TRUSTEES

Dr. Mugdha Karnik
Managing Trustee

Dr. Mugdha Karnik is a sociologist and an educationist with a special interest in science education, Archaeology, Nature and literature. She was the Director of the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies in the University of Mumbai for 27 years. She is particularly active in the field of Conservation and Awareness projects. She has edited a coffee-table book on Trees of Mumbai, titled ‘Sentrees of Mumbai’. She also co-edited and published a Marathi book on ‘Science through the Millennium’ at the advent of the third millennium. Mugdha has 35 years of experience in reaching out to people of various backgrounds and engage them in educational enrichment. While working as the Director of Extra-Mural Studies, she has designed and developed over 40 courses in variety of subjects for educational outreach programmes for rural and urban audiences.

A very active rationalist, Mugdha Karnik writes on various relevant issues in print and electronic media. She has translated Ayn Rand’s path-breaking novels ‘The Fountainhead’ and ‘Atlas Shrugged’ into the Marathi language, along with the famous ‘Tales from Urals- Malachite Casket’ by Pavel Bazhov. She has also translated J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’; ‘God Delusion’ by Prof Richard Dawkins. She has also translated ‘I Am a Troll’ by Swati Chaturvedi, ‘Shadow Armies- Foot soldiers of Hindutva’ by Dhirendra K Jha, Reunion by Fred Uhlman, On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. Her doctorate is in Translation Studies.

Prof. (Dr.) Sridhar Rajeswaran
Prof. (Dr.) Sridhar Rajeswaran is a Visiting Professor of Humanities at the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, University of Mumbai and Department of Atomic Energy. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the CoHaB IDE Constructions of Home and Belonging Indian Diaspora Centre, University of Mumbai. He is Global Faculty at the Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ, USA. He has studied at the Universities of Madras and Bombay. His doctoral work dealt with postcolonial perspectives on the poetry of W.B. Yeats His postdoctoral areas of research are Modernist Poetry, Modern Indian Drama, Postcolonial Studies and Studies of the Indian Diaspora in Literature and films.

Prof. (Dr.) Nilufer E. Bharucha
Prof. (Dr.) Nilufer E. Bharucha, is Director of the Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging-Indian Diaspora Centre Visiting Professor of Humanities, Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences and Former Senior Professor and Chair, Department of English, all at the University of Mumbai Professor Bharucha is Faculty Associate Emeritus, South Asian Studies Institute, University of the Fraser Valley, B.C., Canada and Global Faculty, Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ, USA. She has served on the jury of the Commonwealth Literature award and the Sahitya Akademi, Delhi Literature award in English. She has also been on the jury for the Rhodes scholarship She has authored and edited & books in the areas of Postcolonial Indian Writing, Diasporic Indian Literature & Cinema and the Writing of the Parsis. One of her recent books is entitled Indian Diasporic Literature and Cinema. She is co-editor of the CoHaB IDC’s Diaspora Studies Series She has contributed 3 modules on Indian Diasporic Literature and Cinema to the University Grants Commission’s online Postgraduate E-pathshala.

Mr. Dhananjay Karnik
Dhananjay Karnik an Ecologist by training and journalist by profession, has worked in the field of Political journalism in print media for twenty years, and has written extensively on current socio-political issues. He was one of the few straightforward and hard-hitting journalists when in print media. He has spent three years of his youth working with the Warli tribals whilst working on his research in Ecosystem study of the village of Aswali in Maharashtra.