SELECT INTERNATIONAL & NATIONAL CONFERENCES, 2001-2016:
2016
Invited Speaker and Chief Guest, Tagore International School Graduation Day “Tagore’s Vision”, Delhi, January 25, 2016
Invited Speaker “Chatrooms and Classrooms’ at the Departmental Seminar of the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS), Goa, February 4, 2016
Invited Speaker “Creativity and Freedom” at the Sahitya Akademi and Thunchan Memorial Trust ‘South Indian Poets’ Meet, Mallapuram, Kerala, February14, 2016
Invited Participant, Seminar on ‘The State of the Arts’ organised by The Raza Foundation and The Lal Darwaza Foundation, Gurgaon, March 20, 2016
Chair, Session on the ‘Emotions’ at the ICSSR sponsored seminar ‘Being and Living in a Relational World’ Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, 22-23 march, 2016
Invited Speaker “Grammar Lessons and Language Games: Translating Rabindranath Tagore and Ludwig Wittgenstein at the International Seminar ‘Language and Culture: ‘Englishes’ and Translation Studies’ at the Autonoma University, Madrid, Spain, April 15, 2016
Invited Speaker “Access, Equity and Quality: the Capabilities Approach Applied to School Education in India” at the Pratham Foundation, Delhi, May 30, 2016
Invited Speaker, “External Communications” Panel with Laura Siber and Gyorgi Chkheidcze at the Open Society Foundation Meeting, 21 June, London, June 21, 2016
Invited Speaker, “Translating Rabindranath Tagore and Ludwig Wittgenstein on Children’s Education” Department of English and Applied Linguistics, University of Birmingham, June 28, 2015.
Invited Participant, “Identities and Knowledge Production” at the International Seminar on ‘Thinking Social Sciences’, Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) Shimla, July 11, 2016
Reading and Discussion “A Story and a Song” at the Bengaluru Literary Festival, August 26, 2016
Invited Seminar Presentation “Child’s Play: Rabindranath Tagore and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, on the Epistemology of Education” Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), August 26, 2016
2015
Keynote Address, “Gender and Dissent” at the All India Women Writers Conference organized by the Sahitya Akademi, January 29, 2015
Featured Speaker, “Chat Rooms, Class Rooms and Capabilities: Some Policy Implications for Education of the Evolution of English in 21st Century India” at the TEC15 International Conference, organized by the British Council, Hyderabad February 28, 2015
Invited Speaker “Women’s Voices” at the Sahitya Akademi Conference, March 14, 2017.
Invited Keynote “Cognition, Creativity and the Capabilities Approach to Human Development” at the Dayalbagh Educational Institution (DEI), Agra, March 17, 2015
Plenary Address “The Ghosts of Gender’ at the National Conference on ‘Multiculturalism, Identity Crisis and Belonging in Indian Writing in English” held at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee in association with the Sahitya Akademi, Roorkee, March 21-22, 2015
Invited Speaker, “Aletheia” Annual Philosophy Colloquium, Lady Sriram College (LSR), March 26, 2015
Invited Speaker, “Untouchable bodies and untellable narratives: the Intimate Relations Between Gender and Caste in Colonial/Post-colonial India” at the Master’s Colloquium in British and North-American Studies in Literature, Culture and Translation at the Universidad Autónoma, Madrid , April 9, 2015.
Invited Speaker, “The English Goddess: Postcolonial India, Internet Pluralism and Interdisciplinary Practices” at the Master’s Colloquium in British and North-American Studies in Literature, Culture and Translation at the Universidad Autónoma, Madrid , April 9, 2015
Invited Public Lecture, “Story box: Oral Narratives and Material Culture in Contemporary India at the Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, April 9, 2015
Plenary lecture “Canines, Simians, Humans: Can the methods and insights of pragmatics be extended to the study of interactions with and amongst other species?”, at the 7th edition of the international conference ‘New Developments in Linguistic Pragmatics’, University of Lodz, Poland, April 14, 2015
Invited Speaker “The Scope of Fiction” in the ‘Syntalk’ Series with Anjum Rajabali and Souvik Mukherjee, Mumbai, June 13 2015
Invited Participant, Interactive Session at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, June 29, 2015
Paper “The Man, the Media and the Message: A Case Study of Political Rhetoric and Pragmatic Adaptability in the Indian General Elections of 2014” at the 14th International Pragmatics Conference, Antwerp, Belgium, 26-31 July, 2015
Keynote Address, “The Counterfactual Course of Literature: India as an Imaginative Space in the Writings of Jose Saramago” at the Third International Conference of Graduate Studies I Literature ‘The Ways of Literature: Contacts, Contexts and Contrasts’ at the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Sao Paulo State University) UNESP San Jose do Rio Preto, Brazil, October 14, 2015
Graduate Lectures on “Postcolonial Literatures: Indian Writing in English and Beyond” at the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Sao Paulo State University) UNESP San Jose do Rio Preto, Brazil, October 6-9, 2015
Public Lecture “Imaginaries of Ignorance: Five Ideas of the University and the Place of the Humanities Within Them”, organized by IISER Pune as part of their 10th year celebrations, IISER Pune, October 30, 2015
Invited Speaker “Celebrating 20 Years of Biblio” at the Chandigarh Literature Festival and in conversation with Rahul Bhattacharya whose book The Sly Company of People Who Care was nominated by Biblio for discussion, 5 November, 2015
Invited Paper, “Grammar Lessons and Language Games: Rabindranath Tagore and Ludwig Wittgenstein on the Epistemology of Education” at the International Seminar ‘Tagore and Nationalism’, Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) Shimla, 7 November, 2015
Reading and Discussion with the US poet and writer Cole Swenson, Chicago Centre Delhi, November 18, 2015
Invited Speaker, “Cognition and Recognition: Why the Experience of Epiphany Matters Emotionally and Evolutionarily Across Cultures” at the TEQUIP Symposium ‘Language, Literature and Beyond’, IIT Guwahati, November 26-27, 2015
Invited Speaker “Child Marriage, Education and the Capabilities Approach” at the ‘State Level Consultation on Child Marriage and Customary Laws’ organized by Shaheen Women’s Resource and Welfare Association, Hyderabad, November 28, 2015
‘Art Matters’ Discussion with poet and writer Keki Daruwalla at event organized by the Raza Foundation, December 22, 2015
2014
Invited Lecture, 'Women Writers as the Anthropologists of the Future', organized by the Shaheen Women Resource & Welfare Association, Urdu Hall, Hyderabad, January 9, 2014
Invited Paper, 'Five Ideas of the University and The Place of Humanities Within Them' at the National Seminar organised by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) on 'The Place of the Humanities in Our Universities', Delhi, January 13, 2014
Keynote Address, 'Poetry, Gender and Dissent: The Changing Grammars of Education and Culture in 21st Century India' at the National Seminar on “Indian English Poetry by Women since 1980s" organized by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Mines, Dhanbad, January 30, 2014
Plenary Lecture, ‘Talking Back to Technology: Theorizing the 'E' in English in the Age of E-learning’ National Seminar organized by Bharati College, Delhi University and the Sahitya Akademi (Indian Academy of Letters), February 5-6, 2014
Keynote Address, 'The Dharma of Desire and the Discipline of Philosophy in the 21st Century: Beyond the Paradigms of Postmodern Difference and Postcolonial indifference' at the National Seminar on the 'Postmodern Paradigm in Philosophy', organized by the Department of Philosophy, University of North Bengal, Siliguri, 13-14 February, 2014
Lecture, 'The Language, Emotion and Culture Project' (together with Professor Purnima Singh), at the Symposium organized at IIT Delhi on this Department of Science and Technology (DST) project based in IITD, February 24-25, 2014
Invited Talk, 'Coping with the Unknown' at the Colloquium on the 'The Unknown' organized by The Raza Foundation for Arts and Culture at the India International Centre (IIC), Delhi, February 27, 2014
Invited Talk, Panel on 'English Courses in the Undergraduate Curriculum' at the Workshop organized at IIT Delhi on 'The English Language Classroom: Gathering Ideas', March 11-12, 2014
Invited Talk, 'Evaluation and Value' on the Panel 'Do evaluation findings inform policy or programme design? What might enhance use?' at the Research Colloquium organized by the National University for Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA), Delhi, 27 May, 2014
Paper, 'The Nature of Language and the Language of Nature: Rabindranath Tagore’s 'The Essence of Words' (Shabdo Tattwo) as an Integrationist Text' at the International Conference on 'Integrationism & humanism' organized by the International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC), Oberaegeri, Switzerland, June 23-26, 2014
Research Presentation 'Who am I? - Scholarship and the Self' at the International Scholarships Board of the Open Society Foundation, London, June 13, 2014
Chair and Panelist on the Session 'The Poet’s Language: Can the Muse be Colonised?' at the Symposium 'Interrogating 'Swaraj in Ideas'', Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, (IIAS), Shimla, 21-22 July, 2014
Invited Speech as Guest of Honour 'Cervantes and Cortazar' at the Instituto Cervantes de Nueva on the occasion of the 100th Birth Anniversary of Julio Cortazar, Delhi, 14 August, 2014
Talk and Reading, 'Women Poets of World War II' at the Session 'The Great War: Poetry in the Trenches' on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of World War II at the India International Centre (IIC) Annual Festival, 11 October, 2014
Panel Discussion and Reading, 'How Right is the New Right?' at Literati - the Chandigarh Literary Festival', Chandigarh, 7-9 November, 2014
Invited Panel Discussant, 'Roundtable on Anglophone Indian Poetry' held at the Chicago University Centre, New Delhi, 28 November, 2014
Invited Paper, 'Indian Educational Initiatives' at the First meeting of the BRICS Global Educational Initiative, organized by International Relations, the Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia, December 6-7, 2014
Invited Talk, 'Imagining International Cooperation Within the BRICS Countries and Examining the Concept of Soft Power through Five Ideas of the University in the 21st Century' at the Higher School of Economics, Saint-Petersburg, December 8, 2014
Plenary Inaugural Speech 'Human Rights, Inhuman Wrongs?' at the Grantees Conference organized by the Alliance for Social Dialogue (ASD), Nepal and the Open Society Foundation (OSF), New York, Kathmandu, 17-18 December, 2014
2013
Invited Plenary Address,"Chat-rooms and Class-rooms: Technology, Teachers, Education & the Evolution of English in Twenty-first Century India" at the International Conference on 'Empowering the English Language Classroom', Malaviya Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur, January 18-19, 2013
Invited Panelist, "The Place of Language and Linguistics in English Studies in India" at the International Workshop on ‘Prospects for English Studies in India and the UK’, sponsored by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and The Open University at the Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi, February 15-16, 2013
Inaugural Keynote, "Human Resources and Human Resourcefulness: A Developmental Perspective" at the Annual Meeting of the Psychology Department, Lady Sriram College, Delhi University, March 8, 2013
Invited Paper, "Post-Identity Cultures" at the National Seminar on 'Social Representations of Identity in India: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue' funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), IITD, March 18-19, 2013
Opening Plenary "The Desire for Theory and the Theory of Desire" at the Meeting on 'Theory' organized by the Department of English, Lady Sriram College, Delhi University, March 23, 2013
Keynote Address, 'Why is the Sea Blue? Narrative Enigma, Evolution, Emotion, Embodiment & Explanation:at the 'Modes of Explanation' International Discussion Conference organized by theInstitute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence (ISCE), Paris, May 21-25, 2013
Chair, Inaugural Whabiz D. Memorial Lecture by Professor Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University on 'Art and Insecurity', India International Centre, 1 August, 2013
Invited Panelist on 'Narrative' at the International Pragmatics Association IPRA Biennial Conference, New Delhi, September 8-13, 2013
Paper, 'The Pragmatics of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder' (with Shweta Sharma) at the International Pragmatics Association IPRA Biennial Conference, New Delhi, September 8-13, 2013
Paper, 'Emotional Acquisition Children raised in Indian Joint Families' (with Purnima Singh) at the International Pragmatics Association IPRA Biennial Conference, New Delhi, September 8-13, 2013
Invited Paper on 'The Psychology of Desire' at the National Seminar 'Research and Exploration in Psychology' held at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, September 21-22, 2013
Invited Talk, 'The Linguistic Landscape of India' at the Indian Embassy in Bangkok, October 3, 2013 (visit supported by the Indian Embassy at Bangkok)
Invited Panelist, 'Does Creative Writing Need Critical Theory?' at the International Literary Festival 'Reaching the World', organized by Chulalongkorn University and The Asia Pacific Writers and Translators Organization, September 2-4, 2013
Invited Talk, 'Language and Linguistics in India' Indian Cultural Centre and Embassy of India in Thailand, October 3, 2013
Invited Talk, 'Language and Emotion' at the Colloquium 'Language and Cognition: Why does it matter?' led by Dan Slobin, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Linguistics, University of California, at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), October 18, 2013
Invited Talk, 'Gender and Dissent' at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), November 8, 2013
Invited Talk, 'Narrative', Department of Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad, November 9, 2013
Invited Talk, 'The media, the man & the message: A Case Study of Political Discourse and Body Language in 21st Century India' at the Annual Meeting of the Indian Political Economy, University of Hyderabad, November 9, 2013
2012
Keynote Address, "What is Narrative?" at the First Interactive Workshop on Narrative Studies Following Forkhead Paths: Discussions on Narrative the Centre of Advanced Study (Phase II), Department of Comparative Literature Jadavpur University Kolkata, January 18, 2012
Plenary Address, "Feminist Epistemologies" at the Bilingual National Seminar on 'Contemporary Indian Women Writing: Recreating The World Through Words' at the Adarsh Mahila Mahavidyalya, Bhiwani February 24, 2012
Plenary Address, "Mind reading? Literary Texts, Cognitive Maps and Species Memories" at the National Seminar on Reading', Siliguri University, March 22, 2012
Keynote Address, "Poetry and Prophesy" at the National Seminar: “Prophetic Visions and Voices: Writing the Self and the World”, Patiala University, March 29, 2012.
Plenary Address, "Indian Keywords" at the National Seminar-cum-Workshop 'Towards a Conceptual Lexicon for India in 21st Century', April 19-20, 2012
Paper, "Modularity, Language, Emotion: Speech Acts in Indian Mothers' Narratives' at the 6th International Conference on Language, Discourse, and Cognition (CLDC), Taipei, Taiwan, 4-6 May, 2012
Paper, "Language, Emotion, Narrative: The Role of Pragmatic Universals in Cultural Cognition" at the 6th Lodz International Symposium on New Developments in Linguistic Pragmatics (NDPL) Lodz, 26-28 May 2012.
Invited Lecture, "Script Boxes and Story Boxes: The Material Culture of Oral Narratives in India in the Occasional Lecture Series of the World Oral Literature Project, hosted by the Universities of Cambridge and Yale and organised at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge. June 1, 2012
Plenary Lecture, "Emotional Encounter? What Happens When Darwin and Bharata Converse" at the International Seminar on "Reflection on Emotions in Indian Thought-Systems” at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 4-6 September 2012
Panel Discussions on "Scholarships" and "Lessons from India" at the Open Society Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, September 12-14, 2012
Plenary Lecture, "Mysteries, Machines, Mind & Memes: Discovering the Delights of Dystopia" at the Multidisciplinary Conference on 'Conflict to Convergence: Building Holistic Perspectives’. Gargi College, University of Delhi, November, 6-8, 2012
Chair, Session on "Lu Xun: A Critical Appraisal" at the International Conference on ‘China’s Ongoing Quest for Cultural Modernity into the 21st Century: Lu Xun and his Legacy’ organized by the IIC November 15-17, 2012
Invited Public Lecture, “In Search of Darwin’s Orient: A Cross-cultural Perspective on Emotional Registers in Everyday Indian Life, Literature, and the Arts” Organized by the NYU Research Group on Transnational Everyday Life and co-sponsored by: Postcolonial Colloquium, Dept. of English, NYU, December 12, 2012
2011
Plenary Lecture "The Way Forward' at International Conference, Asian University for Women, Dhaka, January 19-22
Plenary Lecture "Caste, Race, Census and the Indian Imaginary", University of Potsdam, Berlin, May 26-29, 2011
Special Plenary Lecture, IIT Gandhinagar, International Seminar on 'Alterities' Sept. 9-11
Plenary Lecture "Script Boxes and Story Boxes: the Material Culture of Orality' International Conference on 'Orality', Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) October, 13-15
Invited Lecture "Language and Emotion as Human Resources: A Developmental Perspective from India', at the 9th International Language and Development Conference, Special Theme 'Language and Social Cohesion' Colombo, October 17-19
Invited Speaker at the International Hay Literary Festival, Session on "The Poetry of Kamala Das", Thiruvanathapuram, November, 17
Invited Lecture, "The Nature of Language and the Language of Nature' at the International Seminar on Tagore and Indian Literature, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, November 13-15
Plenary Lecture, "The Goa that Never Was: Jose Saramago's Counterfactual Narrative" at the "Goa 1961 and Beyond" International Conference organized by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) and the Centro de Estudos Sociais (Coimbra University).at Goa University, Panaji, December 18-21
2010
Invited Paper ‘Yudhisthira’s Lie: the Fiction of India’ presented at the International Conference ‘Fictions and Cultures’ held at l’Université Paris Diderot, Bâtiment des GrandsMoulins, Paris VII, January 7-9
Invited Plenary ‘Narrative Cognition’ at the National Symposium on ‘Culture and Cognition: A Developmental Perspective’, Delhi University, January 23-25
Inaugural Keynote ‘Voyages of Discovery’ at the Fourth Biennial International India-Australia conference on ‘The Challenges of Literary and Cultural Diversity’ Dayanand College, Ajmer, January 22-23
Paper ‘Angry Male or Emotional Male?’ (co-author: Srividya Rajaram) at the 36th National Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists on ‘Clinical Psychology for a Changing World: Practices, Training and Research’, NIMHANS, Bangalore, February, 1-3
Paper ‘Speech Patterns in Dissociative Convulsions: Conversational Analysis as a Qualitative Assessment Tool’ (co-author: Shweta Sharma) at the 36th National Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists on ‘Clinical Psychology for a Changing World: Practices, Training & Research’, NIMHANS, Bangalore, Feb, 1-3
Invited Inaugural Address on ‘Reading with Theory and Reading without Theory‘, followed by Plenary Paper on ‘Is there a Postcolonial Reading of a Text?’ at the MHRD/AICTE Winter School on ‘Imaginative Reading, Creative Writing: Language, Literature and the Teacher’, February 1-7
Invited Paper ‘Thinking Out of the Story-Box: Creative Writing and Narrative Culture in South Asia’ at the International Conference on ‘Writing across Cultures’ held at the City University of Hong Kong, March 7-9
Invited Lecture ‘Mind Machine or Material Body: the Mysterious Language of the Brain’ at the National “Brain Awareness Week” organized by the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) with the support of the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), March 11-15
Invited Paper ‘English in 21st Century India: Postcoloniality, Interdisciplinarity and the Internet’ at the CNRS Conference ‘Les langues de la Reserche en Science HumainesetSociales: Du Monolinguisme et Plurilinguisme Editorial?’ held at the College de France, Paris, April 15-16
Invited Paper ‘Homo Phoneticus Indicus and Integrationalism’ at the Colloquium ‘Linguistics in the 21st Century’ organized by the International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC) and the School of English, Faculty of Arts, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), May 6-8
Invited Talk/s ‘Memory, Tradition and Poetry’ 2nd ‘India-China Dialogue’ at the ‘Almost Island Conference, Beijing and Shanghai. May 20-28
Paper ‘The First Language of Infancy ; an Indian Perspective’ (with Priyanka Agrawal, in absentia) at the Inaugural Symposium sponsored by the Asian Association of Social Psychology, 12th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology, Brisbane, Australia, June
Paper ‘Detecting Non Epileptic Seizures: Conversational Analysis as a Clinical Research Tool’ (co-author: Shweta Sharma, in absentia) at the Inaugural Symposium sponsored by the Asian Association of Social Psychology, 12th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology, Brisbane, Australia
Invited Paper ‘Complicated Cakes: Cities of Literature, Countries of the Imagination’ at the Worlds International Literary Salon on ‘The Education of the Imagination’, University of East Anglia, June 20-24
International Conference Paper ‘States of Reason and Reasons of State: A Study of Noam Chomsky’s Metaphors (1957-2008)’ presented on my behalf (in absentia) by Alan Cienki at the Eighth International Conference on Researching and Applying Metaphor (RAAM) on ‘Metaphor and Domains of Discourse’ Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam, Netherlands, 30 June-3July
Invited Paper ‘On Narrative Theory’ at the 10th Refresher Course in English The Academic Staff College, Jamia Millia Islamia, September
Invited Paper ‘Diamonds, Water or Dust: Evaluating the Legacy of the Commonwealth’ at the International Conference on ‘Historical Legacies and Contemporary Writing in the Commonwealth’, Sahitya Akademi (The Indian Academy of Letters) Delhi, October, 8-10
Invited Inaugural Keynote ‘Research Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences’, Administrative Staff College (MANUU), Hyderabad, October13-14
Invited Plenary, ‘Understanding Ourselves’ at the University Grants Commission (UGC)
National Seminar ‘Reflections on Indianness’, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, December 9-10
2009
Invited Presentation on ‘Cultural Translation and Theory’ at the International Workshop on ‘French Theory, Cultural translation and the Problems of Interdisciplinarity’ organized by the CHS, Universite de Rennes 2 and the Universite de Paris 8, Delhi January 20-21
Invited Talk ‘Language and Linguistics’ at UGC National Refresher Course for University and College Teachers, Centre for Professional Development in Higher Education, (CPDHE), University of Delhi, March 26
Invited Inaugural Lecture ‘The Language of Touch’ at the ‘Workshop on Touch and Allied Behaviors’ organized under the aegis of the Quality Improvement Program, IITD, May 25-28
Invited Talk ‘The Rebirth of Learning and the Redundancy of Literature’ at the Worlds International Conference on ‘The Idea of the University’ Univ. of East Anglia, June 22-26
Paper on ‘The Pragmatics and Poetics of Racial Difference’ at the 11th International IPRA Conference, Melbourne Australia, July, 13-17
Invited Talk ‘Indian Poetry in English’ for the ‘Writing & Society Research Group’
University of Western Australia, Sydney July 14
‘Literary Theory Today’ at the International Conference on ‘English Language and Literature’, Dept. of English, Vidya Bharati Colege, Amravati, 12-13 December
‘Theories of Metaphor and Theory of Mind’ Plenary Lecture at the international Conference on ‘The Language-Cognition Interface: the Sate of the Art’ held at the Centre for Behavioral and Cognitive Science, Allahabad, December 6-9
Invited Lecture 'Future Frenemies? sms, blogs, email, tweets, love and swine flu in
post-identity cultures', at the National Seminar on English Studies, Gargi College, University of Delhi, December 10
Inaugural Speech ‘Asia and South Asia’ at the 8th Biennial Conference of the Asian Association for Social Psychology (AASP), IIT Delhi Dec 11
Paper ‘Non-verbal Communication in Indian Culture: Tactile Expressions of Emotion in Early Childhood’ (co-author: Priyanka Agarwal) at the 8th Biennial Conference of the Asian Association for Social Psychology (AASP), IIT Delhi and Habitat Centre Dec 11-15
Paper, ‘The Cultural Construction of Non Epileptic Attack Disorder (NEAD) in India: Conversational Analysis as a Qualitative Assessment Tool’ (co-author: Shweta Sharma) at 8th Biennial Conference of the Asian Association of Social Psychology, IIT Delhi and Habitat Centre Dec 11-15
2008
Keynote Address ‘Gandhi’s Assassination’ at the National Seminar ‘Speaking of Gandhi‘, Sevagram, Ahmedabad, January 30
Invited Lecture on ‘Contemporary Linguistics’ at the UGG Sponsored Refresher Course for University Teachers, Department of English, February 19
Invited Talk on ‘Poetry and Cultural Difference’ at the First ‘Almost Island Conference’ between Indian and Chinese Writers, March 7-9
Invited Talk on ‘Language and Multilingualism in a Federal State’ at the International Roundtable ‘Federation on Federalism; Unity or Diversity?’ Punjab University, Chandigarh, March 18-19
Invited Plenary, ‘Postmodern Difference and Postcolonial Indifference: Sacred bureaucracies and reconfigured Identities in Postcolonial India’ at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE), April 8
Plenary Talk ‘“I’m a Riddle in Nine Syllables”:The Poetics, Psychology and Pragmatics of Metaphor in Cross-cultural Contexts’ at the 7th Conference on Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM 7), University of Extremadura, Cáceres,Spain, May 29-31
Invited Lecture on ‘Language Acquisition’, Jamia Millia Islamia, Refresher Course for Teachers, Delhi, May 28-30
Inaugural Address’ Poetry is the Language of a State of Crisis’, Opening of the Creative Writing Conference ‘Writing the Future’, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, October 13
Joint Inaugural Lecture with Prof. Rosa Perez of the ISCTE, Lisbon, ‘Body of Knowledge: European Experience and the Indian Imaginary in the 21st Century’ at the EUNIC (European Union National Institutions for Culture’, New Delhi, October 31
Invited Paper, ‘The Search for a Universal Language of Governance’ at the European Union International Conference on ‘Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution’ Euro India dialogue on Multiculturalism, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, November 21-23
Invited Paper, ‘Keywords in a Multilingual Millennium: A Perspective From the Indian Subcontinent’ at the European Union International Conference on ‘Multilingualism and Intercultural Dialogue in Globalisation’ Delhi University, December
2007
Invited Talk ‘Human Rights, Inhuman Wrongs’ at the Amnesty India Meeting ‘the Protest is Still On’, January 14
Plenary Paper, ‘Technological Transformations: Bureaucracy, Identity and Gender or the BIG Interdisciplinary Questions of the 21st Century, at the National Seminar, Delhi College of
Arts and Commerce (DCAC), Delhi University, Jan 24
Invited Paper ‘Exclusionary Practices and Gender-based Censorship’ at the Women’s World’ International Conference on Censorship, India International Centre (IIC), February 19-23
‘Just Words? Action, Argument and Agreement in the Indian Cultural Context’ at the International Transcultura Conference, Beijing University, February 5-6
Invited Lecture ‘World Class? The Humanities and Social Sciences in the Context of the
Indian Institutes of Technology’ at the International Conference organized by the National
Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, NISTADS in collaboration with the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), February 4
Invited Lectures on ‘Postcolonialism’ and ‘Literature and Gender’, broadcast via EDUSAT, April I and 8
Keynote Lecture ‘A University of One’s Own: Envisioning Education and Empowerment’ at the Regional Symposium of the Asian University for Women, Bangladesh-China Friendship Convention Centre, Dhaka, May 24
Chair, Final Plenary Session, 10th International Pragmatic Conference (IPRA), Goteberg, Sweden, July 13
Invited Talk ‘Initiatives for Asia’ 1st International Board Meeting of the Asia Pacific Writing Partnership, Bali, Indonesia, September 25-26
Invited Paper, ‘Language Legacies: Indian illusions and the Delusions of Democracy’ at the International Seminar on Democracy organized by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Sept 29
Invited Discussant at the British Council Conference ‘English for Progress’, Chennai, November 19-21
2006
Plenary, ‘Texts, Teachers, Technologies’ International Conference International Education: A Matter of Heart’, organized by the University of Monash, Australia at in Campus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 11-13
Invited Speaker, ‘Narrative of Disaster’, Department of English, Emory University, USA, March 20-25
Invited Speaker, ‘Technology and Communication’ Georgia Perimeter College, Georgia University,
Invited Paper ‘Whose line is it, anyway? Aesthetics and Culture’ Centre for South Asian Studies and the English Department, University of Toronto, Canada. March 26-26
Invited Paper ‘Dancing Shiva: the Aesthetics of Culture’ Department of Linguistics, University of Antwerp, March 10-15
Invited Speaker ‘Postcolonial Conversations’ at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), May 25
Paper on ‘Narrative and Stigma’ International Conference on Narrating Race, University of Singapore, July 10
Plenary ‘Postcolonial Discourses’ at the International Conference on Discourse and Identity organized by the Federal and Catholic Universities of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 10
Paper ‘The Right to Dream: Strategies of Reciprocal Knowledge’, International Transcultura Conference, November Beijing May 20
2005
Invited Paper ‘The Discourses of Disaster’ Indian Social Studies Trust (ISST, UN Sponsored Organization), February
Keynote Plenary ‘Indian Writing in English’ National Conference on The Role of English Literature in Indian Universities’ March
UGC Lectures on ‘Comparative Literature and Translation Studies’, Invited by the Department at Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University
Plenary Lecture ‘Pragmatics, Pragmatism and the Postcolonial’, Biannual Conference of the International Pragmatics Association, Riva Del Garda, Italy July 9-13
Invited Paper ‘Writing and Cognition’ Department of Linguistics, University of California at Davis, USA February 20
2004
Paper at the National Conference ‘The Guarded Tongue: Women Writing’, Guwahati, May, 2004.
Plenary 'The Interior of Words' at the International Creative Arts Programme, National University of Singapore, June 10
Plenary Speaker, on 'Writing, Scripts and Cognition' at the International Conference on Integrational Linguistics and Language Teaching, Birmingham, July
Paper on 'Contemporary Indian English Fiction and the New Technologies' at the Leeds International Conference on Invention: Literature and Science, Leeds, July.
Plenary Speaker, 'Head, Heart and Belly: Cross-cultural Sign Systems' at the First International Conference on Language, Culture and Mind, Portsmouth, July
Plenary on 'Bringing English into the 21st Century: Postcoloniality, Pluralism and the English Language in Contemporary India' at the First International Conference on Discourse and Cultural Transformation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, October 0
Invited Speaker on 'Translation' and on 'Language and Culture on the Internet: the Case of India', Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China, October. 20
Keynote Address ‘New Voices, Old Choices?’ at the Sahitya Akademi ‘New Voices’ seminar, Ahmedabad, December
2003
Invited Paper on Indian Poetry in English, ACLALS, JNU, January
Invited Paper ‘Technology and Writing’ International Conference on Women Writing in South Asia, British Council, February
Invited Paper at an international seminar on the Intellectualization of the African Languages including Afrikaans, University of Cape Town, South Africa, July
Paper at the International Pragmatics Conference, Toronto, Canada, July.
Plenary on my book Narrative Gravity at the International Seminar on Religious Cognition and Culture at the Universities of Aarhus, Denmark, October.
Invited Seminar on 'The Speech Act of Translation' in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Linkoeping, Sweden
Invited Lecture and Seminar on my book Lying on the Postcolonial Couch at the University of Washington at Seattle, October
Invited Speaker on 'Language and Youth Culture in South Asia', CLIC Speaker Series, at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), October
Plenary on 'Emotion, Food and Culture' at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, October
Paper on 'Narrative Cognition and Evolution' at the Convergences '03 International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, Language and Information Technologies, held under the aegis of the UNDL, at the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, December (in absentia)
2002
Invited Paper, ‘Stories and Selves: The three Paradoxes of Narrative’ National Seminar ‘Beyond the Linguistic Turn’, JNU January
Invited Paper, ‘English in Education’ National Seminar on Language Education in Science and Technology, Delhi University, February
Invited Paper, ‘The Aesthetics of Narrative’ National Seminar on Saundaryaor the Concept of Beauty on Indian Aesthetics’, JNU, February
Invited Paper ‘Recoding the Book of Man: Gender and the Genome’ at the National Seminar on Text and Theory, Sahitya Akademi, March
Paper 'A Chat Room of One's Own: Technological Innovation and Cultural Identity' at the PALA International Conference, U.K, April
Plenary Speaker 'Gender and Language' International Conference on Literary Semantics, Birmingham, April
Invited Speaker 'Postcoloniality and Literary Genre' Inaugural Conference on the Initiation of a Department of Anglophone Studies, Saarbrucken, Germany
Closing Plenary, International seminar on Philosophy, Language and Literature, University of East Anglia
2001
Invited Paper ‘Women and Censorship Seminar organized by Kali at Anandgram, Delhi, January
Invited Paper ‘On Translating into English’ at the National Seminar ‘Translating India’ SahityaAkademi, January
Invited Paper ‘Indian English Poetry at the Turn of the Century’ at the SahitaAkademi National Seminar “Indian Women’s Wrting at the Turn of the Century
Invited Lecture, Copenhagen University 'Postmodern Difference &Postcolonial indifference' June
Plenary Lecture on ' the Nature of Narrative' The International School of Communication Studies, Odense University, June
Invited Paper, on 'The Emergence of Metaphor at the 'EU Conference on The Natural and Cultural Bases of Human Reasoning, CNRS, & Sorbonne University, Paris, June
Invited Paper, on 'Grice Revisited: Bilingualism & Child Language' at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, June
‘Women and Censorship’ Asmita Conference Hyderabad, July
SELECTED POETRY/FICTION READINGS:
2014
Readings from poems and panel discussion with Akeel Bilgrami, Hoshang Merchant and Keki Daruwalla at the 2nd Wahbiz Merchant Memorial Lecture, 11 January 2014
Reading from novel Mad Girl's Love Song and discussion with Ivan Vadislavic and Raul Soni at the Jaipur Literary Festival, January 17 to 21, 2014
Reading from poems in the session 'Poetry-wallahs', Jaipur Literary Festival, January 17 to 21, 2014
Reading from novel Mad Girl's Love Song and discussion with Peter Ronald deSouza, Rosa Perez and Manju Kak at the World Book Fair, Delhi, February 22, 2014
Reading from poems at the Colloquium on the 'The Unknown' organized by The Raza Foundation for Arts and Culture at the India International Centre (IIC), Delhi, February 27, 2014
Readings from poems and discussion at the 'Kavita Goshthi' (Poetry Meet) organized by the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi (CSA) March 16, 2014
Reading from poems in the session 'The Poet’s Language: Can the Muse be Colonised?' at the Symposium 'Interrogating 'Swaraj in Ideas'', Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, (IIAS), Shimla, 21-22 July, 2014
Reading from poems at 'Literati - the Chandigarh Literary Festival', Chandigarh, 7 November, 2014
2013
Reading from novel Mad Girl's Love Song at the India International Centre, Delhi, 1 August, 2013
Reading from novel Mad Girl's Love Song at the Crossword Bookstore, Ahmedabad,23 August, 2013.
Reading from novel Mad Girl's Love Song at the Oxford Bookstore and discussion with writer K.R Usha, Bangalore, 20 September
Poetry Reading and Panel Discussion at the International Pune Literary Festival, 22 September 2013
Poetry Reading at the International Literary Festival 'Reaching the World', organized by Chulalongkorn University and The Asia Pacific Writers and Translators Organization, 4 October 2013
Poetry Reading and Discussion at the Department of Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad, 9 November 2013
Poetry Reading at the Workshop on Women's Livelihoods organized by the International Centre for Human Development, UNDP, to celebrate 50 years of SEWA, Ahmedabad, 28 November, 2013
2011
Reading at the India International Centre with Michele Houston and others at the event 'Connecting Cultures through Lenses and Words', collaboration IAFA and the Ministry of Culture, New Delhi, January 11
Reading and Talks in Mumbai with leading Chinese writers, collaboration 'Almost Island' literary magazine, December 19
2010
Reading (with Chinese Translations), Tsinghua University, Beijing May 24
Reading and Talk, Second Indo-Korean Literary Meet, India International Centre, Delhi,
July 3
2009
Reading and Talk, University of Western Australia, Sydney, July 14
Reading, Struga International Poetry Festival, Macedonia, August 19-23
Reading, American Centre ‘Word Wine’ organized by Delhi Poetree Society, May 29
2008
Reading, ‘Writing the Future’ Festival of Creative Writing’, Shimla
Reading, Sahitya Akademi Delhi Launch of Language for a New Century’ Oct. 23
Reading for the Poetry Society of India, India International Centre, August 8 2007
Reading ‘Poetry for Prakriti’ Landmark Festival, Chennai, December 15-30
2007
Reading with Patience Agbabe, UK Poet at the British Council Delhi, Jan 9
Reading and Talk, ‘Protest Poetry’, Gargi College, Jan 24
Reading, Cambridge Seminar ‘Participants’ Poetry’, July 7-11
2006
Reading from Yellow Hibiscus, National Library, Ottawa, Canada, March 31 2006
Reading from Yellow Hibiscus, English Department, Stanford University, April 12, 2006
Reading from Yellow Hibiscus, Cambridge University, June 6, 2006
Reading from Yellow Hibiscus at the Festival of Arts, India International Centre, 8 Oct. 2006
2005
Reading and Talk, Indraprastha College, Delhi University, 10 February, 2005
Reading, American Centre, Inauguration of the U.S. Book and Reading Month, April 29, '05
Reading at ‘Open Space’, Pune, 21 May, 2005
Reading and Talk on Poetry, India International Centre, 5 August, 2005.
2004
Reading at the Irish Embassy with Philip MacDonough and others, August 13, 2004.
Reading from The Ayodhya Cantos on the theme ‘Narrative Poetry’, India International Centre and Sahitya Akademi, September 23, 2004
Reading of poems on Gandhi as part of the Gandhi Jayanthi celebrations, October 4, 2004.
Reading at Oxford Book Store with Keki Daruwalla, November 24, 2004
2003
Reading at the Association of Commonwealth Languages and Literatures Conference, Jawaharlal Nehru University, January 24, 2003.
Reading, American Centre, Embassy of the United States of America, February 13, 2003.
Reading & Discussion, British Council International Women Writers' Workshop, Feb. 19, 2003.
Reading on the theme 'Protest Literature', India International Centre/SahityaAkademi, 10 Oct, 2003.
2002
Reading, Sahitya Akademi, National Convention of Poets, March 21
Reading and Workshop with School Students, post-Gujarat, April 26
Reading, Workshop and Lecture, St. Stephen's College, Delhi Univ. October 25
Reading and Lecture, Gargi College, Delhi University, December 19
2001
Reading of the Translation of the 'Bhavani Ashtakam', Opening Day, Sahitya Akademi National Seminar Indian Women's Writing at the Turn of the Century, Feb 22
Printemps Poetry Reading, French Cultural Centre, 30 March 2001
Poetry Reading, Copenhagen University, 14 June, 2001
Poetry Reading, Golconda Fort, Hyderabad, 21 July, 2001