This is pre-publication preview introduces the major questions, methods, and insights of my book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species (UC Press, 2023).

In this essay, I argue that the temporal figure of latency is central for an understanding of the material temporalities of media. Latency as a tempo- ral figure is built into the material functioning of sound reproduction and audiovisual media. The discussion shows how latency underpins techni- cal processes of storing and reproducing sounds and…[Read more]

“Every culture develops some kind of art as surely as it develops language. Some primitive cultures have no real mythology or religion, but all have some art – dance, song, design (sometimes only on tools or on the human body). Dance, above all, seems to be the oldest elaborated art….. Art is, indeed, the spearhead of human development, social…[Read more]

“The company builds cars and destroys men” was the promotional tagline of one of the posters for “Blue Collar” (1978). Shot in Detroit and Kalamazoo, Michigan, the film stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto playing three Detroit auto workers in financial despair who break into and rob the offices of their own union. “Blue Collar”…[Read more]

भारत में फासीवादी नीतियों का नौकरीपेशा मध्यम वर्ग प्रतिरोध नहीं कर रहा। हालांकि, प्रतिरोध की अधिक जिम्मेवारी उन प्राध्यापकों पर है, जो स्वयं को बुद्धिजीवी कहते हैं और जिन्हें लिखने और बोलने के लिए किंचित अधिक नैतिक और कानूनी सुविधा प्राप्त है।

सच यह है कि इनमें से अधिकांश भय से अधिक लोभ के कारण चुप हैं और चुपचाप निजाम बदलने का इंतजार कर रहे हैं…[Read more]

This is a review essay, originally contributed to a blog symposium, responding to the publication of Philip G. Ziegler’s book entitled Militant Grace: The Apocalyptic Turn and the Future of Christian Theology.

1. Gergen argues that situations which human beings didn’t understand or deal with appropriately would inflict painful lessons – providing a conditioning or predisposition for learning. “In the Darwinian sense, the ability to conceptualize has survival value. To be more specific, concepts are valuable tools in problem solving.” (p.23) “In ess…[Read more]

There is no doubt whatsoever that emotions are very important and highly significant in the processing of data and information, as well as in the day-to day functioning of the human being. Eric Klinger, whose expertise is in personality psychology and motivation theory, focuses on the influences of motivation and emotion on cognition. Klinger…[Read more]

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when a new style of Persian poetry was developing in the Persianate world, several erudite literary critics appeared in India, whose meticulous critiques of Persian poetry was unprecedented in the long history of Persian literature. A close study of the works produced by these critics reveals their vast…[Read more]

The theory of language that underlies Plotinus’ Enneads is considered in relation to his broader metaphysical vision. For Plotinus, language is neither univocal nor equivocal, but is something in-between, incapable of precisely describing reality, but nonetheless not completely useless. Propositional knowledge expressed discursively represents a…[Read more]

इस आलेख में मैंने देखने की कोशिश कि कोविड की रोकथाम के लिए उठाए गए अतिरेकपूर्ण कदमों के कारण दुनिया में क्या स्थितियाँ उत्पन्न होने वाली हैं। विशेष तौर पर सामाजिक वंचना झेल रहे मानव-समुदायों पर इसका क्या प्रभाव पड़ने वाला है। आलेख में भारत के उन शोषित समुदायों को केंद्र में रखा गया है, जो भारतीय आबादी का बहुसंख्यक हिस्सा हैं। इस बहुसंख्या में…[Read more]

हिंदी कथाकार राजकुमार राकेश और प्रमोद रंजन की यह लंबी बातचीत शिमला में जनवरी, 2003 में हुई थी, जिसे वर्ष 2007 में पटना के मंडल विचार प्रकाशन ने एक पुस्तिका के रूप में प्रकाशित किया था। इस बातचीत में जादूई यथार्थवाद, मार्क्सवाद, दलित विमर्श तथा लेखक और सत्ता के बीच संबंध जैसे मुद्दे प्रमुखता से आए हैं।

पटना से जाबिर हुसेन के संपादन में प्रकाश…[Read more]

Analysis of the communal violence that took place on September 14, 2011 in Gopalgarh town of Rajasthan

पत्रकारिता में बहुत कुछ बदला है। कारोबार के आकार से लेकर टेक्नोलॉजी तक में बुनियादी बदलाव हो चुके हैं। लेकिन पत्रकारिता में एक चीज है जो समय के फ्रेम में लगभग फ्रीज सी हो गई है। यह ठहराव पत्रकारिता में जातिवाद के संदर्भ में है। पत्रकारिता में वंचित समूहों की हिस्सेदारी पहले बिल्कुल नहीं थी और अब भी हालात बदले नहीं हैं। प्रमोद रंजन का यह आलेख…[Read more]

Angels, as mythical beings, appear and disappear suddenly throughout Biblical Texts, without any clear explanation of their origins or metaphysical ranks. Whether they are considered circumstantial theophanies or entities with granted self-existence and specific divine functions; such metaphysical entities have a vital presence in the religious…[Read more]

In August 2019, Prof Avijit Pathak and Prof Apoorvanand have written two poignant pieces on the government-sponsored maligning of JNU and the fall of the university, published in The Wire and the Indian Express, respectively. Taking the discourse forward, Forward Press managing editor Pramod Ranjan emphasizes the need for those fighting to save…[Read more]

The literary text is born with its criticism methodology and its criticizer. The creator
stretches his hands out to the reader/criticizer to take their first step towards the text
and remove any ambiguity, symbolism, or metaphors that may be present.
He extends bridges between him and the society that produced the text, or bluff to
find the…[Read more]

This paper offers an articulation of a teaching methodology that I call Gamemaking in Education (GME). This educational approach emphasizes student gamemaking rather than gameplay. In this paper, I discuss what GME is, review some cases in which other educators have used what might be called GME in college classrooms, and situate GME as an…[Read more]

This working paper presents a full and annotated translation of two titles by 19th-century Ottoman author-cum-statesman Ziya Pasha: (1) a newspaper article written in exile, modern in terms of format and reformist in terms of tenor and providing an staunch and iconoclastic critique of Ottoman language and literature, and (2) the versified preface…[Read more]