Journal Articles
4 articles“Construction of Hegemonic Femininity and Masculinity in Upper Primary School Textbooks: A Study on SCERT Textbooks of Classes 5 to 7”
Language and Language Teaching, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2023)
This study investigates the construction and reinforcement of hegemonic gender norms in Kerala’s SCERT textbooks for upper primary education (Classes 5 through 7). Through critical discourse analysis, the paper examines how ideologies of femininity and masculinity are embedded in pedagogical texts, arguing that school curricula serve as powerful sites for the reproduction of gendered social hierarchies.
“Inundating Cultural Diversity: A Critical Study of Oral Narratives of Kurichyas and Guarani in the Structuralist Perspective”
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol. 14, No. 3 (2022)
This paper examines Vladimir Propp’s structural framework applied to oral narratives from two indigenous communities: the Kurichyan tribe of Wayanad, Kerala, India, and the Guarani tribe of Paraguay. The researcher analyses Narippaattu (Wolf Song) and The Beginning Life of the Hummingbird respectively. The findings reveal significant limitations: six events from the first narrative and three from the second do not fit the Proppian framework, and those that do show inconsistent correspondence lacking linear progression. The author argues that applying universal narrative structures to culturally diverse oral traditions proves problematic, as it obscures the subtle, culturally-specific elements that give these narratives meaning. The study advocates for approaches that preserve the unique characteristics of different cultural storytelling traditions rather than forcing them into predetermined frameworks.
“Revisiting Propp: A Structuralist Analysis of Marmaaya Paattu of Kurichyan Tribe in Wayanad”
Roots International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches, Vol. 8, No. 4 (2022)
This paper conducts a structural analysis of the origin myth of Malakkari in the Tree Song (Marmaaya Paattu) tradition of the Kurichyan tribe of Wayanad, Kerala. Applying and critically evaluating Vladimir Propp’s morphological framework, the study demonstrates how Proppian functions manifest in — and must be adapted for — this indigenous ritual narrative form, contributing to ongoing debates on the universality and limitations of structuralist approaches in non-Western folk traditions.
“Spirits, Sanctions, and Cures: Ancestral Veneration and the Epistemology of Healing among the Kurichyas of Wayanad, Kerala, India”
Mortality, Taylor & Francis — Accepted, forthcoming
This paper examines ancestral veneration and indigenous healing epistemologies among the Kurichyan community of Wayanad, Kerala. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it analyses how spirit beliefs, ritual sanctions, and curative practices form an integrated system of knowledge that mediates relations between the living and the dead. The study situates Kurichyan healing practices within broader debates on indigenous epistemology and the anthropology of mortality.
Book Chapters
2 chapters“Death, Ritual, and Deification: Examining the Commemorative Procession of Kerala’s Iconic Politician, Oommen Chandy”
The Routledge Handbook of Dark Events: Celebrations, Heritage, and Customs of Death and the Macabre, ed. Brianna Wyatt, Hannah Stewart, and Philip Stone. Routledge — Under final review
This chapter examines the commemorative procession held following the death of Oommen Chandy, Kerala’s iconic political figure, analysing how rituals of public mourning, civic ceremony, and popular veneration intersect to transform a political leader into a deified cultural symbol. Drawing on performance studies and the anthropology of death, the chapter situates this contemporary event within Kerala’s longer traditions of mortuary ritual and political commemoration.
“The Urban Gestalt: Understanding Lefebvre’s Vision of City”
Interstices of Space and Memory, ed. Sreedevi Santhosh et al. Routledge, 2025, pp. 117–22
This chapter explores Henri Lefebvre’s conceptualisation of urban space, examining his tripartite framework of perceived, conceived, and lived space in relation to the production of urban meaning, memory, and social relations. The analysis engages with Lefebvre’s The Production of Space to understand how city space is simultaneously a physical reality, a mental construct, and a site of lived experience.
Working Papers
4 papers“When the Forest Crosses the Threshold: Tiger Attacks, Rumour, and Indigenous Memory in the Kurichyan Folksongs of Wayanad, Kerala, India”
Presented at the 42nd Perspectives on Contemporary Legend: Threats, Rumors and Legends in Contemporary Society, The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Stockholm, June 2025
This paper examines how Kurichyan folksongs from Wayanad encode oral memory of tiger attacks, weaving together ecological knowledge, rumour, and indigenous historical consciousness. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and narrative analysis, it argues that these songs function as living repositories of human-animal conflict memory, cultural anxiety, and indigenous ecological understanding — resisting reduction to either factual record or pure fiction.
“Restorying as Resistance: Narrative Flexibility and Cultural Negotiation in Kurichyan Folksongs of Wayanad, Kerala, India”
Presented at the 137th Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2025
This paper theorises narrative flexibility in Kurichyan folksongs as a form of cultural resistance, arguing that the polymorphous, non-linear character of these oral texts is not a structural limitation but a deliberate narrative strategy. Through close analysis of selected songs, the paper demonstrates how storytelling communities employ restorying — the active reshaping of inherited narratives — as a mechanism for cultural negotiation, identity assertion, and resistance to dominant historiographical frameworks.
“Unveiling Cultural Nuances: Integrating Ochs and Capps’ Linearity with Propp’s Framework in the Analysis of Kurichyan Folk Songs of Wayanad, Kerala, India”
Presented at the ISFNR 19th Congress, International Society for Folk Narrative Research, University of Latvia, Riga, June 2024
This paper proposes an integrated analytical framework for the study of Kurichyan folk songs, combining Vladimir Propp’s morphological functions with Elinor Ochs and Lisa Capps’ five dimensions of narrative — particularly their concept of linearity. The paper argues that while Propp’s framework provides a structural grammar for event sequencing, Ochs and Capps’ linearity dimension captures the non-sequential, experiential, and contextually embedded dimensions of indigenous oral performance, yielding a more culturally sensitive analytical lens.
“Fostering Sustainable Development through Soft Skills: A Holistic Approach Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model”
Presented at the 16th National IQAC Conference (I-Con) on Building Multidisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Capabilities in Higher Education, Kristu Jayanti College, Bengaluru, April 2024
This paper examines the role of soft skills in fostering sustainable human development, drawing on Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model as an organising framework. It argues that soft skills — communication, collaboration, adaptability, and critical thinking — are not individual competencies but ecologically embedded capacities that develop across nested social systems. The paper proposes a holistic pedagogical approach to soft skills education aligned with sustainable development goals.