PUBLICATIONS
Books
in Progress
The Vedas as Science: The
Strategies and Dangers of Hindu Scientism. (Tentative title).
Reclaiming Scientific Temper, to
be published by the National Book Trust, India.
Scientific Temper in Modern
India: An Anthology of Essential Writings, co-edited with Vijay Jha, to be
published by National Book Trust, India.
Books
in print
Wrongs of the Religious Right:
Reflections on secularism, science and Hindutva. New Delhi: Three Essays
Collective, July 2005.
Prophets Facing Backward:
Postmodern Critiques of Science and the Hindu Nationalism in India. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2004.
(An Indian edition published by
Permanent Black in July 2004 and a second paperback edition in 2005 )
Breaking the Spell of Dharma and
Other Essays. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective. 2002.
Planting the Future: A Resource
Guide to Sustainable Agriculture in the Third World,
International Alliance for
Sustainable Agriculture, Minneapolis, MN 1990.
Pamphlets
Ayurveda Today: Critical
Reflections. Three Essays Collective, June 2006.
Postmodernism and Religious
Fundamentalism: The Making of “Vedic Science,” Navayana, Chennai, India. November 2003.
Academic
papers (Humanities and social Science)
Philosophy of science/ Social
constructivism, alternative epistemologies debate
“Response to My Critics.” Social
Epistemology, (Special issue focusing on the Prophets) Vol. 19, January-March
2005: 147-191.
“Anti-Science,” The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. Edited by John I. Heilbron, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
“Science as the Standpoint
Epistemology of the Oppressed: Dewey Meets the Buddha of India’s Dalits. In
Scrutinizing Feminist Epistemology, edited by Cassandra Pinnick. Rutgers University Press, 2003.
“A ‘Broken People’ Defend
Science: Reconstructing the Deweyan Buddha of India’s Dalits,” Social
Epistemology, vol. 15 (4), Dec. 2001: 335-365.
"Breaking the Spell of
Dharma: A Case for Indian Enlightenment." Economic and Political
Weekly (Mumbai, India). July 7, 2001, Pp. 2551-2566.
A House
Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths about Science. NY: Oxford University Press. 1998. Pp. 286–311.
“Against Social
De(con)struction of Science: Cautionary Tales from The Third World,” in Ellen
Meiksins Wood and John Bellamy Foster (eds.) In Defense of History: Marxism and
the Postmodern Agendaa. NY: Monthly Review Press, 1997. Pp. 74–96.
(A shorter version appeared in Monthly Review, March, 1997).
Socialist Registeer. London: Merlin Press, 1997. Pp.
302–352
”The Science Question in
Postcolonial Feminism." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 775
(1996): 420–436.
“Science and the Progressive
Agenda: Rethinking the Left Critiques of Science in India,” Economic and
Political Weekly (Mumbai/Bombay, India) Vol. XXXIII (16), April 18, 1998:
913–922. (Reprinted in Humanscape( Mumbai), August, 1999)
“Science Wars in India.” Dissent, Winter 1997. Reprinted in The Sokal Hoax: The Sham that Shook the Academy.
Lingua Franca Books, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
Philosophy
of science/ Science and religion debate
“How modern are we? The cultural
contradictions of India’s modernity,” Economic and Political Weekly, February
11, 2006.
Axess: Magazine for Liberal arts and
Social Sciences (Sweden), Number 8, 2005. Special Issue on The Enlightenment
and its Discontents).
“Trading faith for Spirituality:
The Mystifications of Sam Harris,” Published on line at the website of
Butterflies and Wheels at butterfliesandwheels.com
“Postmodernism, Hindu
nationalism and Vedic Science” ( a two-part essay), Frontline, Dec. 18, 2003
and Jan. 2, 20044
Alternative epistemologies and
new social movements
“Dharma and the Bomb: The
Rise of Reactionary Modernism in India.” Logos. Summer, 2002.
“Do the Marginalized
Valorize the Margins? Exploring the Dangers of Difference.” In Kriemild Sunders
(ed.) Development or Post-Development: Which Way for Women in the 21st
Century? London: Zed. Forthcoming. [ A shorter version appeared as
“Women and the Third World: Exploring the Dangers of Difference,” New Politics,
Winter 1999. ]
“We are All Hybrids Now!: The
Dangerous Epistemology of Postcolonial Populism.” (Review Essay), Journal of
Peasant Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, Jan. 2001. Pp.162-186
“In Search of an Epistemology
for Third World People’s Science Movements,” Rethinking Marxism, Fall, 1999,
Vol. 11(3): 104-123.
“Who Needs
Post-development? Discourses of Difference, The Green Revolution and Agrarian
Populism in India.” Journal of Developing Societies. Vol. 15, No. 1,
April, 1999: 1-31.
Materialist Feminism: A Reader. (NY: Routledge, 1997), pp. 364–394.
“Is Modern Science a
Western, Patriarchal Myth? Critique of the Neo-populist Orthodoxy,”
South Asia Bulletin, Vol. XI, No 1 & 2 (1991), pp. 32–61.
Global
political economy
“Post-Fordist Technology and the
Changing Geography of Production: Challenges for Third World Women.”
Gender, Technology and Development.* Vol. 4(1) Jan-Apr. 2000: 25-60. (*A peer
reviewed journal from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand).
“Trans-nationalization of the Third World State and Undoing of the Green Revolution,” Economic and Political Weekly
Academic
papers (Biology)
Nanda, M., V.S. Bisaria and T.K.
Ghose "Effect of L(-) sorbose on cellulase activity of Trichoderma
reesei, QM9414," Journal of General Microbiology, vol. 132, pp. 3201–3207,
1986.
Nanda, M., V. S. Bisaria, and T.
K. Ghose "Effect of L(-) sorbose on release of b-glucosidase in
Trichoderma reesei QM9414," Journal of General Microbiology, vol. 132, pp.
973–978, 1986.
Nanda, M., V. S. Bisaria,
and T. K. Ghose "Effect of L(-) sorbose on synthesis and release of
b-glucosidase in Trichoderma reesei QM9414,". Abstracts of the VII
International Biotechnology Symposium
Nanda,
M., V. S. Bisaria, and T. K. Ghose "Localization and release
mechanism of Cellulases in Trichoderma reesei QM 9414,"; Biotechnology
Letters
PUBLIC
FORUMS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Panel
Discussions of my work
Roundtable discussion of The
Prophets at the Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Oct. 2004.
Rethinking Marxism, panel on “Confronting
the Decisive Questions of Modernity: Meera Nanda’s Critique of Ecofeminist
Subsistence Perspective. Organized jointly by Capitalism, Nature and Society
and Feminist Economics. Nov. 8, 2003.
American Philosophical
Association, special session on "Truth, Postmodernism and Scientism: The
Case of India." Dec. 30, 1999.
Keynote
addresses/ Invited Public Lectures
Scientific Temper and Secularism
in India, Center for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Jan. 24, 2006
Reclaiming scientific Temper,
The Center for Philosophy, JNU, New Delhi, Jan 18, 2006.
Reclaiming Scientific Temper in
the Age of Hindutva, National Seminar on Science Teaching in India, Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, Dec 21-23, 2005.
Modern science, Postmodernism
and Hindu Nationalism, South Asia Program, Cornell University, November. 8,
2004.
Manu’s Children: How
Postmodernism Aids Vedic science. The Annual Daniel Thorner Address, Maison des
Sciences de l’homme, Paris, Oct. 28, 2004
Vedic Science, Hindutva and
Postmodernism, 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian
Studies, Lunds University, Sweden. July 2004
Conference
presentations (Invited presentations are indicated by an asterisk)
Hindu Scientism: Strategies and
Dangers. Continuity+Change, Perspectives on Science and Religion, Metanexus
Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, June 3-7 2006.
*Making Science Sacred: How
postmodernism aids Hindu Nationalism, International History, and Philosophy of
Science Teaching (IHPST) conference, Leeds University, UK, July 16, 2005.
*Tolerance as a Source of
Ignorance in India: How Postmodernism Aids the Hindu Nationalist Orthodoxy.
Conference on Philosophy: Problems, Aims, Responsibilities (in the honor of the
100th death anniversary of Karl Popper). University of Warwick, Sept. 16, 2004.
Dharmic Ecology and the New
Pagan Movement: The dangers of religious environmentalism in India, 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Lunds University, Sweden. July 2004
The Other Fundamentalism:
Postmodernism and Religious Environmentalism in India, University of Calgary, June 10, 2004.
Eco-spirituality, neo-paganism
and the Hindu Right, University of Winnipeg, Canda, June 7, 2004.
*“STS in the Making of Vedic Science.”
Connecting S&TS: The Academy, the Polity and the World. Cornell University, September 25-28, 2003.
*“The Unholy Alliance of
Postmodernism and Hindu Nationalism: Sources of Reactionary Modernism in India.” Center for European Studies, New York University, March 28, 2003.
*“Vedic Sciences and Hindu Nationalism: Arguments Against a
Premature Synthesis of Religion and Science.” International
Conference on “Religion and Science in the Post-colonial World,” a Templeton
Foundation conference at the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies,
Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 2-5, 2003.
“Science and the Struggle for
Secularism in India,” paper presented at the panel “When Science Teaching is
seen as a Subversive Activity,” at the American Association for Advancement of
Science, San Francisco, Feb. 19, 2001.
“Modern Science as the
Standpoint of the Oppressed,” Marxism-2000, conference organized by Rethinking
Marxism. Amherst, MA Sept. 22, 2000.
“Dharma and the Bomb:
Postmodernism and the Rise of Reactionary Modernism in India.” American Sociological Association, Washington DC, Aug. 2000.
*“Hindu Science: The Real
Beneficiary of Epistemic Charity of Social Constructivist Theories of Science.”
American Philosophical Association, special session on “Truth, Postmodernism
and Scientism: The Case of India.” Dec. 30, 1999.
*“Do the Marginalized Valorize
the Margins? Testing the Limits of Local Knowledge.” CUNY–Graduate School conference “Which Way for Women and Development? Strategies and Directions for the
21st Century,” Oct 15-17, 1998.
*“Incommensurable Cultures and
their ‘Ethnosciences’: Postcolonial Science Critics Read Kuhn.” Boston Colloquium on Philosophy of Science, Center for Philosophy and History of
Science, Boston University, Nov. 20, 1997.
“Feminist Critiques of Science,
Third World Ecofeminism and Women’s Lives.” 1997 Annual Meeting of the
History of Science Society, San Diego. Nov. 8, 1997.
*“‘Western’ is Not its Middle
Name: Reclaiming Modern Science for the Third World Progressive Science
Movements” Socialist Scholars Conference, panel on “Flight from Science and
Reason.” March 29-31. 1997 ( Co-panelists included Alan Sokal and Stephen
Jay Gould).
“In Search of an Epistemology
for Third World People’s Science Movements: Against the Indifferent
“Difference” of Social Constructivist Theories of Science,” conference on
“Politics and Language of Contemporary Marxism,” organized by Rethinking
Marxism. University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dec. 5–8, 1996.
“Against the Postmodern
Deconstruction of Reason: Realist Perspectives on Scientific Practice.”
American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, New York City, Dec. 28,
1995.
*“The Science Question in
Postcolonial Feminism.” Paper read in absentia
“Trans-nationalization
of Indian Science and the Changing Patterns of Brain Drain, “ Roundtable on
Science, Knowledge and Technology, 1995 Annual Conference of the American
Sociological Association, Washington DC, Aug. 19-23, 1995..
“History is What Hurts:
Historicizing Postcolonial Feminist Critiques of Science In Development,
Conference on “ Women, Gender and Science Question,” Minneapolis, May 12-14,
1995.
“Historicizing Post-al Critiques
of Science in Development,” Keynote address to Graduate Group in Marxist
Studies, 10th Annual Conference in Marxist Studies, SUNY-Buffalo, April 1,
1995.
*“New Technologies, New
Challenges: Re-imagining the Geography of Production,” Keynote Address, Women
In the Global Economy: Making Connections, Institute of Research on Women,
SUNY-Albany, April 22-24, 1994.
Invited
Lectures for the general public
“Dharma and the Bomb: Can
Traditional Cultures Live with Modern Science?” Tufts University, April 24,
2000.
“Scientific World View and Human
Rights.” Comparative Studies Dept., Duke University, April 9, 1997.
“Women’s Rights as Human Rights
-- South Asia, “ the Second Annual Conference of Center for Exploration of
International Issues, Russell Sage College, Nov. 4, 1996.
“Review
of Paul Gross and Norman Levitt, Higher Superstition,” The Skeptics Society of Upper New York, May 1995.
“What the Beijing
Conference Means for Third World Women, “Center for Exploration of
International Issues, Russell Sage College, Troy, Nov. 9, 1995.
“A Defense of Modernity in Third World,” Women Studies Dept. SUNY-Albany, March, 1994.
Publications
in the mass media: US and India..
Numerous editorials (over 400)
and columns (over 50) for The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY on local, US and
international issues.
Essays, news analyses and book
reviews for Multinational Monitor, In These Times and Guardian.
Over 50 opinion page articles
and news reports published in the Indian Express on a variety of issues
including Indian science and technology policies, the Green Revolution, the
disaster in Bhopal and the Third World debt.
EDUCATION
Ph.D.
in Science and Technology Studies. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, May 2000.
Dissertation: Prophets Facing
Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and New Social Movements in India (Advisor: Professor Langdon Winner).
Ph.D.
in Biotechnology. Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. 1983.
Dissertation: Studies on the
Biosynthesis of Cellulases in Trichoderma reesei QM9414.
M.Sc.
in MicroBiology. Punjab University, Chandigarh, India. 1978.
EXPERIENCE
Academic
and Research Experiencee
Research Fellow, John Templeton
Foundation, Jan. 2005 to July 2007.
Visiting faculty, Asian
Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Summer semester, Program in Gender and
Development, June 2000.
Co-instructor (Fall,
1998), Science, Law and Values, STS Dept. RPI.
Teaching Assistant (1993–1995),
Dept. of STS, RPI. Courses: Introduction to Science & Technology Studies,
and Engineering Ethics.
Adjunct Faculty (1990–1991).
Institute for Research on Women, SUNY, Albany.
Research Fellow, American
Council for Learned Socities, 2000 – 2001.
Visiting Scholar, Philosophy
dept. Columbia University, 2000-2002.
Other
experience
Regular contributor to The
Frontline and The Hindu, India.
Editorial Writer
(1990–1992). The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY. (The Gazette is one of
the two major newspapers covering New York’s capital region of Albany, Schenectady and Troy).
Project Director and Editor
(1986–1989). International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, Minneapolis, MN.
Science Correspondent
(1982–1985). Indian Express, New Delhi, India.
FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS
·
John Templeton Foundation Research Fellowship, 2005-2007.
·
American Council of Learned Societies, Jr. Research Fellowship,
2000-2001.
·
Carol Binder Research Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
MN, 1988–1989.
·
Jessie Smith Noyce Foundation Fellowship, International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, Minneapolis, MN, 1986–1987.
·
Gold Medal, Punjab University Masters program, 1978.
·
Research Fellowship, Indian Council of Agricultural Research,
PROFESSIONAL
ACTIVITIES
Book Reviews Editor (Oct. 2000-
2003), Journal of Peasant Studies.
Member, Editorial Board
(2000 - ) Gender, Technology and Development