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Name: Samarth Singhal
Designation: Assistant Professor
Contact: ssinghal@english.du.ac.in
Availability: Please write to me at the email address above for an appointment.
Education
2024 PhD, Department of English, University of California, Riverside (UCR). 2017 M Phil, English, Department of English, University of Delhi, First Division. 2014 MA, English, Hindu College, University of Delhi, First Division.
2012 BA(H), English, Hindu College, University of Delhi, First Division.
Research Interests- Tribal Art and Literature, Visual Studies, Speculative Fiction Studies, Children’s Fiction Studies, Contemporary South Asian Literature
Short Biography
My PhD at the Department of English, University of California, Riverside (2019-24) discusses the collaboration between Pardhan Gond Adivasi artists and Tara Books via the medium of the contemporary Anglophone picturebook. I argue that the contemporary Pardhan artist turns a boutique object like the Tara-published Anglophone picturebook into a site for Adivasi assertion. I am currently working on a monograph exploring Adivasi art in contemporary India. My next project will tentatively discuss art, practice, and iconography of Goddess worship in North India. I have been Assistant Professor of English at Maitreyi College (2015-16) and Kamala Nehru College (2016-19), University of Delhi, as well as a Primary Instructor at University of California, Riverside. At the University of Delhi, I hope to mentor students interested in Decoloniality, Indigeneity, Art, Media, Speculative Fiction, and Children’s Fiction Studies.
Journal Articles
“Bhajju Shyam’s Creation: Adivasi Art in the Anglophone Picturebook”. Muse India 122 (July-Aug 2025). https://museindia.com/Home/ViewContentData?arttype=feature&issid=122&menuid=11658. ISSN: 0975-1815.
“From Painting to Picturebook: Bhajju Shyam’s Insider Indigenous Art”. IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities 11.2 (2024). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.11.2.07.
“Stand Up: The Comic Public Sphere in India”. The International Journal of Communication 17 (2023): https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc#more1, vol. 17. ISSN: 1932-8036.
“Nightmare in Paint and Print: A Ramachandran’s Paintings and O V Vijayan’s Fiction” Jadavpur Journal of Comparative Literature 53 (2016): 25-50. Print. ISSN: 0448-1143.
“Drawing (on) Politics: Aubrey Collette in Sri Lanka” Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design 6.2 (2016): www.chitrolekha.com/V6/n2/05_Aubrey_Collette.pdf. ISSN: 2231-4822.
Chapters in Edited Books
“Genres from the Orient: Instability in Shweta Taneja’s Cult of Chaos”. Horror Fiction in the Global South: Cultures, Narratives and Representations, edited by Ritwick Bhattacharjee and Saikat Ghosh, Bloombury, 2021: 80-90 pp. ISBN: 9789390077366.
“Tilted Views and C Sailo: A Study of Satire in Contemporary Indie Comics”. Materiality and Visuality in North East India: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Tiplut Nongbri and Rashi Bhargava, Springer, 2021, 169-181 pp. ISBN: 9789811619694.
“Limits to Popularity: Adapting to Bhupen Khakhar’s Artwork”. Trajectories of Popular Expression: Forms, Histories, Context, edited by Navneet Sethi and Ananya Saha, Aakar Books, 2019. ISBN: 9789350025758.
Books
Co-edited with Amrita Ajay. South Asian Ways of Seeing: Contemporary Visual Cultures. Primus Books, 2022. ISBN: 978-93-90737-38-3.
Book Reviews
Review of Indian Science Fiction: Patterns, History, and Hybridity. The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. Vol. 32, no. 3. 2021. 449-453 pp. ISSN: 0897-0521.
Review of Political Communication and Mobilisation: The Hindi Media in India. “Taberez Neyazi’s Book Traces Hindi Media’s Journey from an Also-ran to a Potent Force”. The Print, theprint.in/pageturner/book bites/taberez-neyazis-book-traces-hindi-medias-journey-from-an-also-ran-to-a-potent-force/109962/. Accessed 21 Nov 2021.
Review of Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper. “James Augustus Hicky’s Story Thoughtfully Excavates India’s First Newspaper”. The Print, theprint.in/pageturner/book bites/james-augustus-hickys-story-thoughtfully-excavates-asias-first-printed-newspaper/79401/. Accessed 21 Nov 2021.
Teaching Experience
2025- Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Delhi 2024-2025 Guest Faculty, Indraprastha University, New Delhi
2019-2024 Primary Instructor, University of California, Riverside
2016-2019 Assistant Professor, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi 2015-2016 Assistant Professor, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi
Awards and Honours
Outstanding Teacher Award, UCR, 2023-24
UC Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Graduate Student Dissertation Support 2023-24 UCR Dissertation Year Program (DYP) Fellowship 2023-24
Writing the Cosmopolitan Imagination: Genre-transactions in World-Literary Space June 2019, University of Delhi and University of Potsdam
Learning Through Integrated Technology in University Pedagogy (LITUP) June 2016, University of Delhi and University of Glasgow
Curation Experience
Co Curated an exhibition of Shakespearean Painting at the India International Centre, New Delhi with Prof Sharmishtha Panja from 7-9 Dec 2017.
Conferences/Presentations/Invited Talks (Representative)
2025
Invited to present a guest lecture “Reading Adivasi Art in the Graphic Novel: Bhimayana and Agency” for faculty and students at Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, 17 Sept.
Awarded “Special Mention” for paper presentation at the conference “Decolonizing Tribal Studies: Life, Legacy, and Heritage of Birsa Munda 1875-1900”, Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, 29-30 July.
Led a One Day Workshop on Research Paper: Topic Development at Motilal Nehru College, University of Delhi, 9 April.
Led a Two-Day workshop on Research and Academic Writing at Mata Sundri College for Women, University of Delhi, 19 and 26 Feb.
2024
Invited to present a guest lecture “Tribal Art and Storytelling: Gond Painting from Madhya Pradesh” for faculty and students at College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi
“Redefining Visual Availability: Bhajju Shyam’s The London Jungle Book”, South Asian Literary Association (SALA)
2022
“Viewing Crime in the Contemporary Indian Anglophone Picturebook: Durgabai Vyam’s The Churki Burki Book of Rhyme”, Association for Children’s Literature in South Asia, University of Jadavpur, India “Adivasi Art and the Contemporary Picturebook: The Case of Bhajju Shyam’s Flight of the Mermaid”, International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA), Once and Future Fantasies, University of Glasgow, UK
Invited to present a guest lecture “Revisiting Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak” for Prof Padma Rangarajan’s Graduate seminar on Postcolonialism, UCR
2021
“Revising the Mermaid: Bhajju Shyam’s The Flight of the Mermaid” Endnotes, University of British Columbia, Canada
2019
“Visual Fantasy in South Asia: Swarna Chitrakar and Haroon”, Interrogating ‘South Asia’: Borders, Epistemology and Relationalities, UC Irvine, California
“Caricature from Concentration Camps: Exploring Visual Spaces” University of Potsdam, Germany Professional Affiliations
Science Fiction Research Association
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
Melus Melow
Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies
Modern Language Association
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