Dr. Dibyakusum Ray

Name: 
Dr. Dibyakusum Ray
Department: 
Humanities and Social Sciences
Biography: 
Dibyakusum Ray teaches English, Philosophy and Cultural Studies. He has worked on what may loosely be called the archaeology of concept of ‘Other’ and ‘Liminality’, proliferated through an inverted history of continental philosophy of a century, and its absorption in Bengali ‘radical’ literature. He also frequently writes about speculative fiction, especially the theme of ‘horror’ in modern global literature. Right now, Ray is heading a centrally funded project on the archiving of lost media elements during the Indian National Emergency, 1975-77, in collaboration with the Royal Holloway College, London University. He is the co-editor of an ongoing anthology on Horror and South Asian Popular Culture from University of Wales Press, and his publication include essays in Palgrave Communications (Nature), Economic and Political Weekly, Transnational Literature and other SSRN, Scopus, MLA and Web of Science indexed journals.
Areas of Research: 
English Literature, Continental Aesthetics, Hard Sci-fi, Fantasy/Horror Literature, Cultural Politics, Literature in Translation, ‘Genre Film’
Education: 
MA, M.Phil, PhD (English Literature)
Work Experience: 
Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, NIT Silchar, Cachar, Assam. November 2015 to June 2018
Assistant Professor. School of Law. Symbiosis International University. Mamidipally, Hyderabad. March-October, 2015.
Lecturer in English. ROOTS International School of Business and Management, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. July, 2013- March, 2015.
Selected Publications/Patents: 
•“The True-Weird and the Dreadful Large: Horror Literature Post-Millennia.” Palgrave Communications. Vol 3, August, 2017. https://www.nature.com/article/palcomms201780. SSRN.  
•with Amlan Baisya. “The Liminal in a Diptych: A Study of Roots and the Ruminant in Bob Dylan and Kabir Suman.” Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol. IX, No. 1. June, 2017. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v9n1.s05. SCOPUS
•“Hindi, Hindu, Horror: Politics of the Bollywood Horror Cinema.” The Economic and Political Weekly. Vol 52, Issue 7, Feb, 2017. http://www.epw.in/journal/2017/7/book-reviews/hindi-hindu-horror.html. SCOPUS
•“The Mute, the Stoic and the Rebel: Animals in the Work of Mikhail Bulgakov and Nabarun Bhattacharya.” Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol. VIII, No. 3, 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v8n3.06. SCOPUS
•"The Vagabond’s War Cry: The “Other” in Nabarun’s Narrative." Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry. N.p., 1 July 2015. 1.75. http://sanglap-journal.in/index.php/sanglap/issue/view/11. MLA 
•With Amlan Baisya. ““Do-re-mi-fa-so-la, it’s not precise”: tracking the ‘demurral’ in the Bengali Lebensmusik of the 90s”. Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (Forthcoming). July, 2018. SCOPUS
Other Information: 

 

Other Publications:

•“Homi K. Bhabha: from Dialectics to Hybridity in The Location of Culture and Nation and Narration.” Social Thinkers of Modern Times. Dr. Pradip Basu (ed.) Kolkata: Setu Prakasani, 2015. 36-48. Print. ISBN 978-93-80677-83-5.

•“Self, Other and Bollywood: the Evolution of the Hindi Film as a Site of Ambivalence”. Bollywood and It’s Other(s):Towards New Configurations. Vikrant Kishore, Amit Sarwal and Parichay Patra (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2014. ISBN 978-1-137-42649-9. Print.  

•“The Ideological and the Existential: Naxalite Ideology in ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’ and ‘Herbert.’” Red on Silver: Naxalites in Cinema. Dr. Pradip Basu (ed.). Kolkata: Setu Prakashani, 2012. 61-75. Print. ISBN978-93-80677-22-4(Pb), 978-93-80677-23-I (Hb) 

•“Universal, Singularity, Resistance: Animals in Nabarun Bhattacharya’s Writings.” Jochen Nipp (trans.). Conference Proceeding. Just Politics? –Ökokritische Perspektivenim Postkolonialen Raum. Potsdam University, Berlin. Leipzig: Unrast, 2014. ISBN 978-3-89771-545-5. Print.

•Shrabani Basu and Dibyakusum Ray. “Who Watches the Watchmen?: Retributive Justice and the Culpability of the Judge.” Conference Proceeding. Coherence: Forming a Unified Whole. Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad. Hyderabad: Asia Law House, 2015. Print. ISBN 978-93-85556-74-6.

 

Representative Conferences: 

•“Of Temples, Amulets and Witchcraft: the Hindi Horror Cinema of the 80’s”. Second Ireland India Institute Conference on South Asia 2018. Dublin City University.  Dublin, Ireland. April 26-27, 2018.

•Poster Presentation of Thesis. “Just Politics?” Summer School in University of Potsdam, Berlin, Germany. 2nd-6th September, 2013. 

•Short Presentation of Abstract. Un-archived Histories. Prof. Gyanendra Pandey, Emory University. University Workshop. Department of English Literature, EFLU. 4-5th February, 2013. 

•“The Articulation of Liminality and Resistance in Nabarun Bhattacharya’s Three Novels.” Oberseminar: Forschungskolloquium. Institute for English and American Studies, TU Dresden. 13th July, 2012. 

•Bodies –Systems –Structure. International. Institute for English and American Studies, TU Dresden. 13-15th June, 2012.

•Critical Matter. 3rd International Graduate Conference. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. 31st May – 2nd June, 2012.

•Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Recognition and Displacement in America. Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie University, Berlin. 11-12th May, 2012.

•“Reconstructing the Paradigm: Representing the Female in the Liminal Articulation of Caribbean Drama.” Comparative Caribbeans: an Interdisciplinary Conference. Department of Comparative Literature, Emory University, Atlanta. 3-5 November, 2011.

 

Guest Lectures/Plenary Address:

•Public talk on aesthetics. April 24, 2018. Department of Humanities and Social sciences, BITS Pilani. Goa.

•“Cinema and Other Arts”. April 23, 2018. Part of course “Cinematic Arts”. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani. Goa.

•“…Her Eyes in Extreme Close-ups…: The Watcher, the Watched and a Poetry of Anxiety.” Talking Films and More: a Workshop on Film Criticism and Criticism. Dept. of Mass Communication. Assam University, Silchar. June 8, 2016

 
Email: 
dibyakusum@iitrpr.ac.in
Designation: 
Assistant Professor