Dr Harikrishnan Sasikumar

Name: Harikrishnan Sasikumar

 Short bio: Hari is a PhD research student at the School of Law and Government, DCU. He has a background in development studies and political economy, and has worked in the development sector and think-tanks in India and London, before joining DCU in 2015.

 

Education: 

  • MA in International Political Economy, King’s College London, (2015);
  • MA in Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (2013);
  • B.Sc (Economics), Symbiosis International University, Pune, India (2011).

 Supervisor(s):  Dr Kenneth McDonagh

 

Thesis Title: “Deliberating Differences: Religion and Politics in Public Sphere”

 

Thesis Abstract: This research is an attempt to explore how ‘public spaces’ – both formal and informal ones – played a role in sustaining political secularism and contain communal violence in Kerala. Using discourse analysis and interviews as tools, it analyses the role of spaces like public schools, reading rooms and tea-shops of 20th century Kerala, and the broader public sphere including literary and cultural works and media as having shaped, sustained and reproduced secular public consciousness. It argues that by maintaining a public realm that encourages debates, deliberations and disagreement, the public sphere acts as a deterrent to the use of religion for socio-political violence in Kerala. Finally it reflects on political implications of changes in public sphere in 21st century Kerala, pointing to the absorption (or not) of the conventional roles of secular public spaces into new and social media.

 

Areas of Interest:  Nationalism, identity, Religion and politics, cultural studies

 Dr Harikrishnan Sasikumar obtained his PhD in 2020.

Teaching:

  • Course coordinator and Lecturer of module on contemporary India – School of Law and Government, DCU (Sept’ 2017 – )
  • Teaching Assistant  – Dublin City University (Sept’ 2015 – Nov’ 2016) 

 Conferences:

  • Organising Member of the Ireland India Institute Conference 2017 and 2018
  • “2nd International Graduate Conference on South Asia” – Sciences Po and NORIA (Paris, 8-10 June, 2016)
  • “Nations History and Comparison: Conference on Historical Sociology and the Study of Nationalism” – University of Edinburgh and British Sociological Association (Edinburgh, May 2015)

Summer school(s) and Workshops:

    • IICRR PhD Workshop organised by The Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, DCU (April 2018)
  • “Qualitative Interviewing” at the ECPR Winter School in Methods and Techniques, University of Bamberg, Germany (March 2017)

Email address: [email protected]

 

Twitter:  @harikrishnan_91