• Faculty Coordinator, Centre for Memory Studies https://www.memorystudiesiitmadras.com
• Founding Co-Chairperson, Indian Network for Memory Studies https://www.indiannetworkformemorystudies.com

• Orcid Id 0000-0003-3997-8711
• Scopus Id 56656161000 https://iitm.irins.org/profile/69127

• Memory Studies

• Digital Humanities

• Anglo-Indian Studies

• Modernity and historiography Studies

• Historicizing Literature
• History of English Language and Literature
• Literary Criticism
• English Advanced Level
• World Literature
• Indian Fiction in English
• American Literature
• Feminist Writing
• Memory, History, Literature
• Literary History
• Introduction to Research

1. History of English Language and Literature
   https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109106124
   This is an AICTE approved FDP course for faculty promotions
2. Literary Criticism: From Plato to Leavis
   https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109106171
   2018 onwards
3. Indian Fiction in English
   https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109106135
   This is an AICTE approved FDP course
   2017 onwards
4. Postmodernism in Literature
   https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109106130
   This is an AICTE approved FDP course for faculty promotions
   2021 onwards
5. Twentieth Century American Drama
   https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/noc21_hs75/preview
   This is an AICTE approved FDP course
   2018 onwards
6. Introduction to World Literature
   https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/noc21_hs13/preview
   This is an AICTE approved FDP course for faculty promotions
   2023 (forthcoming)

2024

1. Keynote speaker, National Seminar on Intersecting Experiences: Depicting Migration and Refugees in Cinematic and Literary Narratives. Sacred Heart College for Women, Chalakudy. 5 January 2024
2. Resource person, FDP on Cornerstone Research in English Language and Literary Studies, Department of English, Loyola College, Chennai. 10 January 2024
3. Resource person, FDP on Futuristic Trends of Language Learning: Impact of AI on 21^st Century Learners. Department of English & Foreign Languages at Madanapalle Institute of Technology & Science (MITS). 23 January 2024
4. Keynote speaker, National Conference on “English Language Teaching and Literature in 21st Century, AMET University, Chennai. 24 January 2024
5. Resource person, E-short term course on Digital Humanities, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, NIT Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh. 29 January 2024
6. Chief Guest, 7^th Annual Day Celebration, A Time of Odyssey, MCC Public School, Chennai. 9 February 2024

2023

1. Plenary talk, Interdisciplinary research possibilities in memory studies and digital humanities, National Seminar on Current Literary Trends in English, Department of English, MES Asmabi College, Kerala. 19 December 2023
2. Plenary talk, Mnemonic mechanisms and food cultures, National Conference on Food and Culture: Transforming Perspectives and Paradigms, Department of Humanities, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum. 14 December 2023
3. Resource person, FDP session on Interdisciplinary Research Possibilities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Stella Maris College, Chennai. 8 September 2023
4. Invited speaker, G20 conference on Crime and Security in the Age of NFTs, AI, and Metaverse, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 13 July 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHK6xjUMIlE
5. invited participant in the post budget webinar ‘Developing Tourism on Mission Mode’ (3 March 2023), organised by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, co-led by Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
6. Plenary talk at the National Seminar on “Regional Modernities: Epistemological Interventions vis-à-vis Cultural Praxes” organized by Naipunnya Institute of Management and Information Technology on 27 February 2023
7. keynote address at the international conference “Narrativising contemporary conflicts and refugee experiences” organised by Jyoti Nivas College and Mar Ivanios College on 30 January 2023
8. lecture titled “What is Digital Humanities?” as part of the Exordium Lecture Series organized by Delhi College of Arts and Commerce. 18 January 2023

2022

1. Speaker, “Gender and the Digital Archive” on 15 November 2022 at the New Directions in Memory Studies: MemoryHub@ANU Symposium organized by The Australian National University.
2. a lecture on “Digital Humanities: Texts, Archives, and Memory” at the National Webinar on Digital Humanities organised by Fatima Mata National College, Quilon.7 November 2022
3. resource person for the webinar on “Digital Story Telling and Extended Reality” at IIIT Kottayam. 21 September 2022
4. Resource person, QIP for faculty members, Department of English and Cultural Studies, Christ University, Bangalore (3 August 2022)
5. Memory Studies workshop at the Department of English, University of Kashmir (18-20 July 2022)
6. Invited lecture, Research Possibilities in Memory studies. Lecture series on Path Makers: Women Innovators in Public Sphere. Department of Women’s Studies, University of Madras. 24 February 2022.

2021

1. Invited speaker, The Movement of Memory – On Dubliners” at the national symposium on James Joyce until Ulysses organised by the Centre for Literary Studies, St.Thomas College Kozhencherry. 30 October 2021
2. Invited speaker, Public Seminar, Fabulation and Forgetting in Literature and Memory Studies, Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute, University of St Andrews. 8 November 2021
3. Keynote session on The Future of Memory Studies in India at the International Virtual Conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Education Research and Language Teaching. Department of Languages and Communication, School of Foundational Sciences, Kumaraguru College of Technology. 26 August 2021
4. Invited speaker on Fiction, delayed decoding, and slow memory, Methodologies of Slow Memory, COST Action project, 15 July 2021
5. Resource person, Workshop on Curating Memory, organized by the University of Warwick and Fitzwilliam Museum. 9 March 2021.
6. Invited speaker, Representing Memory Project at Institute Of Advanced Study, Durham University, 2021.
7. “Memory, Metonymy, and Mimesis in a Digital World: The Convergence of Memory Studies and Digital Humanities” at the international symposium on “Aesthetics and Digital – Between Reading, Writing, and Interpretations” organized by Bharathiar University. 9 April 2021.
8. Resource person, Memory Studies in India. International Online Faculty Development Programme on Contemporary Theories: Challenges and Possibilities, Vasanta College for Women, Varanasi. 15 December 2021
9. Memory Studies workshop at Sophia College, University of Mumbai, 22-24 November 2021)
10. Resource person, online workshop on Memory Studies organized by the Central University of Tamil Nadu. 21 October 2021
11. Invited presenter, presenting on “Emergence, Convergence, and Digital Deterritorialization in Indian Higher Educational Memory Events Post-COVID 19”. Memory Studies Association Annual Conference Convergences (5-9 July 2021)
12. Resource person, session on Memory Studies Research, Teaching, and Technology at the Research Matters Series organised by the Research and International Programmes Centre, Stella Maris College. 24 June 2021.
13. Speaker, IRIS Webinar series conducted for the Prospective Centre for Excellence projects at IIT Madras. 10 August 2021
14. Resource person, Historiographical Traditions and Memory Narratives: Indian English Fiction of the 1950s-1960s”. Faculty Development Programme. Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi. (21-25 June 2021)
15. Invited speaker, “The Episteme and the Ontology of a Centre for Memory Studies”, lecture organized by Calcutta Comparatists 1919, 7 April 2021.
16. “Memory, Metonymy, and Mimesis in a Digital World: The Convergence of Memory Studies and Digital Humanities” at the international symposium on “Aesthetics and Digital – Between Reading, Writing, and Interpretations” organized by Bharathiar University. 9 April 2021
17. Keynote speaker, National Seminar on Narratives of Freedom Struggle in South Asian Literatures, MES College. 17 February 2021.
18. Invited speaker, “Gender, Memory & Digital Narratives in Shelley Jackson s Patchwork Girl ” at the University of Madras National Symposium on Gender in the Digital Space. 9 March 2021.
19. Resource Person for Faculty Development Programme on Academic Writing at Loyola College of Social Sciences, Trivandrum held from 5 to 9 June 2021
20. Resource person, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore AICTE sponsored FDP on ‘ Online teaching and Learning Technologies’ from 5/07/2021 to 09/07/2021

2020

1. Resource person, Session on World Literature. Chennai Literary Festival, organized by the University of Madras, 9 January 2020.
2. Resource person, Memory Studies: Research Possibilities Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum. 14 January 2020.
3. Resource person, National Workshop on Memory Studies at Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum. 3 March 2020.
4. Plenary address, Online Symposium on Green Grows Progress. NANDKUVERBA Mahila College of Bhavnagar, (Gujarat). 5 June 2020
5. Resource person, Training Workshop on Case Study Writing methods for HPCL employees as part of their annual Case Writing competition.
6. Resource person, Training Workshop on Technical report writing for HPCL as part of their annual report writing competition, 2021.
7. Moderator and Presenter, Research Conversations in Memory Studies, Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform, 24 November 2020.
8. Public lecture on Memory Studies. Hosted by the Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute, University of St. Andrews. 18 November 2020.
9. Resource person, organized by Research Advisory Council of Stella Maris College, faculty workshop on Recent Trends in Literary Studies Research on 17 December 2020.
10. Resource Person at the University of Madras for an interactive session for faculty on Online Courses: The Way Ahead. 1 December 2020.
11. Special Invitee to the UG English-Board of Studies, University of Madras. 24 January 2020.

2018-2019

1. 38. Invited speaker, 11^th World Anglo-Indian Reunion, organized by Anglos in the Wind and Anglo-Ink Chennai. 8 January 2019.
   39. Resource person, UGC English Syllabus Revision, Department of English, University of Madras. Organized by Anna Adarsh College. 17 December 2019.
   40. Resource person, AICTE short term course on Appreciating Linguistics: An Interdisciplinary Approach, IIT Madras, 11 October 2019.
   41. Resource person, AICTE Workshop on English Language Teaching, IIT Madras, 4 October 2018.

• Sruthi Vinayan (completed) https://www.iitbhilai.ac.in/index.php?pid=sruthi
• Rashi Shrivastava (Co-guide, thesis submitted)
• Catherine Shilpa (First Seminar completed)
• Subhashini (Comprehensive completed)
• Vigneshwar (course work completed)
• Geethapriya (course work completed)
• Pratishtha Pandey (course work)
• Gayathri T (course work)

• Kishan Alakkal (ongoing)

• Rhea Esther (ongoing)

• Narcissus Owarie (ongoing)

• Aishwarya V S: (2023)

• Kiran A: The Reality of Fast Fashion, Second-Hand Clothing, And Memory: A Study in Denim (2023)

• Amina Mehboob: Violent Masculinities in Malayalam Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Liberation (2023)

• Srividya Balayogi: Gender and French India in Postcolonial Indian Writings (2022)

• Namrata Nirmal: Women Writing the City: An Analysis of Milk Teeth (2022)

• Samaja Penumaka: The End of Everything That Stands”: Exploring the Politics of Power and Personal Identity through Cli-Fi Novels (2022)

• Sibi Sekar: Domain of Film Criticism: A Historical Analysis (2020)

• Ranjani Srinivasan: Unclaimed City: Representations of Bengaluru in Indian Fiction in English (2020)

• Lekshmy U K. Gender and Post-Restoration Coffee Houses in England (2018)

• Merrin Alice Abraham. Women in Pentecostal Churches (2018)

• Kevin Fernandes. Constructing the Modern Iran Society Using Iranian English Writings (2016)

• Asmita Ghosh. Reimagining Sita and Surpanakha: A Postcolonial Feminist Analysis (2016)

• Surej Simon. “Off Beat”: Women and Beat Generation (2015)

• Memory Studies in Industry Contexts, Titan Company Limited https://www.iitm.ac.in/happenings/press-releases-and-coverages/titan-dials-back-clock-move-forward
• Co-Principal Investigator, IoE Research Initiative, Centre for Memory Studies 
• Co-Principal Investigator, British Council Going Global Partnership Grant 
• Principal Investigator ERP, A transnational narrative history of the Anglo-Indian community in India and the Diaspora
• Memory Studies and Anglo-Indian Identities: The Digital Archive, Anglo-Ink
• Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change COST Action project chaired by Professor Jenny Wustenburg. https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA20105/#tabs+Name:Description
• Animated Agents, Virtual Reality, and Cognitive Theory: A Case study of Marks & Spencer 360 Degree Procedural Training, Tata Consultancy Services
• Principal Investigator, NFIG, Literary historiography studies in India 

Books:

1. Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. Co-editor Robyn Andrews. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-64458-1
2. Contracted to co-edit the Brill Handbook of Indian Memory Studies https://brill.com/page/hsms/forthcoming-series-brills-handbook-series-in-memory-studies

Book chapters:

1. Parui, Avishek and Merin Simi Raj. “The Corridor”. Constructing Sites, Bloomsbury (forthcoming)
2. Raj, Merin Simi and Avishek Parui “Not knowing for how much longer”: Requiem for the Living as an act of cultural recovery of the Paranki community in Kerala’. Anglo-Indian Identity Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora. Ed. Robyn Andrews and Merin Simi Raj. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030644574
3. “Caste and Modernity: Locating Phule’s Discourse” in 19th Century Maharashtra: A Reassessment ed. Shraddha Kumbojkar. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.

Journal publications:

1. Vinayan, Sruthi and Merin Simi Raj. Women, rememory, and herstory: Reading Hangwoman as a feminist fiction of memory. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Taylor and Francis (accepted)
2. Raj, Merin Simi. “’they shied away from her memory’: Memory, Empire, and Women in Heat and Dust”. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Taylor and Francis (accepted)
3. Parui, Avishek and Merin Simi Raj. The post-digital postcolonial: A study of the Paranki Anglo-Indian community through the Augmented Reality app MemoryBytes, Memory Studies journal, Sage (forthcoming, February 2025)
4. Shrivastava, Rashi; Avishek Parui, and Merin Simi Raj. Memory, Insidious trauma, and Refugee crisis in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (2015). Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities.
5. Raj, Merin Simi. This foul substance is called history: Anglo-Indian memory narratives and (mis)remembrances in Sealy’s the Trotter-nama. Media Watch, Sage. Vol 13, No. 2, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/09760911221092807
6. Parui, Avishek and Merin Simi Raj. “The COVID-19 crisis chronotope: The pandemic as matter, metaphor and memory”. Memory Studies, Sage. Vol.14, No. 6, 2021. Pp. 1431-1444. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17506980211054346 https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/covid-19s-own-groundhog-day/article38246682.ece
7. Raj, Merin Simi and Avishek Parui. “”they shared those bits of history”: Reading The Tainted as a transnational memory narrative”. International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies, Vol.21, No.1, 2021. Pp. 15-37. https://www.international-journal-of-anglo-indian-studies.org/index.php/IJAIS/article/view/246
8. Vinayan, Sruthi and Merin Simi Raj. The Indulekha Moment and the Malayalam Literary Canon: On the Literary History of the Early Twentieth-century Novels in Kerala, South India. Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. Vol. 13, No. 1, 2021. DOI: 21659/rupkatha.v13n1.37
9. Vinayan, Sruthi and Merin Simi Raj. The politics of representation and the “ideal Malayalee woman”: Remembering Malayalam women’s magazines of the early 20th-century Kerala, South India. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Taylor and Francis. Volume 55, 2019. Pages 399-411. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2019.1570966
10. Merin Simi Raj, Caste in Indian English Fiction. EPW, Vol. 50, Issue No. 21, 23 May, 2015.
11. Merin Simi Raj. “Re-drawing the Postmodern Lines: Rushdie and Indian English Fiction in the Post-1980s”, Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies (Vol.4, No.3, 2013).
12. Merin Simi Raj. “Revisiting Nationalist Historiography: Reading Amin’s Narrativisation of Chauri Chaura” in Postcolonial Text (Vol 6, No.4, 2011).
13. Merin Simi Raj. “(Re)Writing IE fiction in a New YA Page: Celebrating the Birth of the Reader and the Publisher” in Muse India (Issue 39, Sep-Oct 2011).
14. Merin Simi Raj. “Articulations of Caste in Nationalist Historiography” in The Journal of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU (Autumn 2009).
15. Merin Simi Raj. “Softskills and Syllabus: The Need for Convergence” in Indian Journal of Open Learning (Vol.17, No.2, May 2008).
16. Merin Simi Raj. “Articulating Caste: Gaps and Silences in Social/Nationalist Historiography” in Littcrit (Vol/34, No.1, June 2008).
17. Merin Simi Raj. “Reading Written on the Body: Problematising Gender, Identity and Sexuality” in The New Frontier, University of Kerala (May 2008).

Workshops:

1. International Memory Studies Workshop as a CCE-CEP programme, 26-30 April 2021. Co-organiser: Dr Avishek Parui. https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/iit-madras-hosts-asia-s-first-international-memory-studies-workshop-1806301-2021-05-24
2. Food, Memory, Machines Workshop (17-20 August 2021) organised as a CCE-CEP under the aegis of Indian Network for Memory Studies in association with the pCoE Centre for Memory Studies and the Office of Global Engagement, IIT Madras. Co-organiser: Dr Avishek Parui.
3. Workshop on ‘Memory, Cognition, Literature’ organized as a CCE-CEP by the Centre for Memory Studies (pCoE) in association with Jamia Millia Islamia University. 9-12 November 2021. Co-organiser: Dr Avishek Parui.
4. Workshop on Business Communication and Soft Skills organized as a CCE-CEP. Co-organizer Dr. Avishek Parui

Conferences:

1. Annual International Memory Studies Conference, Memory, Ecology, Sustainability, 20-22 September 2023 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/movingmemory-an-arvr-app-for-memory-studies-launched-at-international-conference-in-iit-madras/article67326439.ece
2. Annual International Memory Studies Conference, Memory in a Digital Age, 23-25 August 2022. (co-organizer Dr. Avishek Parui), IIT Madras https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/iit-madras-to-find-ways-to-store-large-data-over-a-period-of-time/article65801567.ece
3. Annual International Memory Studies Conference, IIT Madras. 2-4 October 2019. In collaboration with XR Lab, TCS Chennai. (International Conference) Ideated an AR animated Mural artwork on Jallianwala Bagh in collaboration with XR Lab TCS Chennai (co-organizer Dr. Avishek Parui). https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/iit-madras-organises-annual-international-memory-studies-conference-2019/articleshow/71407016.cms
4. International Conference on Anglo-Indian Studies, ‘Midnight’s Orphans: Problematising the Postcolonial in the Telling of Anglo-Indian (hi)stories’. In association with Massey University. 3-5 August 2017.
5. Second International conference on Anglo-Indian Studies. Researching Anglo-Indians in India and the Diaspora. In association with Massey University and New Zealand India Research Institute, Victoria University Wellington. 2-4 August 2018.

• Anglo-Ink, Chennai (2017 onwards)
• New Zealand India Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (2017-2018)

Faculty Champion of international MoUs

1. University of St. Andrews, UK (along with Dr Avishek Parui)
2. Massey University, New Zealand (along with Dr Avishek Parui)
3. University of Durham, UK (along with Dr Avishek Parui

Digital research output

• MemoryBytes – an AR-based mobile application showcasing the 500-year history and lived experience of the Anglo-Indian community https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/dakshinachitra-to-showcase-500-years-of-anglo-indian-history/article66307263.ece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaT__9G09os
• MovingMemory – an AR/VR-based web/mobile spatial application to capture moving models of memory
  https://www.ndtv.com/education/iit-madras-launches-mobile-app-that-captures-moving-models-of-memory-4409973

• Academic Advisor and Board Member of Skillskapes Private Limited, a learning solutions and knowledge management company (Incubated at Research Park, IIT Madras since November 2020) 
  https://www.skillskapes.com