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. 

Publications

Peer Review journals

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÷978100315506510
    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

Online Articles

Book Review

Translation

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.