ICG Scholars-In-Residence Programme 2025
Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, Saudamini Jain and Siddharth Pandey were selected for the 2025 Scholars-in-Residence award
Ram Ramaswamy retired from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where he taught from 1986 till October 2018, in the School of Physical Sciences, and the School of Computational and Integrative Sciences. From 1983 to 1986, he was at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. Between 2011 and 2015 he served as vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad. Between 2018 and 2023 he was Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the IIT Delhi, and Honorary Professor in the Department of Physics in 2024. Educated at Madras University, IIT Kanpur, and Princeton University, his research interests have, over the years, been in aspects of theoretical chemistry, statistical physics, molecular dynamics and computational and systems biology. Ram is the author of over 200 peer reviewed publications and more than 30 books and conference proceedings. He has mentored 35 Ph. D. students at TIFR, JNU, University of Hyderabad, and IIT Delhi. An elected Fellow of TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi, and the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, he served as President of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 2016 to 2018. Currently, he is Honorary Professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Berhampur. A Fellow of the New India Foundation (2023-25) Ram has written extensively on D.D. Kosambi, and coincidentally holds the D.D. Kosambi Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Goa. He was Editor of Publications of the Indian Academy of Sciences between 2013 and 2015, during which time he started the journal Dialogue: Science, Scientists, and Society. He has had a long-standing interest in books and publications: he was the Managing Editor of the Texts and Readings in the Physical Sciences Series of textbooks as well as the online book distribution portal, Scholars without Borders.
Book project: Incandescence: The Brilliant and Difficult Mind of Damodar D. Kosambi (Working title)
Saudamini Jain is book critic and culture writer based in New Delhi. She holds a MA from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and has 14 years of reporting experience in India, New York, and the West Bank. Saudamini has been a staff writer for Brunch, the Sunday magazine of the Hindustan Times where she wrote feature stories on a wide range of subjects. She is a recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (Feature Writing, 2013) for a Brunch cover story about Ramnagar, a small town in Varanasi, which doubles up as a life-sized model of the geographical landscape of the Ramayana. At Brunch, she had also conceptualized and weekly edited Breakfast of Champions, the popular pop-culture front-of-the book magazine. Earlier, during her time at Columbia Journalism, she tracked down the unknown subject of a 1966 Alice Neel portrait of an Indian woman who had until then been oblivious about the painting she had inadvertently posed for 50 years ago. The investigative story, published in Scroll, was featured in The Paris Review, Smithsonian Magazine and Hyperallergic. In 2017, she spent three months in Israel, the Palestinian territories and the West Bank on a fellowship with the Jerusalem Press Club. She worked at Haaretz newsroom in Tel Aviv, and investigated into the workings of the Hindu nationalist campaign to bring pro-Israel propaganda into India public discourse. Since 2018, she has been a book critic at Hindustan Times; reported on stories for Haaretz, CNN, Vice, HuffPost, Atlas Obscura, Scroll, +972 Magazine, Delayed Gratification among other publications; She is an editorial consultant with UNDP India where she edited two editions of the annual magazine, Inspiring India. She is currently working on a book on the Bnei Menashe, Mizos and Kukis from northeast India migrating to Israel as they believe they’re descendants of a Biblical “lost tribe” of Israel.
Book project: Lost Immigrants (on the Bnei Menashe, a people in lux as they try to navigate rules and laws of immigration and identity to move from northeast India to Israel)
Siddharth Pandey is a writer, literary scholar, cultural historian, curator, photographer, and musician from Shimla. His writings on Indian hill stations, popular culture, and materiality studies have appeared in academic publications as well as various national English newspapers and online news forums. Siddharth holds BA, MA and MPhil degrees in English Literature from Delhi University. He later obtained an MPhil in Children’s Literature and a PhD in English and Materiality Studies from the University of Cambridge (2019) under the supervision of Maria Nikolajeva. His doctoral thesis Crafting, Conjuring, and the Aesthetic of Making: Towards a Materialistic Understanding of Fantasy was on the ways in which ‘making’ – in forms such as human craftsmanship and non-human growth – impacts the creation of ‘wonder’ in the worlds of fantasy literature. Siddharth has also pursued a parallel research interest in the evolving cultural and aesthetic politics of Shimla in particular and Himachal Pradesh more generally. He has been the recipient of several scholarships and fellowships including a Cambridge Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, a Cambridge International Scholarship, Charles Wallace India Trust grants, and a research support grant from the Paul Mellon Centre. He has also held postdoctoral fellowships at the Yale University and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Siddharth has researched and written about fantasy and children’s literature, hill stations in India, nature writing, craft theory, folk culture, cinema studies, and pop culture. His writings have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and academic anthologies and on several South Asian newspapers and mass-media forums such as the Hindu, Indian Express, Pioneer, Tribune, Frontline, Live Wire, Outlook, Quint, Scroll.in and The News. His first book of poetry, Fossil (2021), was a finalist for the Banff Mountain Book Awards in 2022. Siddharth’s landscape and architecture photographs have featured in solo and thematic exhibitions in India and the United Kingdom, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum at London.
Book project: A Town So Loved: Shimla, the ‘Chhota Vilayat’ of Indian Himalayas
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The International Centre Goa (ICG) invites academics, journalists, writers and others to apply for the ICG Scholars-in-Residence Programme 2025. ICG will select one or more applicants to spend 30 days at ICG to work on her book project.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be residents of India;
- Applicants must be currently writing/completing a book manuscript or any other scholarly/literary work; and
- Applicants must be able to convincingly show in their application their progress in the ongoing project (1-2 book chapters or some other documentation).
NOTE:The programme is not open to those who are yet to begin work on a project.
How To Apply?
Please submit the following as part of your application:
- 1. A short bio (1-2 pages);
- Description of book project (max. 2 pages); and
- Sample writing (one or two chapters from the ongoing book project).
All applications – clearly marked as “ICG Scholars-in-Residence Programme 2025” – must be sent by email on or before 5th January 2025 to: director@incentgoa.com.
Terms and conditions
- The ICG Scholars-in-Residence programme will cover the following expenses:
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- Return air travel (economy);
- Complimentary accommodation for self (and spouse/partner) at ICG for 30 days;
- A stipend of Rs. 4,000 per day for the 30-day period; and
- Food coupon of Rs. 25,000 for meals at ICG’s restaurant for the duration of stay.
Note: ICG reserves the right to amend the rules and terms and conditions of the Scholars-in-Residence Programme.