AT A GLANCE
Saroja Ganapathy, PhD
Area of Practice:
OVERVIEW
I have been an educator for over two decades, with stints in a variety of higher education institutes. As a graduate in language and literature who thinks through music but is committed to engaging with the tangible and the actionable, I forayed into design first as a writer and stayed on for the eclectic nature of the discipline that helps me learn, collaborate and embrace diversity. I have worked on research projects, course design and teaching assignments in communication and writing, postcolonial literatures, Indian aesthetics and performing arts, teacher education and design education.
EDUCATION
PhD (literature and music history), IIT Bombay / M.Phil. (English literature), University of Mumbai / M.A. (English), University of Mumbai / B.A. (English), University of Mumbai
WORK EXPERIENCE
• Faculty member, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, MAHE Bengaluru
• Faculty member and program lead, Indus Training and Research Institute, Bengaluru
• Assistant Professor of English, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore
• Research Associate, IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay
• Teaching Assistant, Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay
• Assistant Professor of English, Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai
INTEREST AREAS
1) Literary and musical traditions in India, including life narratives, socio-political histories, regional influences and conversations between literature and music.
My doctoral thesis was titled ‘Music Mediation and Literary imagination: Contemporary Narratives of Indian Classical Music’. The exploration was organized around ideas of tradition, classicism and pedagogy in Indian classical music and the experience of musical immersion. I have also carried out post-doctoral work in Kerala on musicians and music reform in Travancore from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.
2) Education and learning design, particularly related to writing, language learning, project-based learning, philosophy of education, and teaching-learning practices in the humanities and performing arts.
I was the principal investigator on a British Council-funded project on ‘Localizing technology-enabled blended learning’ that focused on practices in English Language Teaching in Indian tertiary education. More recently, I presented a reflective paper at the conference ‘Futuring Design Education’ at IIT Delhi on facilitating courses in appreciation of Indian classical music for students of art and design.
CURRENT PRACTICE AT SRISHTI
I teach courses related to critical thinking and writing, literature, music appreciation and learning/education. I also mentor pre-thesis/thesis projects and research projects. I am currently a co-PI on a research project on translation in colonial India supported by the MHRD’s SPARC grant. As part of SMI’s Writing Centre, I am also engaged in the creation of self-learning materials with a focus on art and design.
TEACHING PORTFOLIO
Student work from three recent teaching spaces
1. Ideations for supporting special educators, HCD pre-thesis project by Ranveer
2. Abstract of an award-winning paper co-authored with Adwait, drawn on HCD pre-thesis project
3. ‘Bandish’ book, a creative output inspired by classical music, by Saie Gokhale
4. 3D shapes inspired by ragas, by Gauri Subbaramu
5. A cyborg story by Aabha Bhide from the course ‘Humans and human-made others’
CREATIVE PRACTICE & OUTREACH
I work in the areas of writing, training, mentoring and assessment, classical music, learning design and cultural research. I have worked as a learning designer for platforms like the Open Design School and Milap (performing arts) and conducted teacher development workshops in association with institutions engaged in training and education.
