Steering Committee Member, IWWAGE
Bishnu Mohapatra is a political scientist, poet, educator and commentator whose work spans society, governance, public policy and culture. He has taught politics for more than 25 years at the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Azim Premji University. He has also held visiting appointments at institutions including the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris, the National University of Singapore, the University of Kyoto, Japan, and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, and has lectured at universities across Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
From 2002 to 2010, he headed the governance portfolio of the Ford Foundation’s South Asia office in New Delhi. His research and publications span identity politics, democracy, minority rights, urban politics, civil society and social capital. He is currently researching cities and their multiple imaginings in history and initiating a collective research project exploring the conceptual universe embedded in India’s Bhasa literature.
He is also a well-known Indian poet. He has authored four books of poetry and translated two volumes of Pablo Neruda’s poetry into Odia. A volume of his poetry in English translation, A Fragile World, was published in 2005. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi, an MPhil in Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford.