Muhammed Afzal P
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Contemporary Indian English Fiction
- Cinemas of India (particularly South Indian Cinema)
- Intellectual and Cultural History of the Left in India
- Language Politics in India
Biography
Afzal received his doctoral degree in Cultural Studies from The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad.
Prior to joining Azim Premji University, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani and as a guest faculty at the Centre for Comparative Literature (CCL), University of Hyderabad.
He teaches courses in Literary and Cultural Studies. His research has been primarily concerned with the cultural forms and aesthetic practices of the Left that mediated Kerala’s experience of modernity.
Book Chapter
- Afzal, P. M. (2022). Language as a site of National-Popular: The Left and the production of a modern Malayali identity. The Worlds in the Word: 200th Year of Printing in Malayalam (pp. 368 – 385). National Book Stall/Benjamin Bailey Foundation.
Journal Articles
- Afzal, P. M. (2021). Melancholic vision and utopian imagination: Amma Ariyan and Left-wing culture in Kerala in the 1970s. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 13(4), 1 – 10. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.42
- Afzal, P. M. (2021). Melodrama, ascetic modality, and Communist self-fashioning: Mukhamukham and the Communist Hero in Malayalam cinema. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 13(1), 1 – 11. https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v13n1.30
Conference Proceeding
- Afzal, P. M. (2021). ‘We are Doing Better’: Local Pride, Collective Identity, and the Question of Populism in Kerala. In L. Horsmanheimo, & L.E. Sibinescu (Eds.), Reflections on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation: HEPP2 Conference Proceedings. University of Helsinki. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/339779
Encyclopaedia Entries
- Afzal, P. M. (Forthcoming). K.A. Abbas & O.V. Vijayan. In M. Jaidka & T. N. Dhar (Eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Indian Writing in English. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Encyclopedia-of-Indian-Writing-in-English/Jaidka-Dhar/p/book/9781032245577
Newspaper Article
- Afzal, P. M. (2017, August 13). Campusukalil thurakkappedunna puthujanaadhipathya idangal (University campuses as new democratic spaces). Suprabhatham Daily.
Magazine Articles
- Afzal, P. M. (2014, March 26). Vignettes of defiance – II. Himal Southasian. https://www.himalmag.com/vignettes-defiance-ii/
- Afzal, P. M. (2014, March 24). Vignettes of defiance – I. Himal Southasian. https://www.himalmag.com/gifts-people/