BURSAR

DR. RENISH GEEVARGHESE ABRAHAM

Designation: Assistant Professor, Department of English

Residential Address:

B-2, Staff Quarters,
St. Stephen’s College
Delhi University Enclave,
Delhi-110007.

Email: bursaroffice@ststephens.edu, bursar@ststephens.edu

Tel.: 011-27662168 / 011-27667200

Qualification

PhD (English Studies): University of Delhi, Delhi.
MA (English Literature): Department of English, University of Delhi, Delhi.
BA (English Language and Literature): Catholicate College, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala.

Topic of Doctoral Thesis: Missionary Literature and Community Formation in Nineteenth-Century Kerala

Teaching Experience: 10 Years.

Awards and Recognitions

Visiting Lectureship at Soka University, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan in 2018.
Westcott-Teape Lectureship at the University of Cambridge in 2017.
Received Research Assistantship from the University of Delhi (Under UTA Scheme) from April 2011 to July 2012.
Treasurer (Ex-officio), St. Stephen’s College Alumni Association since October 2017.
Joint Secretary and Treasurer (Honorary), All India Association for Christian Higher Education (AIACHE) since May 2018.
Treasurer (Honorary), Maximizing Employment to Serve the Handicapped (MESH), an
Indian Organization practicing Fair Trade since January 2019.

Areas of Interest

Missiology, Missionary Literature, and the History of Christianity in the East.
Renaissance and Eighteenth Century Literature.
Critical theory and Cultural Studies.
Indian Literature and Culture.

Courses Taught

Modern Literature: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers and Virginia Woolf’s Dalloway and T. S. Eliot’s Poetry
Eighteenth-Century Poetry: Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Laurence Sterne and Thomas Gray
Seventeenth-Century Literature: Shakespeare’s Macbeth, John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and John Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe
British Poetry and Drama (14-17 Century): Chaucer, Spenser, Donne, Shakespeare and Marlowe
Literary Theory: Post-structuralism, Post-colonialism, Feminism, and New Historicism
Language and Linguistics: The Structure of Language, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics.
Indian Classical Literature: The Mahabharata, Cilappatikaram, Abhijnana Shakuntalam and Mrichkatika
European Classical Literature: Homer, Sophocles, Ovid, Horace and Plautus
Tutored Twentieth-Century Novel paper (Joyce, Kafka, Marquez) to Postgraduate students.

Publications

Book Review. Psalmic Odes from Apostolic Times: An Indian Monk’s Meditation.Francis Acharya. Ed. Bernard Kilroy. Vidyajyoti Journal of Theologiocal Reflections 83.9 (Delhi: ISPCK, 2019). (ISSN: 0970-1079).
“Modernity and Islamic Self: A Study of Maulana Mohamed Ali’s Autobiography My Life: A Fragment” in Studies in Multicultural Literature. T Sai Chandra Mauli (Jaipur: Aavishkar, 2013), 242-254. (ISBN:978-81-7910-408-8).
“The Problems of Rendering Classical Urdu Ghazals into English…” in Versos and Rectos. Ed. Lata Marina Varghese. Pathanamtitta: Catholicate College,2011, 72-90. (ISBN: 978-81-921377-0-4).
Preface to an Autobiography. The Mission. Jogen Khan. (Shyamnagar: Bibliofili, 2011)
(ISBN: 978-81-921701-4-5).
Book Review. Spirituality of People’s Movements: A Christian Search in the Indian Context. Poulose Mangai. Vidyajyoti Journal of Theologiocal Reflections 76.12 (Delhi: ISPCK, 2012). (ISSN: 0970-1079).

Conference Participation

Chair

A Session titled “Who are we Kidding? The Indian Child as Audience” in a Conference on No Child’s Play: Literatures and/for Childhoods in Contemporary India organized by the Department of English, Lady Sri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, on 16 March 2018.
The plenary session of a workshop on Rethinking the Relevance of Religion in the Modern World organized by St. Stephen’s College in association with Delhi Brotherhood Society on 13 and 14 March 2017.
Chaired and delivered the Opening remarks of the 3rd St. Stephen’s College public lecture on Science and Religion by Prof. Ross H Mackenzie, organized on 25 October 2016.
A Session in a UGC-sponsored National Conference on Versos and Rectos: Translation and Re-creation Across Borders and Cultures organized by the Post Graduate Department of English, Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Kerala on 15 and 16 July 2010.

Presentation

Presented a paper titled “Parumala Thirumeni’s Urshlem Yatra Vivaranam: An Analysis” in a workshop on Travelogues in Indian Literature organized by the Department of English, University of Delhi on 5 and 6 December 2016.
A Paper titled “Modernity and Islamic Self: A Study of Maulana Mohamed Ali’s Autobiography My Life: A Fragment” in a UGC, British Council, and Orient Blackswan—sponsored International Conference on Islam and English in India: Cultural, Literary, Pedagogic, Historical, Political and Philosophical Encounters organized by the Department of English, Hyderabad Central University, Hyderabad on 6, 7 and 8 September 2011.
A Paper titled “Domestic Ideology and the Treatment of Sexuality in the Victorian Novel: A Study of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton” in a UGC-sponsored National Seminar on Women’s Voices: A critical Investigation organized by the Department of English and Research Centre, Govt. Brennen College, Thalassery, Kerala on 12 and 13 August 2010.
A Paper titled “The Problem of Translating Urdu Ghazals into English and their Postcolonial Redefinition” in a UGC-sponsored National Conference on Versos and Rectos: Translation and Re-creation Across Borders and Cultures organized by the Post Graduate Department of English, Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Kerala on 15and 16 July 2010.
A Paper titled “Revisiting Khasi Literature and Culture in the Modern Context” in a UGC-sponsored National Conference on the Linguistic, Cultural and Artistic Heritage of the Tribal People of India organized by the Department of English, St. Dominic’s College, Kanjirapally, Kerala on 4 and 5 February 2010.

Special Lectures

International

Delivered a Lecture on “Tagore and Japan” on 16 October 2018 at Keio University, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), inaugurating an academic collaboration between St. Stephen’s College and Keio University, Japan.
Delivered the following lectures at Soka University, Tokyo, Japan as Visiting Lecturer from 05 to 24 October 2018:
- The Impact of Ancient Sanskrit Classics on Goethe and the German Orientalists in the NineteenthCentury.
- The Economic Fundamentals of British Imperialism in India.
- Learning English and Indian Philosophy at St. Stephen’s College.
- Strategies and Conventions of Academic Writing.
- Tropes, Themes and Motifs in Fantasy Literature in the West.
Delivered three public lectures on the topic “Negotiating Hinduism and Christianity in the History of Kerala” on 25, 26, and 27 October 2017 as Westcott-Teape Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.

National/State/Regional

Conducted a Curriculum Enrichment Programme at the Department of English, Union Christian College, Shillong Meghalaya from 21-23 September 2015.
A Special Lecture on the methodology of Literature at Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Kerala on 29 December 2014.
An inaugural lecture for the English Association on English Studies and Critical Theory at SPM College for Women, Delhi University in September 2012.
Coordinated a three weeks course on “An Introduction to Indian Culture” for Japanese students from Soka University, Japan in February-March since 2014 for a period of six years
Coordinated a 14 days course on “Entrepreneurship and Social Transformation in India” for Japanese students from Keio University in February-March 2019.

On-going Projects

Malayalam Travelogue Translation (Colonial Period) Project under the Centre for Academic Translation and Archiving, Department of English, University of Delhi.

Administrative Experience

Statutory

Bursar, Stephen’s College, (11 January 2016 to Present)
Public Information Officer, St. Stephen’s College, (27 July 2019 to Present)
Member, College Governing Body (Ex-officio) (11 January 2016 to Present)
Member Secretary, College Finance Committee (11 January 2016 to Present)
Coordinator, College Building Committee, (11 January 2016 to Present)
Convener, Grievance Redressal Cell, St. Stephen’s College (1 April 2016 to Present)
Member, Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) (11 January 2016 to Present)
Nodal Officer, National Scholarship Portal (25 September 2019 to Present)
Nodal Officer, J&K Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (2018 to Present)
Convener, College Purchase Committee (11 January 2016 to Present)

External

Peer Team Member, Academic and Administrative Audit organized by Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous), Bangalore on 29 and 30 August 2019.
Member, Governing Body, Baring Union Christian College and Baring Union Christian College Association (BUCCA), Batala, Punjab since February 2020.

Internal/Non-Statutory

Head, Department of English (09 January to 30 April 2017)
Chairperson, College Café (11 January 2016 to Present)
Coordinator, Centre for Languages, St. Stephen’s College (1 May 2014 to Present)
Coordinator, Soka University-St. Stephen’s College Academic Partnership Programme (2013-Present)
Coordinator, Keio University-St. Stephen’s College Academic Partnership Programme (2018-Present)
Convener, Research Project Monitoring Committee (11 January 2016 to Present)
Convener, College Bursary Committee (11 January 2016 to Present)
Convener, Science Facilities Committee (11 January 2016 to Present)
Associate Dean (Residence), (March 2015 to January 2016)
Resident Tutor, Mukarji West Block, (1 July 2014 to 30 April 2015)

Training Programmes

Completed a 28 Days Orientation Programme in the Human Resources Development Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, from 19 July to 16 August 2016.
Completed the Palladium Kaplan Norton Balanced Scorecard Certification course from 11 to 22 May 2020.
Completed a two weeks Refresher Course in English Language and Literature at the Human Resources Development Centre, University of Mumbai from 05 to 17 October 2020.
Completed a two weeks Refresher Course in English Language and Literature at the Human Resources Development Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia from 26 November to 10 December 2020.

Extracurricular Activities

Appointed President & Staff Adviser, Social Service League, St. Stephen’s College (24 July 2013 to Present).
Appointed Staff Adviser, Malayalam Literary Society, St. Stephen’s College (24 July 2013 to Present).
Appointed Staff Advisor, BA Programme Society, St. Stephen’s College from 1 September 2012 to 22 May 2013.

Languages Known

Malayalam, English, German, Syriac