Scholars
Goutam Karmakar
Durban University of Technology
Based in
South Africa
Africa
Goutam Karmakar works at the Faculty of Arts and Design, Durban University of Technology, South Africa. He was awarded the 2024 Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship and a three-year CHS Postdoctoral Research Position at the Department of English Studies, University of South Africa, South Africa. Previously, he worked at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa as a National Research Foundation postdoctoral fellow and as a visiting scholar at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. Dr. Karmakar is also an assistant professor of English at Barabazar Bikram Tudu Memorial College, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, West Bengal, India. His scholarship has appeared in journals including ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Scrutiny2, English Academy Review, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Socio-Ecological Practice Research, South Asian Review, and South Asia Research, among others. Besides these, he is one of the series editors for the Routledge book series “South Asian Literature in Focus.” He can be reached at GoutamK@dut.ac.za; goutamkrmkr@gmail.com
Karmakar works on subaltern environmentalism, decolonial ecologies, and literature of the global south, where he explores how environmental and epistemic injustice work in tandem with climate coloniality and the anthropocentric notions of capitalism and developmentalism. While delving deep into the literary narratives of Asia and Africa, he is particularly interested in exploring how these texts not only highlight colonial ecological violence, environmental racism, and injustice but also how these texts can be read as a mode of environmental education, a pathway of envisioning a decolonial future where the focus should be on planetary solidarity and sustainability. Karmakar’s areas of research interests include South Asian Literature and Culture, Postcolonial Literature, Decolonial Studies, Environmental Studies, and Global Anglophone Literature.
Country(ies) of Specialty
India Nigeria South AfricaFocus areas of expertise
History Climate Justice Indigenous studies Social movementsPublications
Special/guest edited issues:
2025. Guest co-editor of “Decolonial Hope: Planetary Sustainability, Solidarity, and Transformation,” special issue of Journal of Postcolonial Writing. Under preparation.
2024. Guest co-editor of “Ecology, Decoloniality, and African Literature,” special issue of the journal Scrutiny2. Under preparation.
2023. Guest co-editor of “Capitalism, Anthropocene, and literature of the Global South,” special issue of the Journal of Narrative and Language Studies 11(21). Special Issue Introduction “Epistemology and (de)colonial ecology: Capitalism, Anthropocene, and literature of the Global South,” in ibid.: i-ix. https://nalans.com/index.php/nalans/article/view/741
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Karmakar, Goutam. “Capitalism and Environmental Injustice: Decoloniality and Ecological Education in Ambikasutan Mangad’s Swarga.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (2024): 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isae050
Karmakar, Goutam. “Towards a critical ecological ontology: literacy, sustainability, and fostering environmental education through the Indian green informational picturebook.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (2024): 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2024.2371856
Karmakar, Goutam. “Injustice and subaltern environmentalism: tribal ecosystem and decolonial practices in Bhoopal’s Forest, Blood & Survival: Life and Times of Komuram Bheem.” Journal for Cultural Research (2024): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2024.2358538
Karmakar, Goutam. “Transformative Learning with Wangari Maathai: Fostering Environmental Education and Sustainability Through the Green Picturebook Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace.” Journal of Human Values (2024): 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/09716858241263129
Karmakar, Goutam, and Payel Pal. “Grievable/Disposable lives in the Anthropocene culture: Ecoprecarity, indigeneity and ecological wisdom in Kaala Paani.” International Social Science Journal (2024): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/issj.12533
Karmakar, Goutam, and Payel Pal. “Examining (in)justice, environmental activism and indigenous knowledge systems in the Indian film Kantara (Mystical Forest).” Socio-Ecological Practice Research 6.2 (2024): 117-130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-024-00180-2 (Editor’s Choice)
Karmakar, Goutam. “Living with extraction: Environmental injustice, slow observation and the decolonial turn in the Niger Delta, Nigeria.” International Social Science Journal (2023): 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/issj.12480
Karmakar, Goutam, and Rajendra Chetty. “Arguing for Environmental Education: Sustainability and Decoloniality in Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather.” English Academy Review 41.1 (2023): 88-104. https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2023.2282340
Karmakar, Goutam, and Rajendra Chetty. “Tackling Environmental and Epistemic Injustice: Decolonial Approaches for Pluriversal Peacebuilding in South Africa.” Peace Review 35.3 (2023): 496-510. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2023.2208519
Karmakar, Goutam, and Rajendra Chetty.“Episteme and Ecology: Amitav Ghosh’s The Living Mountain and the Decolonial Turn.” South Asian Review (2023): 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2023.2206307
Karmakar, Goutam, and Rajendra Chetty. “Extraction and Environmental Injustices: (De)colonial Practices in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were.” ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics 22.2 (2023): 125–147. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.22.2.2023.3970
Karmakar, Goutam, and Rajendra Chetty. “Delinking the Capitalist Episteme: Empathy and the Decolonial Turn in Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama.” Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa 35.2 (2023): 105-120.