Dr. Mamatha Karollil
Assistant Professor
E-mail: mamatha[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in
Assistant Professor , School of Human Studies
Qualification
- Ph.D. (Social Sciences). Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, 2010.
- M.A. (Psychology). Bangalore University, 2003.
- B.A. (Psychology). Union Christian College (M.G. University), Kerala, 2001.
Projects
Courses Taught at AUD:
- Understanding Personality (School of Undergraduate Studies)
- Experiments in Psychology (School of Undergraduate Studies)
- Qualitative Research Methods (MA Psychology)
- Psychology as a Human Science (MA Psychology)
- Gender and Psychology (MA Psychology)
- Gender, Body and Subjectivity (MPhil Psychology)
My Zone / Area of Expertise
I’m broadly interested in research that looks at psychosocial dynamics – the manner in which subjectivity is implicated in social, cultural and political processes/structures. My earlier work straddled sociology and cultural psychology (youth sociology). My current interests focus on the psycho-politics of gender and sexuality (queer and heterosexual), especially through the analytical tools offered by psychoanalysis and discourse analysis.
Identity/ self, love and other intimacies, the everyday, the life-course and politics/activism across structural and everyday realms are abiding interests (for prospective research student). My theoretical anchoring is (currently) in queer theory, feminism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism and social constructionism.
Awards
- Commonwealth Split-site Doctoral Fellowship, 2007-2008.
- UGC Junior and Senior Research Doctoral Fellowship, 2004-2010.
- UGC National Eligibility Test for Lecturership, 2003.
- Third Rank Position, MA Psychology, Bangalore University, Karnataka, 2003.
- First Rank Position, BA Psychology, M.G. University, Kerala, 2001.
Publications
Peer-reviewed Publications:
Karollil, Mamatha. (2022). ‘Peripheral’ youth talk back: Work, the self and the ‘good life’ in India and the UK. Journal of education and work, 35(1), 50- 63.
Karollil, Mamatha & Bindu K.C. (2021). Paishachika streetvam Yakshi roopathil: Malayaladeshathu ninnum chila prathinidhaanangal. Paithruka Vimarsham. 3(1), 56-70.
- 2019. “From Separation to Dangerous Love”. In Banerjea, N. et al (Eds.). Lesbian Feminism: Essays Oppposing the Global Heteropatriarchy. London: Zed Books.
- 2019. “Critical Education and the Fostering of the Mad, Bad, Maladjusted Subject”. In Oberoi, H. (Ed). A Song Called Teaching: Ebbs and Flows of Experiential and Empathetic Pedagogies. New Delhi: Aakar Books.
- 2017. “Studying Youth Lives in Contemporary Times : A Multi-site, Multi-disciplinary Endeavour”. In Jayaram, N (Ed) Knowing the Social World: Challenges and Responses, New Delhi : Orient Blackswan.
- 2009. “Indian Youth in a Changing Society”. In Chandra, Sharma and Jain (Eds.), Childhood, Child Labour and Youth: Contested Boundaries, New Delhi: Manak Publications.
Text-Book Publications:
- 2012. “Sexuality and Gender”. In “Gender And Society”, New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University.
Popular Media Publications:
- “The Fraught Relations Between Care, Self- Care and Sexuality”( Issue in Focus). In Plainspeak: A Digital Magazine on Sexuality in the Global South. http://www.tarshi.net/inplainspeak/issue-in-focus-the-fraught-relations-between-care-self-care-and-sexuality/, February 3, 2017.
- “Reading off a Black Mirror: Shame, Distress, and (Sexual) Privacy Laws” In Plainspeak: A Digital Magazine on Sexuality in the Global South.
- http://www.tarshi.net/inplainspeak/reading-off-a-black-mirror-shame-distress-and-sexual-privacy-laws/, September 16, 2019.
Karollil, M. 2020. “Queer Heterosexual, Heterosexual Queer: Two Tales of Queer Love, A 100 Years Apart”, In Plainspeak: A Digital Magazine on Sexuality in the Global South, December 1, 2020.
https://www.tarshi.net/inplainspeak/queer-heterosexual-heterosexual-queer-two-tales-of-queer-love-100-years-apart/
Book Reviews:
- 2010. Review of “Indian Youth in a Transforming World”, By Peter. R. DeSouza, Sanjay Kumar and Sandeep Shastri (Eds.). Sociological Bulletin, 59 (2).
- 2008. Review of “Culture in Minds and Societies: Foundations of Cultural Psychology”, by Jaan Valsiner . Sociological Bulletin, 57(3).
Seminar / Conferences
Conferences/ Seminars/Workshops:
Karollil, Mamatha. (November, 2021). Invited lecture on "Mental Health" at 6th (Online) One Month Faculty Induction Programme from 20 October to 18 November, 2021, organised by the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Karollil, Mamatha. (October, 2021). Invited session on "Psychoanalytically Informed Qualitative Research" in the workshop on Advanced Qualitative Research Methods, organised by the National Academy of Psychology (NAOP), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (online).
2021 “What the Ghost Wants: A Story of Inter-generational Secret-keeping, Reckoning and Redemption in C. Ayyappan’s ‘Spectral Speech’”at Psychosocial Bodies, a conference of the Association of Psychosocial Bodies (organized online by Essex University, UK), 9th July 2021
2021 “Monstrous Femininity and Unconscious Male Ambivalence: An Examination of the Yakshi Lores” at Power, (In) Equality and Cultures of Resistance: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Humanities and Social Sciences, organized by Sharda University, Uttar Pradesh, 28-29th March, 2021 (Online)
2020 Invited lecture on “Grounded Theory” organized by the School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences for a Research Methodology course, October 6th 2020. (Online)
2020. Moderator at the talk “India Queer”, by Prof. Shivaji Panikker, organized by Ekalokam Trust for Photography, 23rd September 2020 (Online)
2020. “Power, Love/Desire and Gender: A Feminist Psychoanalytic Reading of Rituparno Ghosh's Chitrangada and Tagore's Chitra” at Preaching to the Choir 2020: An International LGBTQ+ Psychology & Related Social Sciences Conference, SOGII ( of Canadian Psychological Association), 15th-20th July 2020. (Online)
2020. “Digital (Sexual) Violence Against Women: A Psycho-Feminist Response”. Paper presented in the Violence and Constitutional Values panel of the IAWS XVI National Conference on Women’s Studies, National Law University, Delhi. 28th - 31st January, 2020.
- 2018.“The Yakshi as the Monstrous Feminine: Some Malayalam Representations.”, At Evil Women: Women and Evil, An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference, Vienna, Austria, 1-3rd December, 2018.
- 2018. Invited resource person on "Post-Positivist Epistemologies: Constructivism", at the ICSSR national workshop for MPhil and PhD scholars titled “Qualitative Research and Ethnography” at Ambedkar University Delhi, 22nd February,2018.
- 2017.Invited resource person for the project titled "An Exploratory Study of Discriminations Based on Non-normative Genders and Sexualities", at The Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, TISS, Mumbai. 14th-16th April 2017.
- 2017.Invited panelist, presented “The Psycho-politics of Suicide”, following the screening of the film Placebo (in the context of alienation and suicide in higher education) as a part of AUDFA Seminar Series, Ambedkar University Delhi, 7th April 2017.
- 2017. Invited respondent to papers on panel on gender and psychoanalysis, presented “Gender in Psycho-Social-Relational Perspective” in the Fifth International Psychoanalytic Conference, “Psychoanalytic Exploration of Darkness in Culture and Clinic”, New Delhi, 12-14 January.
- 2014. “Love Stories from India and the United Kingdom: Choice and the Transformation of Love”, At the Fourth Global Conference on Gender and Love at Oxford University, United Kingdom, by Interdisciplinary.net, 24th-26th September, 2014.
- 2013. Discussant for the paper “Developing grounded theory using Atlas TI: Analysis of qualitative data on entrepreneurs” by Anirban Sengupta, at Knowing the Social World: Challenges and Responses, a conference organized at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, 13th-15th March 2013.
- 2013. “Work and Love in Youth Narratives: A Global North-South Dialogue”, presented at the Youth Research Center, Melbourne University, Melbourne, 20th June 2013.
- 2013. “Studying Youth Across ‘Tradition’ and ‘Moderntiy’ : A Multi-site, Multi-disciplinary Endeavour” at the Seminar on ‘Knowing the Social World: Challenges and Responses’ held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 13th-15th March, 2013.
- 2012. “Love in the Times of Choice: A Critique”. Presented at the 40st World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology, New Delhi, India, 16th-19th February, 2012.
- 2011. “The Slave/ Submissive and the Master Within Them: Autonomy, Consent and the Feminist Discourse”. Presented at the 13th National Conference of the Indian Association of Womens Studies , Wardha, India, 21st-24th January, 2011.
- 2011. Resource person, lecture on “Philosophy of Social Science Research” the national level Social Science Research Methods Festival for Ph.D scholars at Ambedkar University Delhi, Dec 11-31st, 2011.
- 2010. “The Social Construction of ‘Love’ & ‘Work’ Amongst Youth Across India and the United Kingdom”, at Faculty Seminar Series, AUD, August 20th 2010.
- 2008.“A qualitative study of youth values in India and the U.K.: A Critique of Individualism/Collectivism”. Presented at the 19th International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), Bremen, Germany.
- 2008 - “A Qualitative Study of Youth Values in the India and the U.K.: Exploring ‘Choice’ and Well-Being” Presented at the 1st International Congress of Social Sciences (ICSS), organized by Social Sciences Research Society (SoSReS), Izmir, Turkey.