FEATURED AUTHOR

Karan Singh

Associate Professor
Government College for Women, Mahendergarh

I am primarily interested in folk culture and its manifestation and transformation in contemporary society. I like to see myself as a fellow traveller on the road to see, feel and pass on my impression of life.

Subjects: Area Studies, Asian Studies, Literature, Theater

Biography

Dr. Karan Singh has been an affiliated fellow at International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, Netherlands in 2015. He has published eight books—Iris Murdoch: Melodrama and Metaphysics (2008), Dalit Literature: Challenges and Potentialities (2009), Ethnicity/Multiculturalism: Identity Politics and Cosmopolitanism in Contemporary Literature (2010), Dalitism and Feminism: Locating Women in Dalit Literature (2011), Unknown Voices (2011) Translation, Bilingualism and Pedagogy: Possibilities, Potentials, Pitfalls (2012), Exploring Modern/Postmodern Critical Theory (2013) and Folk Theatres of North India (2020) along with many articles in national and International Journals. He has completed three Research Projects on ‘Documentation and Translation of Folk Songs of South Haryana’ ‘Dalitism and Feminism’ and ‘Contestation, Amalgamation and Transference: A Performative Study of folk theatres of North India.’ He has been an Associate at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla from 2009-2012 and 2018-20 He has presented research papers in various National/International seminars and conferences and has been to Turkey, Malaysia and U.S.A.in International Conferences to present his Research papers. Currently he is working on a Major Research project of ICSSR on 'Syncretic Spaces and Pilgrimages: Making of a Nation.'

Education

Ph.D.

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Folk Theatres, Performance, Pilgrimages, Dalit Literature, Asian Studies

Personal Interests

Travelling, Reading and Teaching

Books

Featured Title

Articles

Androgynous Pariahs: Gender Transformations and Politics of Culture in the North Indian Folk Theatre Svang

Published: Jan 10, 2020 by Asian Ethnology
Authors: Karan Singh

The present paper seeks to understand the role played by ontological transformations and disguises as factors responsible for cultural condemnation of a well-known form of folk theater called svāng, due to the challenge it poses to the structural view of life undertaken by cultural purists as stable and fixed, particularly in the case of gender and social identities.

Nets of Maya: Gorakhnath as a Trickster Saint in the Folktale of Raja Bharthari and Gopi Chand

Published: Jan 01, 2018 by Marvels and Tales
Authors: Karan Singh
Subjects: Literature

The present paper seeks to explore Gorakhnath as a trickster hero in the North Indian folklore of Raja Bharthari and Gopi Chand. Gorakhnath, a popular yogi figure in many folklores, through his traversal of rigid structural boundaries between social and religious delimitations creates a new idiom of social and religious acceptance and results into an acceptance of a higher metaphysical positioning.

Photos

News

Awarded Major Research Project by ICSSR on Pilgrimage Studies

By: Karan Singh
Subjects: Asian Studies

I have been awarded Major Research project by Indian Council of Social Science Research on the topic 'Syncretic Spaces and Pilgrimages: Making of a Nation' to be completed in two years.