Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Syracuse University
Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.), Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Master of Arts (M.A.), Department of Sociology, SPPU
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Fergusson College, SPPU
Professor and Director, Centre for Writing Studies
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| ORCID ID | 0009-0002-8195-1424 |
| Key Expertise | Caste in urban India, ethnography of reading and writing, higher education in India, pedagogy of care |
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Syracuse University
Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.), Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Master of Arts (M.A.), Department of Sociology, SPPU
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Fergusson College, SPPU
Madhura Lohokare (she/they) teaches at the Centre for Writing Studies, O.P. Jindal University, Sonipat, Haryana. Trained in anthropology, their doctoral research was an ethnographic investigation of geographies of urban exclusion and their intersections with masculinity and caste in the context of Pune. In their directorial role, Madhura has worked towards institutionalizing structures within the CWS, which will enable the Centre to play a pivotal role in building an ecology of writing support within the university community.
Madhura has also been involved in intensive training of incoming faculty at JGU in writing pedagogy, mentoring faculty in the methods of workshop which marks the CWS’s pedagogical approach. Madhura has co-edited an online volume on academic writing with Anannya Dasgupta, which appeared in Café Dissensus in 2019, one of the first systematic attempts to document the terrain of academic writing in higher education in India. Madhura has conducted writing workshops for undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral research scholars across universities in India, including in JNU, IIT Delhi, IIT Mumbai, Hyderabad Central University, TISS, Mumbai and Savitri Bai Phule Pune University. Their current research interests focus on interrogating frameworks of care in pedagogy, ethnographic methodologies for researching academic reading and writing and on articulations between urban modernity and caste privilege.
Thesis I Seminar (JSLH)
Thesis II Seminar (JSLH)
Freshmen Writing Seminar I (JSDA)
Freshmen Writing Seminar II (JSDA)
Academic Writing (ODS)
Scientific Writing (JSPH)
Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing, MADLB Fall(JSIA)
Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing, MADLB Spring (JSIA)
Academic Writing, MAPP Fall (JSGP)
Advanced Academic Writing (JSPC)
Caste and the City, Spring 2025
Caste and the City, Spring 2026
Dissertation courses (advanced courses in preparation for thesis writing at undergraduate and postgraduate level)
Thesis I & II (JSLH)
Scientific Writing (JSPH)
Advanced Academic Writing (JSPC)
Core undergraduate and post graduate courses in critical reading and writing
Communication Skills I (JSLH)
Freshmen Writing Seminar I and II (JSDA)
Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing (JSIA, JSGP)
Core doctoral course in critical reading and writing
Academic Writing (ODS)
Online course
Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing (MOOC on Coursera)
Introduction to Critical Reading and Research Writing (contributed to a CWS course as part of the MA TESOL program, OEFL)
Elective course
Caste and the City (Spring 2025, Spring 2026)
Sarai Fellowship for Research on Urban India, 2007
Wenner-Gren Foundation Award for Dissertation Fieldwork Research 2010
Case Development Grant, awarded by Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bengaluru, to develop a case study as part of the ‘Re-Framing Urban Inclusion Project’, 2015
FURS Writing up Grant awarded by Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, 2015
Wenner-Gren Foundation Award, Engaged Anthropologist, 2016.
Peer reviewer, Journal of Sociology, 2025
Selected Workshops (2018-2026)
Invited as a workshop mentor for advanced Ph.D. students from South and Southeast Asia, as part of the Cultivating Humanities and Social Sciences initiative by SIDA- AAS, Ho Chi Minh City, January 2026
Structuring an Argument and Writing a Review of Literature, conducted for scholars of the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, IIT Palakkad, January 2026
Invited as a workshop mentor for advanced Ph.D. scholars from underrepresented regions in South Asia , as part of the Cultivating Humanities and Social Sciences initiative by SIDA- Association of Asian Studies, April 2023-Jan 2026. I have conducted workshops on positionality and ethics of research, understanding the field in social science research, space as a category of research and framing a research question in 9 workshops conducted in SPPU, IIT Roorkee and University of Dibrugarh, since April 2023.
Working towards your Dissertation, conducted for scholars at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, September 2025
The Architecture of an Argument, conducted for MA students at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi, May 2025
Classroom as Data: Analysing Course and Teaching Materials for Pedagogical Insights, conducted for faculty and research scholars working on Writing in STEM, KREA University, Jan 2025 (online)
Getting to know your Chapter and Integrating Data with Theoretical Frameworks, conducted for Ph.d. scholars at the School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Nov-Dec 2024
Understanding the Structure of a Chapter and Working with Evidence, conducted for Ph.D. scholars at School of Social Sciences and Humanities, IIT, Mumbai, April 2024
Arriving at a Research Question, conducted for post graduate students KSP Women’s Studies Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University, October 2023
Demystifying Academic Writing, conducted as part of the Public Policy Certification Programme for Faculty and PhD-holders belonging to SC/ST and other Marginalized Groups, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, November 2022
Locating your Voice, conducted for Ph.D. scholars of Department of English, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, September 2022
Developing Complex Arguments, conducted for research scholars on gender and development, Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi, February 2022
Realities of Fieldwork, conducted for participants of Heritage Documentation Workshop, organized by Sahapedia, New Delhi, September 2019
The Ethnographic Method conducted for the research team of Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe’s Future (CHIEF), Savitribai Phule Pune University, July 2019
Write Me a City, a nine-week long critical writing workshop on urban space, memory and caste, for undergraduate and graduate students of Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women’s Studies Centre, Pune University, Feb- April 2018. In this workshop I experimented with collapsing the rigid boundaries between subjective, experiential writing about the city and analytical frames to understand politics of the urban in India.
Notes on a New Grammar, curated a series of three online conversations centered on the politics of emergent forms of writing, September – November 2020. The online conversations include:
Belonging to Many Worlds: on multilingual writing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbUdIXwPrqo&t=495s)
Of Webcomics and Memes: understanding the new avatar of writing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPoirqSNTKM&t=2516s)
फेसबुकण्याचं नवं व्याकरण: फेसबुकीय लिखाण आणि चर्चाविश्व, translated as ‘The New Grammar of Facebooking: writing on Facebook and public discourse’, this online discussion was conducted in Marathi) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uztIv8Co2Q&t=3316s)
Goondool: tales from the gallis of Ganj Peth, a multimedia exhibition on narratives in an urban neighbourhood, Pune titled, curated and exhibited in collaboration with the residents of Ganj Peth, Pune and Chaitanya Modak, graphic designer and artist, Pune, April 2018
Articulate Spaces: a photo-essay on the culture of writing vartaphalaks in Pune city, a photo-essay on urban public spaces and popular practices in Pune titled, curated and produced by me, exhibited at Balgandharva Art Gallery, Pune, July 2007
| ORCID ID | 0009-0002-8195-1424 |
| Key Expertise | Caste in urban India, ethnography of reading and writing, higher education in India, pedagogy of care |