By P.T. Bopanna
Dr. Sowmya Dechamma , Associate Professor at the Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad has been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for the year 2019-2020.
She will be hosted by the Department of Comparative Literature, Queens College, The City University of New York where she will teach a course on “Modern Indian Literary Cultures” and work on her research project “Understanding the Modern: Of Oralities and Languages”.
Dr Dechamma anchored the book ‘Are Kodavas (Coorgs) Hindus?’ by journalist P.T. Bopanna, and contributed her research findings on the death rituals of the Kodavas.
Apart from teaching Comparative Indian Literature and Cultural Discourses in Contemporary India, Chotteyandamada Sowmya Dechamma’s research interests include, Minority Discourse and Kodava Language and Culture.
Prior to teaching in the University of Hyderabad, she taught English in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has visited the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Visiting Scholar during Feb-June 2005. She was a Commonwealth Fellow at the University of Southampton during September 2010 – February 2011 and was awarded the Indo-Hungarian Education Exchange Programme for teachers during 2010. She has co-edited a book titled Cinemas of South India: Culture, Ideology, Resistance, published by Oxford University Press and has published articles in various journals.
What a coincidence that the Twin Cities (Hyderabad-Secunderabad) happen to be the venue for dedicated researchers in their respective fields to obtain global recognition.
Earlier, it was Dr. K.T. Achaiah, the famed food and edible oils technologist who was associated with the NIN at Hyderabad…
In fact, the immense research work done by Dr. Achaiah has remained either unknown or less-known. Indeed, he was full of wit and wisdom and I happened to have met him at two seminars in Bombay where he delivered highly informative lectures for the commoners like me and presented highly appreciated technical papers.
Readers may kindly correct and supplement my views…..