About
Dr Subodh Kunwer completed his M.Phil. and PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. His doctoral dissertation, titled Festival as a Mode of Conceptualisation in Adivasi (Indigenous) Movements in Jharkhand, explores the role of festivals as sites for conceptualising and articulating Adivasi political, cultural, and aesthetic thought.
He has taught as a Guest Faculty at the School of Culture and Creative Expression (SCCE), Dr B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi. He also worked as a researcher at the Alkazi Theatre Archives, Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi, where he examined theatre and cultural practices in India during the 1990s, with a particular focus on the socio-political transformations that shaped the period.
Dr Kunwer’s research lies at the intersection of theatre and performance studies, Adivasi (Indigenous) aesthetics, folk and living traditions, cultural studies, and the decolonisation of aesthetic and performative theories. His work seeks to theorise Indigenous aesthetic practices and performance traditions from within their own philosophical and cultural frameworks. He has published research on Indigenous public spheres, Adivasi performance traditions, and the aesthetics of indigeneity, and is currently developing his doctoral research into a book manuscript on Adivasi aesthetics.
"Performing Adivasiyat/Indigeneity: Creating an Alternative Worldview," in Performing the Radical: India in the 21st Century, Ed. Ashis Sengupta, Bloomsbury Publishing plc. 2026. Link: https://www.bloomsbury.com/in/performing-the-radical-9781350465633/?__cf_chl_f_tk=gLwefLcLiIqKU6gEldieFIxJhKc5SIfK5TwWsH3dS5M-1782793060-1.0.1.1-sgAyqpRWyIKzCX66LGVE0XFH6AHBgzbLJzhq0sfl7D0
Review of Body on the Barricades: Life, Art and Resistance in Contemporary India : Brahma Prakash . CASTE A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, 7(1), 213–222 (2026). Link: https://doi.org/10.26812/caste.v7i1.2569
"Ranchi as a New Akhra (Performing Space): The Emergence of Indigenous Public Sphere," Journal of Indian Anthropological Society, 56(2), 222-239 (2021) Link: https://www.indiananthropologicalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Article-6.pdf
"Understanding Chhau Dance and the Mask in it through Mimesis," Theatre Street Journal, 5(1), 101-109 (2021). Link: https://theatrestreetjournal.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/RA6_Subodh-Kunwer.pdf
"Performing Adivasiyat through Sarhul Festival in Jharkhand," Anthropology, 8(4), 1-5 (2020).
"Patthalgadi: Completely constitutional yet goes beyond the constitution," Round Table India (August 2018). Link: https://www.roundtableindia.co.in/when-enactment-of-a-tradition-are-met-with-guns-adivasi-s-demand-for-constitutional-rights-and-self-rule/
Examines theatre and performance as modes of knowledge production, cultural memory, and political imagination.
Studies Indigenous (Adivasi) aesthetics, performance traditions, and cultural practices, with a particular focus on Jharkhand and Central India.
Explores rituals and festivals as performative sites for articulating Indigenous identity, community, and alternative worldviews.
Examines the intersections of performance, urban space, exhibitions, and visual culture through archival and curatorial research.
Research Interests
Theories of Performance, Indian theatre and performance, Oral histories and living traditions, Performance, politics, and identity, Indigenous/Adivasi aesthetics, Aesthetics and philosophy of art
ICSSR short term Doctoral Award by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) New Delhi, 2019
Assistant Professor
School of Film Media and Creative Arts
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Bengaluru
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