Dr Elwin Susan John joined the Department of English at Sophia College in 2015. Prior to this, she was a UGC-Senior Research Fellow at the University of Hyderabad, where she worked on the socio-cultural intersections between body and disease narratives. She was awarded an M.Phil in 2012 for her dissertation titled, Lure of the Body: Images of Health in Travel Literature. She holds a Ph.D degree for her thesis titled, Skin Cultures: Reconfigurations of the Body through Narratives which was awarded in 2018. Ever since, she has been actively involved in interdisciplinary research ventures along with full-time teaching.
Her research articles have been published in reputed journals and as book chapters. In 2023, she co-edited a volume titled, Media Technology and Cultures of Memory: Mapping Indian Narratives which was published by Routledge. Her research publications can be accessed through the following link https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=Ge7siJ4AAAAJ&hl=en. Dr John has been invited as a speaker in academic sessions and, some of which are listed below:
· Resource person at the National Webinar on “The Human Subject: Disability and Post-Apocalyptic Narratives”, organised by the Department of English, Government College, Daman on July 21, 2020
· Resource person at the National Webinar on “Translating Boundaries: Nation, Culture and Body”, organised by the Department of English, SH College, Chalakudy, Kerala on March 26, 2021
· Resource person at the National FDP on “Recent Trends in Literature”, organised by Marthoma College, Perumbavoor, Kerala on November 12, 2021
· Resource person for a talk titled, “Multiculturalism and the Way Ahead” at Samajik Sociology, the annual students’ initiative of the Department of Sociology, Sophia College, on April 30, 2022
· Resource person for a talk, “An Introduction to Medical Humanities”, at St Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Mumbai on August 10, 2022
· Resource person for a talk, “Literature and Media: Exploitation and Empowerment of Women”, at the Sophia Centre for Women Studies and Development on October 3, 2022 as part of the online certificate course on “Women’s Empowerment”.
Her areas of expertise and research interests include 17th and 18th century British Literature, Indian Writing in English, Medical Humanities, Cultural Studies, Travel Studies, and Memory Studies. She has been guiding student research projects that pertain to these broad domains. In 2022, she completed a Minor Research Project on “Disability Studies and Indian Literature” which was supported by the RUSA grant. She is a content writer for English literature courses at S N Open University, Kerala, and is also on the editorial board of journals like Sambha?a? (Mumbai University research journal), Sophia Lucid (college research journal for teachers) and Sophia Luminous (college research journal for students). She has contributed to the development of several syllabi, namely, Diploma Course in Memory Studies, University of Mumbai, the four-year BA B.Ed course (English), University of Mumbai, and the TYBA course on Introduction to Cultural Studies, University of Mumbai. She is a member of the Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (IACLALS) which is an officially recognised Indian Chapter of International ACLALS, and the Indian Network for Memory Studies (INMS) which is the first Memory Studies network in India.
ORCID ID: 0009-0000-4633-0011