Summary
I have been lecturing in Sociology at Sheffield Hallam University since 2015. Prior to this, I taught Sociology & Cultural Studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in India.
My academic background is interdisciplinary and located across Sociology, Cultural Studies and Queer-Decolonial Feminisms. My doctoral thesis examined the construction of Political Identities and Solidarities with a particular focus on coloniality, embodiment and love.
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About
My academic and professional experiences draw both from India and the UK, and these varied experiences of learning influence my research and teaching approaches.
Before I began a career in teaching, I worked as a researcher in the non-profit sector in India, mostly in the areas of gender and sexuality, and well as education among various rural, and small-town communities in Southern India.
My research is broadly in the areas of Queer-Decolonial Feminism, and knowledge-praxis creation, with a focus on race, gender, and sexuality. My enduring hope is to create radical, compassionate spaces of conversation and action, along with decolonised, non- hierarchical, and open knowledges. Feel free to write to me if you'd like any more information, or a chat!
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Teaching
Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics
Social Sciences and Arts
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics
Social Sciences and HumanitiesI teach and lead on modules focussing on Social Identities and Social/Critical Theory both at Undergraduate, and Postgraduate levels.
Currently, I teach and lead on modules including Power, Sex, and the Body; Identity, Inequality, and Intersectionality, Theorising Modernities, Understanding Human Rights: Disrupting Universalism, as well as Discourse and Linguistic Theory and Analysis which is part of the MRes programme in Sociology.
I am currently leading a departmental project which is part of a University-wide initiative to decolonise the curriculum, as well as address the attainment gap and other structural factors that specifically disadvantage students from "BAME" identified backgrounds.
I am also interested in devising courses that focus on decolonised understandings of Sociology, and Social Theory, as well as courses on Embodiment, Emotions and Desire.
Sociology
BA (Hons) Sociology
- Undergraduate Dissertations Module Leader
- Power, Sex, and the Body Module Leade
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Research
I am interested in the practices of collective flourishing amongst systemically marginalised communities across spectrums of geographies and identities.
I work on practices of love and spirituality and how people use them in the everyday politics of their lives, as well as in larger notions of community and belonging. Social and critical cultural theory are also long-standing areas of interest — specifically, the processes of decolonising theory, and decentring Euro-American epistemological foundations of social and cultural theory.
I enjoy collaborating across disciplines through my research and teaching, and much of my current work converses with literature, performance and media studies.
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Publications
Journal articles
Raghavan, A. (2019). Prayers to Kāli: practicing radical numinosity. Third world thematics: A TWQ journal. http://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2019.1622442
Book chapters
Raghavan, A. (2020). Inter(r)uptions: Reimagining Dialogue, Justice, and Healing. In Transdisciplinary Feminist Research: Innovations in Theory, Method and Practice. Routledge
Prasad, P., & Raghavan, A. (2020). Dark Looks: Sensory Contours of Racism in India. In Eguchi, S., Calafell, B., & Abdi, S. (Eds.) De-Whitening Intersectionality: Race, Intercultural Communication, and Politics. Lexington books: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498588225/De-Whitening-Intersectionality-Race-Intercultural-Communication-and-Politics
Raghavan, A., & Tripathy, J. (2017). Corporealising cosmopolitanism : the “right” of desire. In Giri, A.K. (Ed.) Beyond Cosmopolitanism : Towards Planetary Transformations. (pp. 233-256). Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5376-4_13
Raghavan, A. (2014). The Fragmented Minor : Tamil Identity and the Politics of Authenticity. In Tripathy, J., & Padmanabhan, S. (Eds.) Becoming Minority: How Discourses and Policies Produce Minorities in Europe and India. Sage: http://sk.sagepub.com/books/becoming-minority
Books
Raghavan, A. (2017). Towards corporeal cosmopolitanism : performing decolonial solidarities. Rowman and Littlefield International. http://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/towards_corporeal_cosmopolitanism/3-156-66ffe094-b4fc-4d4a-8dcf-3c87e7defacf
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Postgraduate supervision
I am currently co-supervising a doctoral project in the Department of Computing. I also supervise Masters' Dissertations as part of the MRes programme.