Biography
Abhishek is interested in the study of social and political movements, borderlands, literary radicalism, peasant societies, caste and gender dynamics, and questions of epistemology, praxis, genre, and cultural translation. Working primarily with Telugu, Bangla, Hindi and English, his doctoral dissertation combines ethnographic and archival research with literary analyses. His work grapples with the shifting cultural and political consequences of “Naxalite” translations of Marxisms from the late 1960s through the 1990s, as also their exchanges with, and overlaps and divergences from different socio-political movements in South Asia during this period.
Abhishek received a Joint PhD in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 2022. Born and brought up in Kolkata, he has studied at the Universities of Delhi (B.A., St. Stephen's), Oxford (B.A./M.A., Christ Church), and Cambridge (M.Phil., Wolfson). He has published a variety of work - ranging from reviews and articles to translation and theatre - in different English and Bangla websites or journals.
In 2022-23 Abhishek will offer a course on “Anthropology of Revolutions” for college students in Winter, and teach as part of the “Self, Culture and Society” sequence in Fall and Spring.