Prof. (Dr.) Mani Shekhar Singh

Prof. (Dr.) Mani Shekhar Singh is Professor and Executive Director Centre for Law and Humanities, O.P. Jindal University. He has worked extensively on the sociology of art and visual culture. His research on the pictorial practices of women painters of Mithila region in the eastern region of India resulted in a doctoral thesis entitled Folk Art, Identity and Performance: A Sociological Study of Maithil Painting at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He has published in several edited volumes and journals including Contributions to Indian Sociology, Indian Folklife, Indian Horizons, Economic and Political Weekly, and Domains. He has received several fellowships and awards, which include Visiting Fellow, the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Recht als Kultur,” Bonn (2012-13), IGK Arbeit und Lebenslauf in globalgeschichtlicher Perspective, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2011), Directeur d’Etudes Associé, Foundation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris (2010), the New India Foundation Fellowship (2008-2009), the Rockefeller Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (2005-6), India Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2002-2004), the German Volkswagen Foundation and University of Heidelberg Fellowship (2002-2003), and The Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts research grant (2001). Dr Singh has taught at New School for Social Research, New York, and Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, Delhi. At the present, he is completing his book entitled Folk Art Enters the World: Mithila Paintings from Village to Nation and Beyond. His areas of research interest include visual anthropology, folk painting, political cartoons and posters, images of justice, and judicial architecture.