J. Devika

Professor

Date of Birth: 6 May 1968

Email: devika@cds.edu, devumol@gmail.com

Area of specialisation: History of, and present developments in gender, politics, development, and culture in Kerala; Sexuality Studies; the history of cosmopolitanism in Kerala; local self- government in Kerala; intersectional histories of subaltern places; translations and translation studies; Malayalam literature; contemporary politics; methodology in the social sciences.

Educational History

  • Pre-degree, University of Kerala (KU), second rank in KU.
  • BA (History), University of Kerala, first class, first rank in KU.
  • BA in Modern History (1991) Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, first class.
  • UGC-NET fellowship in History, 1991.
  • PhD. in History (2003)  Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala.

Work History

  • Research Associate (Assistant Professor) at CDS : 2001-2008
  • Associate Professor at CDS: 2008-2018.
  • Professor at CDS since 2018.

Contacts

Address: 202, Ayswarya Apartments, DPI Junction, Thycaud PO, Thiruvananthapuram 695014.

Phones: ( m ) 9847943517. (o )0471-2774200

Email: devika@cds.edu, devumol@gmail.com

Research Projects

  • ‘The Shaping of Public Consent for Artificial Birth-Control In Keralam 1930s -1970s’, funded by the Kerala Research Programme for Local-level Development, 2000.
  • ‘Gendering Governance or Governing Women? Gender, Politics and Patriarchy in Contemporary Kerala’, 2009. Lead researcher responsible for setting up the team and planning and conducting the research. Grant secured through the International Development Research Council, Canada’s Gender Unit Research Competition, 2006. One of the four awardees from South Asia.
  • ‘Gender Studies Reader in Malayalam’ (an experimental ‘bridge-book’ in Malayalam on the history of gender in Kerala), funded by the Sri Ratan Tata Trust, Mumbai and the Higher Education Cell, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, 2009. Lead Consultant to this project.
  • ‘Self-help or Social transformation: Women in local governance in Kerala State, India, and South Africa’ –project in collaboration with NIBR, Oslo, and University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, 2012.
  • ‘Righting Gender Wrongs: A Study of Law Enforcement Responses to Online Violence Against Women’, with IT for Change, Bangalore, 2018.
  • ‘Persisting Pollution in Periyar: The Political Ecology of Industrialisation and Limits to Environmental Governance’, RULSG, CDS, 2017. With N C Narayanan and Chithira V.
  • ‘Local Government and Cronyism: A Study of the PallichalPanchayat, Thiruvananthapuram’, RULSG, CDS, 2019. With S Mohanakumar and Archana Ravi. 
  • ‘Covid 19, Livelihoods and Interventions by Local Self Government Institutions in Kerala: An exploratory study’, with Anamika Ajay, RULSG and ICSSR, 2022.
  • ‘Climate Change Pedagogy Project for Kerala’, with Dr Anu Joy, TISS, Hyderabad and Prof Heidi Layne, University of Jyvasklya, Finland, 2023-24.

Teaching and Supervision

  • Course 301 in PhD Semester I, ‘Methodological Approaches in Socioeconomic Research’.
  • Co-teaching Course 303 in PhD Semester I, ‘Qualitative Research Methods’.
  • Economic History of India, Optional course, MA Semester III, 2015-19.
  • Currently supervising two Ph.D candidates. Three PhDs have been submitted under my supervision. Supervised 8 MPhil dissertations.

Academic Visits

  • Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU, 2008;
  • Centre for Political Studies, JNU, 2011.
  • Centre for Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield, 2014.
  • Erasmus Mundus fellowship, University of Lund, Sweden, 2015.

Awards

  • Gurudarsana Award for best work on Malayalam culture for KulasthreeyumChanthappennumUndaayathengane?, 2014. Award instituted by the MethalaSreeNarayanaSamajam.
  • V Abdulla Award for best work of translation from Malayalam to English for Hangwoman, 2015. Instituted by V Abdulla Foundation.
  • Hangwoman , the English translation of K R Meera’s Malayalam novel Aarachaar, shortlisted for DSC Literary Prize, 2016.

Responsibilities on Campus

  • Responsible for Green Campus initiatives; chairperson of the Campus Committee till July 2014 and then in 2017-20 and presently.
  • Chairperson of the Committee against gender and sexual harassment at CDS till July 2014 and currently.
  • Was editor of the CDS Chronicle since its inception in 2005 till 2011.
  • Held charge of the Research Unit on Local Self-Government, CDS during 2016-2023.

Professional involvement outside CDS

  • External Member, School Board, School of Social Sciences, Hyderabad Central University

Website

https://swatantryavaadini.in/

This is a living memorial to Kerala’s first-generation feminists. It contains my English translations of their writing and speeches from early to mid-20th century, including fiction, critique, memory, speeches, interventions in legislative assemblies, autobiography, memoirs, excerpts from historical work and so on — and also excerpts from my own work and that of others on the present generation on gender in early modern Kerala, all in English. It has over a hundred translations (132, in the first week of Jan. 2021) and it updated every week with new material.

Publications

Books in English

  • Womanwriting =Manreading? Masculinist Literary Criticism and Women Writing in Twentieth Century Kerala, Zubaan- Penguin India, New Delhi, 2013.
  • (Jointly with Binitha V Thampi) New Lamps for Old? Gender Paradoxes of Political Decentralization in Kerala, Zubaan, New Delhi, 2012.
  • Individuals, Householders, Citizens: Malayalees and Family Planning, 1930s-1970′, Zubaan, New Delhi, 2008.
  • En-Gendering Individuals: The Language of Re-forming in Early 20th Century Keralam, Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2007.

Forthcoming:

  • (Jointly with Anamika Ajay) Family, Women, and Ill-Being: A Critique of the Family in Twentieth Century Kerala, New Delhi: Zubaan, forthcoming.
  • Co-edited with V J Varghese, Keep Calm and Carry On? The Post-Kerala Model and the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century, OBS, Hyerdabad, forthcoming.

Books in Malayalam

  • Charithrathine Chavattukuttayil (In the Dustbin of History), Praxis: Kozhikode, 2022.
  • Urayooral (Moulting), Kottayam: DC Books, 2023.
  • PennorumbettaalLokanMaarunnu: LinganeethiyudeViplavangal, (The World Changed When Women Move: Gender-Revolutions), Thiruvananthapuram, Readme Books, 2017.
  • PauriyuteNottangal (Woman-Citizen’s Eye-view), Olive Books: Kozhikode, 2013.
  • KalpanayuteMaattoli: StreepurushabhedavumAadyakaalaStreerachanakalum 1898-1938, Kerala SastraSahityaParishat, Thrissur, 2011. [Malayalam version of Her-Self, published with Stree, Kolkata, in 2005]
  • ‘Kulastree’yuum ‘Chanthappennum’ Undaayathengane? AdhunikamalayalistreekaluteCharitrathinuOruAamugham [The Birth of the ‘well-born’ woman and the ‘market woman’: an introduction to the history of Malayalee women], CDS, Thiruvananthapuram, 2010.
  • (Ed.), AanarashunaatileKazhchakal: KeralamStreepakshaGaveshanattil (Sights from Male-dom: Kerala under Feminist Lenses), Women’s Imprint, Thiruvananthapuram, 2006.
  • Navasiddhantangal: Streevadam(New Theory Series: Feminism), D.C Books: Kottayam, Kerala, 2000.
  • NirantharaPrathipaksham: J DevikaudeLekhanangal 2004-2018 (Selected Essays in Malayalam), Kottayam: DC Books, forthcoming, 2021.

Forthcoming:

Satyavaadiniyum Swatantryavaadiniyum: J Devikayude Gaveshana Prabandhangal 2018-24. D C Books, Kottayam.

Articles

  • ‘Where is the Love? Thoughts on Kamala Surayya’s Affective Politics’, Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, https://doi.org/10.1163/2666318x-bja00024
  • ‘Identity Assertions and Print in Malayalam and Tami-Speaking Regions in the Early Twentieth Century: Some Comments,’ South Asia Chronicle, 11, 2021, 61-68.
  • ‘The Defence of Aacharam, Femininity, and Neo-Savarna Power in Kerala’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 27, 3, 2020, 445-470.
  • ‘Bridge-Books in Malayalam: The Transformative Potential of Social Sciences Writing’, CaféDissensus, special issue on Writing in Academia. Apr 2019 https://cafedissensus.com/2019/06/24/bridge-books-in-malayalam-the-transformative-potential-of-social-sciences-writing/
  • ‘Towards Reparative Readings: Reflections on Feminist Solidarities in a Troubling Present’, South Asian History and Culture, 9:4, 407-419, 2018, DOI:10.1080/19472498.2018.1535545
  • (With) Glyn O Williams, Umesh O, N Jagajeevan,‘Planning a ‘slum free’ city: housing upgrade and the reshaping of urban governance in Trivandrum, Kerala’, Environment and Planning C, June 2018,https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2399654418784305
  • (With ) Glyn O Williams, UOmankuttan, Aasen, B. “Enacting Participatory, Gender-Sensitive Slum Redevelopment? Urban governance, power and participation in Trivandrum, Kerala.” Geoforum96 105-159: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1XZer3pILM3Oi ,
  • “Decolonising-Nationalist Racism? Reflections on Travel Writing from Mid-twentieth Century Kerala, India”,Modern Asian Studies, doi:1017/S0026749X16000548 , 2018.
  • ‘Neither Moral nor Policing’, Economic and Political Weekly 52, 9, 2017, pp. 14-16.
  • ‘Surviving in Contemporary Kerala, India: Reflections from Recent Research in a Fisher Village’, Development and Change 48, 2, 2017, 364- 86.
  • ‘The ‘Kudumbashree Woman’ and the Kerala Model Woman: Women and Politics in Contemporary Kerala’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 23, 2, 1-22, 2016.
  • ‘Participatory Democracy or ‘Transformative Appropriation’? The People’s Planning Campaign in Kerala’, History and Sociology of South Asia 10 (2),2016, 115-37.
  • Aspects of Socioeconomic Exclusion in Kerala, India: Reflections from an Urban Slum’, Critical Asian Studies 18, 2, 2016.
  • (Jointly with Vinoj Abraham), ‘Poverty and Women’s Livelihood in Kerala: A Comparison of Two Sites’, Labour and Development 21, 2, Dec. 2014, 1-29.
  • (Jointly with Glyn O Williams and G Aandhal), ‘Making Space for Women in Urban Governance? Leadership and Claims-Making in a Kerala Slum’, Environment and Planning A 47, 5, 1113-1131.
  • ‘Cochin Creole and the Perils of Casteist Cosmopolitanism’, Journal of Commonwealth Literature [in Online First platform], 2015. DOI: 10.1177/00219894
  • ‘Land, Politics, Work and Home-life in a City Slum: Reconstructing History from Oral Narratives’, History and Sociology of South Asia 9(1), January, 2015, 53-79.
  • ‘Deprivation, Abjection and Dispossession: Social Disadvantage in Early Twentieth Century Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly XLIX, 42, October 18, 2014, 73-80.
  • ‘Becoming Society: An Interview with SeleenaPrakkanam’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XLIX, 17, April 26, 2014, Review of Women’s Studies.
  • ‘Gender in Contemporary Kerala: Introduction’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XLIX, 17, April 26, 2014, Review of Women’s Studies
  • ‘Getting beyond the Governmental Fix in Kerala’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 39, 3, 2014.
  • ‘Migration, Transnationalism and Modernity: Thinking of Kerala’s Many Cosmopolitanisms’, Cultural Dynamics 24 (2-3), 127-42, 2013.
  • ‘Rockets with Fire in their Tails? Women Leaders in Kerala’s Panchayats’, India International Quarterly, 39, 3-4, 2012-2013.
  • ‘Contemporary Dalit Assertions in Kerala State, India: Governmental Categories vs. Identity Politics?’, in History and Sociology of South Asia 7 (1),2013.
  • (Jointly with Binitha V Thampi) ‘Beyond Feminine Public Altruism: Women Leaders in Kerala’s Urban Bodies’, Economic and Political Weekly, Review of Women’s Studies, Vol – XLVII No. 17, April 28, 2012.
  • (Jointly with V J Varghese) ‘To Survive or To Flourish? Minority Rights and Syrian Christian Community Assertions in 20th Century Travancore/Kerala’, History and Sociology of South Asia 5, 2, 2011, pp 103-28.
  • (Jointly with A K Rajashree and P R Nisha) ‘‘A Tactful Union’: Domestic Workers’ Unionism, Politics, and Citizenship in Kerala, India’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 18, 2, 2011 pp.185-215.
  • (Jointly with Binitha V Thampi) ‘Mobility towards Work and Politics for Women in Kerala State, India: A View from the Histories of Gender and Space’, Modern Asian Studies, DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X09000080, Cambridge Journals Online, Published online: 7 October. 2010.
  • ‘Egalitarian Developmentalism, Communist Mobilization, and the Question of Caste in Kerala State, India’, Journal of Asian Studies 69 (3), 2010: 799-820.
  • ‘The Capabilities Approach in the Vernacular: The History of Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly XLV (26,27), 2010.
  • ‘Bodies Gone Awry: The Abjection of Sexuality in Development Discourses in Contemporary Kerala’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 16 (1) 2009.
  • ‘Caregiver vs Citizen? Reflections on Eco-feminism from Kerala State, India’,  Man In India, 89 (4), 2009 : 751-769.
  • (Jointly with A K Rajashree). 2008. ‘Health, Democracy and Sickle-Cell Anaemia in Kerala’ Economic and Political Weekly 43, 45, 27-29.
  • ‘Post-Demographic Transition Research on Childcare in Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly, 2 February, 2008, 15-8.
  • ‘Being “in-translation” in a Post-Colony: Translating Feminism in Kerala State, India’, Translation Studies, 1 (2), 2008, 182-196.
  • ‘Memory’s Fatal Lure’: The Left, the Congress, and ‘Jeevan’ in Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly XLIII, 30, July 26, 2008, 13-16.
  • ‘Re-thinking Region: Reflections on History-writing in Kerala’, Contemporary Perspectives: History and Sociologyof South Asia 2 (1), Jan-Jul 2008.
  • (Jointly with Binitha V. Thampi) ‘Between ‘Empowerment’ and ‘Liberation’: The Kudumbashree Initiative in Kerala’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 14 (1), Jan. 2007, 33-59.
  • ‘Fears of Contagion? Depoliticisation and Recent Debates Over Politics in Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly, 25 (42), 2007, 2465-78.
  • ‘Escaping the Shadow Zone: The Constitutive Contexts of Discipline-centered Knowledge and Research on Women in Kerala, India’, Asian Women’s Studies Journal, 13 (2), 2007.
  • ‘Housewife, Sex Worker and the Reformer: Controversies over Women Writing their Lives in Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly XI (17), 2006, 1675-1683.
  • ‘Negotiating Women’s Social Space: Public Debates on Gender in Early Modern Kerala, India’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 7 (1), Mar. 2006, 43-61.
  • (Jointly with Mini Sukumar) ‘Making Space for Feminist Social Critique in Contemporary Kerala: The Case for ‘Women’s Imprint’, Economic and Political Weekly 41 (42), October 21-27, 2006, 4469-4475.
  • ‘The Aesthetic Woman: Re-forming Bodies and Minds in Early Twentieth Century Keralam’, Modern Asian Studies 39 (2), May. 2005, 461- 487.
  • ‘The Malayali Sexual Revolution: Sex, Family Planning and Gender in Kerala’, Contributions to Indian Sociology 39(3), September- December 2005.
  • (Jointly with PraveenaKodoth) ‘Sexual Violence and Predicament of Feminist Politics in Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly 36 (33), 2001, 3170-3177.
  • ‘Beyond Kulina and Kulata: The Critique of Gender Difference in the Writings of K. SaraswatiAmma’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 10 (2), 2003, 201-228.

Chapters in Books/Introductions

  • ‘Carceral Feminism and the Punitive State in Kerala, India’, in M Caputi and P Moynagh eds., Research Handbook on Feminist Political Thought, Cheltenham and Northhampton: Edward Elgar, 2024.
  • A Gendered History of the Neo-savarna in Twentieth Century Kerala’, in Nissim Mannathukkaren (ed), Saffron In the South: Violence, Gender, Media and Hindutva in Kerala, Routledge, London, 2024.
  • ‘Beyond Aesthetic Education: The Malayali Engagement with the Humanities.’World Humanities Report, CHCI, 2022. https://worldhumanitiesreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/WHR-SouthAsia2_Devika.pdf , accessed 17 Apr 2024.
  •  
  • ‘Disciplinary vs. Neoliberal Governmentality? Understanding Agency in the Pallichal Panchayat’ In Cronyism, Development, and Citizenship: A Study of the Effects of Quarrying in the Pallichal Panchayat, Thiruvananthapuram, with Mohanakumar S and Archana Ravi, No. 4, Ecological Challenges and Local Self-Government Responses, RULSG, CDS, Thiruvanathapuram: 2022, pp. 67-109.
  •  ‘Hijabophobia in Kerala: Some Reflections’    in G Arunima and Yasser Arafth PK (eds.), The Hijab: Islam, Women and the Politics of Clothing, New Delhi: Simon and Schuster, 2022.
  • ‘Neo-savarna Women for Aachaaram: The #ReadytoWait Campaign and the Sabarimala Agitation in Kerala’, in Amrita Basu and Tanika Sarkar (eds.), Indian Women and the Saffron Tide (tentative title), London: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
  • ‘The Kiss of Love Protests: A Report on Resistance to Abjection in Kerala’, in Pushpesh Kumar (ed), Sexuality, Abjection, and Queer Existence in Contemporary India, New Delhi, Routledge, 2021.
  • ‘Gender, Caste, and Abjected Space: A History of Kerala’s ‘Slum Women’ and their Work’, in Mary E John and MeenaGopal (eds), Women in the Worlds of Labour: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Perspectives, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2021.
  • ‘Women’s Labour, Patriarchy, and Feminism in 21st Century Kerala: Reflections on a Glocal Present’, in Sujatha V (ed) Global Capital and Social Difference: Beyond Dialectics and Embeddedness, New Delhi: Routledge, 2020.
  • ‘Towards Reparative Readings: Reflections on Feminist Solidarities in a Troubling Present’, In Panchali Ray (ed), Women Speak Nation: Gender, Culture and Politics, New Delhi: Routledge, 2019.
  • (With N C Narayanan) ‘The Local as Industrial Heterotopia: Making Sense of the Denial of Environmental Destruction at Eloor’, in Chithira V, N C Narayanan and J Devika, Why do People Deny Environmental Destruction? The Pollution of the Periyar at Eloor and Local-level Responses, CDS-RULSG Monograph Series, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram, 2019.
  • ‘Community and Social Disadvantage in Contemporary Kerala: Reflections from Two Field Sites’, Chronology and Events: The Sociological Landscape of Changing Concepts, Susan Viswanathan, VineethaMenon (eds), New Delhi: Winshield Press, 2019.
  • ‘Reformer-Man and Feminist Man: The End of an Era in Kerala’, in RomitChoudhury and Zaid Al-Basset (eds),Men and Feminism in India, New Delhi: Routledge India, 2018.
  • ‘The Many Incarnations of KuriyedathuThatri’, Afterword to Outcaste (the English translation of MadampuKunhukkuttan’sBhrasht) VasanthySankaranarayanan,New Delhi, Aleph   Books, 2018, 213-222.
  • ‘Looking at Academic Freedoms from a No Person’s Land’, in Apoorvanand (ed). The Idea of a University, Chennai: Context, 2018.
  • ‘A Woman among the Reformers’, Introduction to On the Far Side of Memory: Short Stories of LalitambikaAntharjanam, New Delhi: OUP, 2017
  • ‘Feminism and Late Twentieth-Century Governmentality in Kerala, India: Towards a Critical History’ in MaitrayeeMukhopadhyay (ed) Feminist Subversion and Complicity: Governmentalities and Gender Knowledge in South Asia, New Delhi: Zubaan, 2016.
  • ‘Family Planning and the History of Gender in Kerala: A Brief Foray’, in A A Roy and G Mathew (eds) Development, Decentralization, and Democracy, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2015.
  • ‘Migration, Transnationalism and Modernity: Thinking of Kerala’s Many Cosmopolitanisms’ in S P Gabriel and F Rosa (eds), Cosmopolitan Asia: Littoral Epistemologies from the Global South, London, NY: Routledge, 2015.
  • ‘Official Statistics or Everyday Life? Women in Contemporary Kerala’, in Devaki Jain and CP Sujaya (ed), Women in India: Contemporary Essays, Publications Division, Go I, New Delhi, 2015.
  • ‘Her-story, not History: Reading Agnisakshiin the Twenty-first Century’, Introduction to the English translation of LalitambikaAntarjanam’sAgnisakshi, trans. VasanthySankaranarayanan, OUP, 2015.
  • ‘Rockets with Fire in their Tails? Women Leaders in Kerala’s Panchayats’, in OmitaGoyal (ed), Interrogating Women’s Leadership and Empowerment, New Delhi: Sage, India International Centre, 2015, pp 42- 54.
  • ‘Bodies Gone Awry: The Abjection of Sexuality in Development Discourses in Contemporary Kerala’ (extended version) in Sanjay Srivastava (ed.) Sexualities and the State, OUP, New Delhi, 2013.
  • ‘The Delicate Task of Recovering Cochin-Creole’, Introduction to the English translation of Johny Miranda’s Requiem for the Undead, trans. Sajai Jose, OUP: New Delhi, 2013.
  • ‘Re-inscribing ‘Womanliness’: Gendered Spaces and Public Debates in Early Modern Keralam, India’, in Charu Gupta (ed), Gendering Colonial India: Reform, Print, Caste, and Communalism, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2012.
  • ‘De-consecrating Sarah Joseph’, Introduction to volume of translations of the short stories by Sarah Joseph, The Masculine of ‘Virgin’: Stories by Sarah Joseph, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • ‘Widows’ Organizations in Kerala: Seeking Citizenship Amidst the Decline of Political Society’, in Ajay Gudavarthy (ed) Reframing Democracy and Agency: Interrogating Political Society, NY and London: Anthem Press, 2012, pp. 212-32.
  • ‘Child Crafting in Kerala’, in S IrudayaRajan and K C Zachariah (eds), Kerala’s Demographic Future: Issues and Policy Options, New Delhi : Academic Foundation, 2012, 335-44.
  • (Jointly with Binitha V Thampi) ‘Beyond Feminine Public Altruism: Women
  • Leaders in Kerala’s Urban Bodies’, in T R Raghunandan (ed.), Decentralisation and Local Governments: The Indian Experience, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2012.
  • ‘Politics, Political Decentralization and Women in Kerala, India: What Historical Hindsight Reveals’, in M Tsujimura and J Steele (eds), Gender Equality in Asia: Policies and Political Participation, Sendai: Tohoku University Press, 2011.·      ‘Introduction: The Namboodiris’, in DevakiNilayamgode, Antharjanam: Memoirs of a Namboodiri Woman, trans. Indira Menon, RadhikaMenon, New Delhi: OUP, 2011.
  • (Jointly with Binitha V Thampi) ‘Empowerment or Politicization? The Limits of Gender Inclusiveness of Kerala’s Political Decentralization’, in K Ravi Raman (ed), Development, Democracy, and the State: Critiquing the Kerala Model of Development, Routledge: London, 2010, 177-191.
  • ‘Introduction to Her-Self: Early Writings on Gender by Malayalee Women’, in Section 3, History, in Mary E. John (ed) Women’s Studies in India: A Reader, New Delhi, Penguin, 2008.
  • ‘Modernity with Democracy? Gender and Governance in the People’s Planning Campaign, Kerala’, in Smita Mishra-Panda (ed.), Engendering Governance Institutions: State, Market and Civil Society, New Delhi: Sage, 2008.
  • (Jointly with Binitha V Thampi) ‘Changing Regimes of Empowerment and Inclusion in the Public: Women and the Kudumbashree in Kerala’ in M.A. Oommen (ed.) Decentralisation in Kerala, New Delhi: ISS, New Delhi and Concept Publishers, 2007.
  • (Jointly with Avanti Mukherjee), ‘Re-forming Women in Malayalee Modernity: A Historical Overview’, in SwapnaMukhopadhyay (ed.) The Enigma of the Kerala Woman: A Failed Promise of Literacy, New Delhi: Social Science Press, 2007, 102-130.
  • ‘Lust for Life: Desire in LalitambikaAntarjanam’s Writings’, in NiveditaMenon (ed.) Sexualities: Issues in Contemporary Indian Feminism, New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2007.
  • ‘ NaliniJameela Writes her Story’, in NaliniJameela, The Autobiography of a Sex Worker , New Delhi: Westland Books, 2007.
  • (Jointly with Zacharias, U.) ‘Powers of the Weak: Violence, Marginality and Fear in Communal Discourse’.In A. Basu and S. Roy (eds), Beyond Exceptionalism: Modernity, Democracy, and Extreme Violence in India. London and New York: Seagull Press, 2006.

Forthcoming journal articles/chapters/introductions

  • (With Anamika Ajay) ‘Power, Gender, and the Birth of the Modern Family in Kerala’, in Fillippo Osella, V J Varghese, R Santhosh, J Devika (eds), Entangled Sovereignties: Making and Contesting Modernity in Keralam, South India, forthcoming with CUP, New Delhi.
  • (with Anamika Ajay) ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’? The Gendered Implications of ‘Resilience’ in Kerala’s Development’, in J Devika and V J Varghese (eds), Keep Calm and Carry On? The Post-Kerala Model and the Challenges of the Twentieth Century, forthcoming from OBS, Hyderabad.
  • Disciplinary vs. Neoliberal Governmentality? Understanding Agency in the PallichalPanchayat’ in S Mohanakumar and J Devika, Local Government and Cronyism: A Study of the PallichalPanchayat, Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram: CDS, forthcoming.
  • ‘Neo-savarna Women for Aachaaram: The #ReadytoWait Campaign and the Sabarimala Agitation in Kerala’, forthcoming in Amrita Basu and TanikaSarkar (eds.), Indian Women and the Saffron Tide (tentative title), London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
  • ‘A Gendered History of the Neo-savarna in Twentieth Century Kerala’, in Yasser Arafath PK and NissimMannathukkaren (eds), Saffron In the South: Violence, Gender, Media and Hindutva in Kerala, Routledge India, forthcoming, 2021.
  • ‘Where is the Love? The Affective Politics of Kamala Surayya’, in ScariaZacharia and Fathima EV (eds), Critical Discourses in Malayalam, Routledge India, forthcoming, 2020.
  • ‘Critical Humanities in a Changing Subnational Culture: Reflections on/from the Present in Kerala’, BishnuMahapatra (ed.), World Humanities Report – South Asia, forthcoming 2021.

 Working Papers

  • ‘Modernity with Democracy? Gender and Governance in the People’s Planning Campaign, Keralam’, CDS Working Paper No. 368, February 2005.
  • ‘Imagining Women’s Space in Early Modern Keralam’, CDS Working Paper No. 329, April 2002.
    ‘Family Planning as ‘Liberation’: The Ambiguities of ‘Emancipation from Biology’ in Keralam, CDS Working Paper No. 335, July 2002.
  • ‘Domesticating Malayalees: Family Planning, the Nation and Home-Centred Anxieties in Mid-20th Century Keralam’, CDS Working Paper No. 340, October 2002.
  • ‘A People United in Development: Developmentalism in Modern Malayali Identity’, CDS Working Paper No. 386, Jun 2007.
  • (Jointly with V J Varghese), ‘To Survive or Flourish?’ Minority Rights and Syrian Christian Community Assertion in 20th Century Kerala’, CDS Working Paper No. 427, March 2010.
  • ‘Land, Politics, Work and Home-Life in a City Slum: Reconstructing History from Oral Narratives’, WP No 454, CDS, August 2014.
  • ‘Land, Politics, Work and Home-life at Adimalathura: Towards a Local History’, WP No 455, CDS August 2014.
  • (with Jyothi Nair) ‘Kudumbashree and its Rivals: Reflections on Women’s Citizenship, Social Connections, and SHGs in Kerala, Lateral Studies on Kudumbashree, No. 3, 2018.
  • Empowering Tribal Peoples, Deepening Democracy: An Advocacy Note for Strengthening Local Governments for the Effective Implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Kerala’, CDS-RULSG, 2019.
  • ‘Gender-Based Cyber Violence against Women in Kerala: Insights from Recent Research’, CDS Commentary on Indian Economy and Society Series, 2019.

Policy Advocacy Notes

  • (with various authors) ‘Human-Diversity-Friendly Panchayats: A Lobby Note for the Inclusion of LGBTQI Rights and Demands into the Local Governance Framework in Kerala’, RULSG-CDS, 2017.
  • (with various authors) ‘Getting Beyond ‘Housewife-development’: An Advocacy Note for the Inclusion of the Needs and Voices of Informal-Unorganized Urban Women Workers in Kerala’s LSGs’, RULSG-CDS, 2018.
  • (with various authors)‘Empowering Tribal Peoples, Deepening Democracy: An Advocacy Note for Strengthening Local Governments for the Effective Implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Kerala’, RULSG—CDS, 2019.
  • (with various authors) ‘Empowering Forest-Fringe Panchayats: A Policy Reflection on the Shrinking Human-Wildlife Interface in Kerala’, RULSG—CDS, 2021.
  • ‘Women and Gender Policy after the Deluge: Some Reflections.’ CDS Series, Building a New Kerala, Ideas and Reflections.2018.
  • ‘New Foundations of the Mind: Rebuilding Intelligence in Post-Flood Kerala’. CDS Series,Building a New Kerala, Ideas and Reflections, 2018.
  • (with KK Eswaran) ‘Rehabilitation and Rebuilding: A Chance for a New Kerala Model’, CDS Series,Building a New Kerala, Ideas and Reflections, 2018.

Translations

From Malayalam to English

  • Malayali Memorial: Short Stories by Unni R , Penguin Ramdom House, New Delhi, 2024.
  • The Day the Earth Bloomed by Manoj Kuroor, Bloomsbury, New Delhi, 2024.
  • Feeling Kerala: An Anthology of Malayalam Short Stories, Penguin Random House: New Delhi, 2023.
  • Subversive Whispers: The Short Stories of Manasi, Penguin Random House: New Delhi, 2023.
  • Assassin, by K R Meera, Harper Collins, New Delhi, 2023.
  • The Sthory of Two Wimmin Named Kalyani and Dakshayani, by of R Rajasree, Penguin Random House, 2022.
  • Do Not Go to the Jungle: Short Stories by ShihabudeenPoythumkadavu, Amazon-Westland, 2021
  • Between the Lines: Short Stories by Ashitha, Cinnamon-Teal.
  • The Cock is the Culprit, by Unni R, Amazon-Westland, 2020.
  • One Hell of a Lover and Other Stories by UnniR,Amazon-Westland, 2019.
  • Guruchinthana (The Thought of SreeNarayana Guru), Mattanchery:Uru, 2018.
  • On the Far Side of Memory: Short Stories of LalitambikaAntharjanam, New Delhi: OUP, 2017.
  • The Deepest Blue [English translation of KR Meera’sKarineela], in Mini Krishnan (ed.), The Oxford Book of Long Short Stories, New Delhi: OUP, 2017.
  • ‘He-ghoul’, [translation of K R Meera’s ‘Aanpretham’] for Shinie Antony (ed), Boo: 13 Stories that Will Send a Chill Down Your Spine, Penguin Random House, 2017.
  • Swarga: A PosthumanTale[English translation of AmbikasutanMangat’sEnmakaje],
  • ‘Bhagawan’s Death’, [K R Meera’s short story ‘BhagavanteMaranam’] in Caravan 13 December, 2015. [http://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/bhagawans-death-krmeera ]
  • And Forgetting the Tree …I … [novella by K R Meera], OUP, New Delhi, 2014.
  • Hangwoman [novel by K R Meera], Hamish Hamilton, Penguin India, New Delhi, 2014.
  • The Masculine of ‘Virgin’: Short Stories by Sarah Joseph, [21 short stories] OUP, New Delhi, 2012.
  • “Sweet offering at Chankranthy”, by TKC Vadutala, in M Dasanet. al (eds) The Oxford Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing, New Delhi: OUP, 2012.
  • Translation of poems by AnithaThampi, V M Girija, and Rosemary and a short story by K R Meera in SampurnaChatterjee (ed.), Sweeping the front yard … Poems and Stories of Women in English, Malayalam, Telugu, and Urdu, SPARROW: Mumbai, 2011.
  • ‘Yellow is the colour of longing’, translation of K R Meera’s short story ‘Mohamanjha’ from the Malayalam, Feminist Review 92, 2009.
  • The Autobiography of a Sex Worker, Translation of NaliniJameela’s autobiography from the Malayalam, New Delhi: Westland Books, 2007.
  • Translations of nonsense verse from the Malayalam in Michael Heyman, SumanyuSatpathy and AnushkaRavishankar (eds.)The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense, New Delhi: Penguin India, 2007.
  • (Editor and Translator) Her-Self: Early Writings on Gender by Malayalee Women, Stree: Kolkota, 2005.

From English to Malayalam

  • Samakaalika India: OruSamoohasastraavalokanam, KSSP: Thrissur, 2014. [Translation of SatishDeshpande’sContemporary India: A Sociological View]
  • AkamePottiyaKettukalkkappuram: Indian FeminisathinteVarthamaanam(Malayalam version of NiveditaMenon’sSeeing like a Feminist, Penguin, N Delhi), SahityaPravarthakaSahakaranaSangham, 2017.

Forthcoming translations

  • The Traveller and the Wayside Lamps: The Autobiography of Kochattil Kalyanikkutty Amma, New Delhi, Zubaan, forthcoming.
  • The Red Badge, by Rajesh Varma, Harper Collins.
  • Sammatham, Malayalam translation of Nilofer Kaul’s Consent (originally from Zubaan, New Delhi), Gooseberry Books, Thrissur.

Children’s Writing

  • Kunhuthee, Thrissur: Gooseberry Books, 2024.

Select Seminar Papers/talks

  • ‘Intersectional Histories of Subaltern Spaces’, Lecture at the Department of History, HCU, 21 November, 2024.
  • ‘The History of the Malayali Family as the History of the Present’, Lecture at the Department of History, HCU, 22 November 2024.
  • ‘Field Work Stories: Qualitative Research and Humanising the Researching Self’, Lecture to the Social Science Discussion Group,  APU, Bangalore, 15 November 2024.
  • ‘Between the Self-Help Facilitator State and Private Finance: Debt, Discipline and Gender in Twenty-first Century Kerala’ (with Anamika Ajay), at the workshop Engagements in Everyday Life: Analysing Emergent Forms of Social Action’, organized by School of Liberal Arts, IIT Jodhpur, Oct 21-22, 2024.
  • ‘Adhunika Malayalikutumbathinte Varthamaanam: Chila Chinthakal’ [Some thoughts about the the present of the modern Malayali family], Special Lecture at the VK Sreedharan Smrithi Seminar, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishat, 5 October 2024.
  • ‘Familialism in Kerala’s Social and Welfare Policy: A Historical Critique’, K N Raj Memorial Lecture delivered at NSS College for Women, Karamana, 10 September 2024.
  • ‘The Translator’s Practice in Early Twenty-First Century India: Some Reflections’, Plenary talk at the conference ‘Translating the Literatures of Global South: Challenges, Questions and Debates’, 18-20 July 2024, Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar.
  •  ‘Rethinking the History of the Modern Family in Twentieth Century Kerala’, M Govindan Memorial Lecture, at School of Social Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, 14 February, 2024.
  • ‘Neoliberal Feminism and the Crisis of the Nation: Reflections on KR Meera’s Ghatakan’,  Special Lecture at U C College, Aluva,  15 February, 2024.
  • ‘Writing Histories of/for the Present: Reflections on Intersectional Approaches’, Paper presented in the international online seminar ‘Why Do We Need to Talk About Caste?’ Organized by Prof Raj Sekhar Basu, Calcutta University, supported by The Asiatic Society, Calcutta on  September 17-18, 2022.
  • ‘Reflections on the History of Childhood and the State in Kerala, India’, in the online international conference ‘Querying Childhood: Feminist Reframings, ICAS, 9-10 April 2021, Max Weber Stiftung, New Delhi.
  • ‘Literature and the Creation of a Gender ‘Archive’, in the International Workshop ‘Sensing the Past: Thematic Departures and ‘Archival’ Searches’, Dept. of History, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, 5 October, 2020.
  • ‘Where is the love? Some Thoughts on Kamala Surayya’s Affective Politics’, RajyashreeKhushu-Lahiri Memorial Lecture, IIT Kanpur, 5 March 2019.
  • ‘Four Observations on the Savarna Disturbances around Sabarimala’, Mukta Salve Lecture, KrantijyothiSavitribhayiPhule WSC, Savitribhayi Pune University, 25 March 2019.
  • ‘The Bridge-book: An Experiment in Boundary-Crossing’, at the conference Liberal Education and the Future of the Humanities and Social Sciences in India, AzimPremji University, April 6-8, 2018.
  • ‘Women’s Labour, Gender Struggles, and Feminism: Reflections on the Glocal Present in Kerala’, Paper presented at the conference ‘Global Capital and Social Difference: Global Studies and Local Frames’, at JNU, organized by the Global Studies Programme, CSSS, 2-7 October 2016.
  • ‘Scattered Thoughts on Feminist Solidarities, Spaces of Belonging, and Intersectional Analysis for Troubled Times’, Paper presented at conference at conference ‘Women Speak the Nation: Identities and Intersectionalities’, School of Women’s Studies, JadavpurUniversity,Kolkata, 8-9April 2016.
  • ‘Developmental Citizenship and Gender in Contemporary India and Kerala’ (paper presented at the session Gendered Citizenship and Human Development: Issues and Challenges, at the International Conference on Gender Equality, Kovalam, Kerala, 13 November, 2015.
  • ‘Kafila: Politics, Academics, and the Media Interface’, Talk at Explorative Workshop, SASNET Media Project, University of Lund, Sweden,19-20 October 2015.
  • ‘Contesting Hindutva: Thoughts on the Oppositional Quality of the Kiss Protests in India’, Keynote paper at PhD Scholars’ workshop, organized by the European Association of South Asian Studies and SASNET, University of Lund, Sweden, 18-19 May, 2015, at Falsterbo, Sweden.
  • ‘Subaltern Cosmopolitanism: Johny Miranda’s JeevichirikkunnavarkkuVendiyullaOppees’, NandanMenon Memorial Lecture, Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, 9 December 2014.
  • ‘Moving between Indian Languages and English in Higher Education: Thoughts from Kerala’, 26 March 2014, in the Mukta Salve Lecture Series in memory of SharmilaRege, KJSP Women’s Studies Centre, Pune University.
  • ‘Deprivation, Abjection, and Dispossession: Thinking of Marginalization in Early 21st Century Kerala’, in the conference ‘Labour History: A Return to Politics?’ March 22-24, 2014, Noida, V VGiriLabour Institute, organized by the Association of Indian Labour Historians and VVGNLI.
  • ‘What has Kudumbashree done to the Kerala Model Woman?’, at the conference ‘Worlds of Women’s Labour: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Perspectives’, February 21-23, 2014, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, organized jointly by TISS, Mumbai and CWDS, New Delhi.
  • ‘Breaking the Conceptual Freeze: Thoughts on Contestation and protest in India’ in the panel ‘History of Concepts: Political Protest, Contention, and Contestation’ at the conference ‘Traveling Norms and the Politics of Contention’ at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, 24-26 October 2013.
  • ‘Cosmopolitanism of the ideas vs. Cosmopolitanism of duty? Thinking of Kerala’s many cosmopolitanisms and modernities’. Plenary paper presented at the Researchers-at-Work Conference, University of Hyderabad,  24 September 2013.
  • ‘How to Appreciate the Beauty of Unintended Consequences? Dilemmas of Feminism and Women’s Self-help Groups in Kerala State, India’, paper presented at the School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 10 April 2013.
  • ‘In the Land of Snake-eaters, Eat the Middle Piece: Malabar to Malaya through the Eyes of S K Pottekkat’, at the workshop ‘From Malabar to Minangkabau to Malaya’, organized by Think City SdnBhd, Penang, Malaysia, 31 Oct. 2012.
  • ‘Decolonization, Racism, and Nationalist Biopolitics: Reflections on Travel Writing from Mid-20th Century Kerala, India’, included in the panel ‘Indian Ocean Africa: Cultural, Historical, and Literary Reorientations’ at the ASAUK Conference at Leeds, UK, 6-8 Sept. 2012.
  • ‘Intimacy and Communist Politics in Kerala in the 1940s’, at the workshop The Nation Unbound – India in the Forties’ organized by the IIAS, Shimla, 10-12 May 2012.
  • ‘Migration, Transnationalism, and Modernity: Thinking of Kerala’s Many Cosmopolitanisms’ at the conference ‘Lived Cosmopolitanisms’ at University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 5-7 March 2012.
  • ‘Getting Past the Governmental Category: Dalit Assertion in Contemporary Kerala’ at the conference ‘Changes in Caste Hierarchies in Rural India’ jointly organized by IIAS, Shimla, SAS, University of London, and Yale University, at Shimla, 1-3 June 2011 .
  • ‘Glocalizing Governance: Ironies and Tragedies from Kerala’, Indian Social Science Congress Plenary Session, University of Guwahati, 27-31 Dec. 2011.
  • ‘Using technologies to claim democratic spaces for women’ at the conference ‘Amplifying the Voices of Women in Politics’ organized by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development at Dili, East Timor, 29 Sept -1 Oct. 2011.
  • ‘Politics, Political Decentralization and Women in Kerala, India: In Historical Hindsight’, at seminar on ‘Seminar on Decentralization, gender and the quota system’ organized by Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan, 5-6 June 2010.
  • ‘Exclusion in Inclusion? Women, Development, and Citizenship in Post-People’s Planning Kerala’, at the National Seminar on ‘Social exclusion in contemporary India’ organized by IDS Jaipur, 26-27 Nov. 2009.
  • “Women, Religion, Marxism: Kerala and The God of Small Things’ , Seminar at the Department of English Studies, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 12 February 2009.
  • ‘Migration, Mobility and Development Rhetoric: Another Feminist Dilemma?’, Keynote address at the conference ‘Women and Migration in South Asia: Social and Health Consequences’, organized by the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 9-11 Feb. 2009.
  • ‘Women, Community, and Marxism: Kerala in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small     Things’, lecture at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka,12 Feb. 2009.
  • ‘Political Society and the Consumer-Citizen: Reflections on politics and women’s self-help groups in Kerala State, India’, at Gallatin School, NYU, organized jointly by the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, NYU and CUNY, 25 Nov. 2008.
  • ‘Really Beyond ‘Constituencies Suitable for Ladies’? Reflections on quotas for women in local governance in India’, at the conference ‘Decentralization, Local Power and Women’s Rights: Global trends in participation, representation and access to public services’, at Mexico City, organized by IDRC, Canada, and UNDP, 18-21 Nov. 2008.
  • ‘Politics, Patriarchy, and Democratic Decentralisation in Kerala’, at the Annual Summer Conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, University of Turin, Italy, 19-21 June 2008.
  • “A Tactful Union”: Domestic Workers’ Unionism, Politics, and Citizenship in Kerala”, Seminar at Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi, 27 Feb. 2008.
  • ‘Politics, Welfare, and Widowhood: Widows’ Activism in Kerala’, Open Seminar at School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi, 20 Feb. 2008.
  • ‘Marooned in Social Development? : Public health, democracy, and sickle cell anaemia in Wayanad district, Kerala’, Open seminar at Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU, 12 Feb. 2008.
  • ‘Mobility towards Work and Politics for Women in Kerala State, India: A View from the Histories of Gender and Space’ at the seminar ‘Gender and Space’, organized by the Women’s Studies Programme, JNU, New Delhi, 2 Nov. 2007.
  • ‘ Escaping the Shadow Zone: The Constitutive Contexts of Discipline-centered Knowledge and Research on Women in Kerala’ at the conference ‘Women’s Studies in the Academy: Opportunities and Challenges’, organized by KrantijyothiSavitribhayiPhule Centre for Women’s Studies, Pune University, 16-17 Mar. 2006.
  • ‘Fantasy Echo’? Reflections on Republishing Early Modern Writing by Malayalee Women in Contemporary Kerala’, at the conference ‘Women’s Histories, Women’s Narratives’, organized by School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 27-30 Mar. 2007.
  • ‘The Abjection of Sexuality in Development Discourse in Contemporary Kerala, India’, in the conference ‘A World in Transition: New Challenges for Gender Justice’ organized jointly by Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi and Gender and Development Network,Sweden, 13-16 Dec. 2006.
  • ‘Re-thinking Region: Reflections from Kerala’, at the conference ‘Thinking through ‘Region’ organized by the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore and the Centre for the Study of Local Cultures, Kuvempu University, Shimoga, at Kuvempu, 15-16 Jul. 2006.
  • ‘Modernity with Democracy? : Gender and Governance in the People’s Planning Campaign, Keralam’ in the workshop on the sub-theme ‘Gender and governance’ of the Symposium ‘Governance in Development: Issues, Challenges and Strategies’, organized by the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat, at Anand, 14-18 Dec. 2004.

Contributions to Textbooks

  • Essay in Mahatma Gandhi University’s Undergraduate second semester Malayalam textbook: ‘Keralathil Raanimaar Undaayirunno?, 2018.
  • Kulasthreeyum Chanthappennum Undaayathengane?is required reading in humanities and social science degree and post-graduate courses in Kerala’s universities.

Contributions to Textbooks

  • Essay in Mahatma Gandhi University’s Undergraduate second semester Malayalam textbook: ‘Keralathil Raanimaar Undaayirunno?, 2018.
  • Kulasthreeyum Chanthappennum Undaayathengane?  is required reading in humanities and social science degree and post-graduate courses in Kerala’s universities.

Other writings

  • A number of articles on gender in the history of Kerala, on women authors in Malayalam, and on contemporary debates in gender, politics, development and culture in Kerala, in leading Malayalam publications including the Mathrubhumi, Bhashaposhini,Sastragathy, and Patabhedam, and online magazines like Navamalayali, some of which are available on issuu.com/jdevika
  • Political commentary on contemporary Kerala kafila.onlinesince 2007. A selection from these has been translated into Malayalam and published as a book.
  • Monthly column in the Hindu Business Line’s weekly magazine BLink on gender, development, culture, and politics in India since March 2016, called Mind the Gap, till March 2020.