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Sage. https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X211029436
- Forthcoming : Kalyani, K. (2023). Anna Johansson and Stellan Vinthagen,
Conceptualizing ‘Everyday Resistance’: A Transdisciplinary
Approach (New York: Routledge, 2020), xiv + 212 pp. In South
Asia Research, 43(3). London: Sage Publication.
Translation
- Pathania, G.J. (2021). Reflections. Kalyani, K. J‑Caste, 2(2), 379 – 380. https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/caste/article/view/288/88
Host
- For the podcast at New Books Network
Upcoming Book
- “Dissenting Melodies: Exploring Musical Practices from the Caste-Margins in India” from
Cambridge University Press.
Conferences & Seminars
- International Conference at University of Cambridge. Theme of conference
“Caste, Business and Society”. Paper title “Anti-caste musical production in
Punjab: A case study of select production houses from early Bahujan
movement”. Dated, 15 – 16 th June 2023. - International Conference at Royal Anthropological Institute, Film Festival,
Bristol, UK, 2023. Theme of the conference “Sedimented Vision: Transmedia
Futures across visuality, politics and material world”. Presented paper titled
“Re-entering subaltern voices through sonic counterpublics: A Study of select
anti-caste musical sites of India”. Date: 10 th March 2023. - Invited Speaker at Anna University, Chennai for International Conference on
Challenges in Higher Education for Under Privileged Communities, (in-person).
14th April, 2023. - Invited Speaker at International Conference organized at Tribhuvan
University, Kathmandu, Nepal. Conference theme “Whose Knowledge Matters
and Why?”. Dated 7 th June, 2022. - International conference organized by Center for South Asian Studies,
University of Hawaii. Paper title “Unending ‘Social’ Distancing: Experiences and
Resilience of Dalit community in India during Covid-19”. Conference Title:
Health and Community in South Asia.