Faculty at School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Ajmal Khan

Ajmal Khan

Assistant Professor

School of Humanities and Social Sciences


Contact Information

Dr. Ajmal Khan A.T. is a multidisciplinary researcher of the environment. His research analyzes democratic and justice challenges in the context of state-led development and anthropogenic climate change. He held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University (2022-23) and SOAS, University of London (2021-22). Previously, he taught at Ashoka University and Ambedkar University in Delhi. He holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies and an MA and M.Phil. from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, and a B.A from the University of Calicut.

  • Ph.D. in Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 2019
  • MA in Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 2012
  • B.A in English Language and Literature, University of Calicut 2010

  • Visiting Assistant Professor – National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, Karnataka from November 2023 to February 2024.
  • Post-Doctoral fellow – South Asia Institute, Harvard University, USA from September 2022 to September 2023. 
  • Charles Wallace Trust Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow – SOAS, University of London, UK 2021-22. 
  • Lecturer – Ashoka University, NCR, Delhi from August 2019 to September 2020. 
  • Visiting Assistant Professor –  Centre for Development Practice, Ambedkar University, New Delhi from September 2019 to December 2019.

  • Environmental and Climate Justice 
  • Environmental Studies 
  • Anthropocene 
  • Science, Technology and Society
  • Critical Race and Caste Studies 

National and International Recognition:

  • Raghunathan and Family fellowship (South Asia Post-Doctoral fellowship) Harvard University, USA 2022-23. 
  • Charles Wallace Trust fellowship, SOAS, University of London, UK 2021-22. 
  • Doctoral Fellowship, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) New Delhi, India 2016-18. 
  • Max Plank Institute, Germany and Tata Institute of Social Sciences Research fellowship, India 2011. 

Journals:

  • Anti-Nuclear Movements in India; Protest Movements in Kudankulam and Jaitapur: South Asia Research Vol. 42(1): 1–14, 2021.
  • India Needs to Wake Up From Its Nuclear Fantasy, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 54, 43, 2019. 
  • Understanding the Nuclear State in India: Experience from Kudankulam and Jaitapur Nuclear Power Projects. Critical Asian Studies, 2019. 
  • Climate Variability, Livelihoods and Social Inequities: The Vulnerability of Migrant Workers in Indian Cities: International Area Studies Review. 1-14, 2016.

Books

  • People Against Nuclear Energy in South Asia; Anti-Nuclear Movements in India, Edited book, 2022, Sage and Yoda Press, New Delhi. 

Book Chapters:

  • Nuclear Energy in India’s Sustainable Development Pathway: Past, Present and Future in India's Energy (R)evolution: Insights into the Becoming of a Global Power (2024): 88. edited by Annika Bose, Routledge, London, Taylor & Francis. 
  • The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project and Protests Movement in Tamil Nadu in People against Nuclear energy in South Asia; Anti-Nuclear Movements in India, (2022), Edited by Ajmal Khan, Sage and Yoda Press. 
  • The Protest Movement against Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project in Maharashtra in People against Nuclear energy in South Asia; Anti-Nuclear Movements in India, (2022), Edited by Ajmal Khan, Sage and Yoda Press. 
  • Climate Justice, Social Protection and Just Adaptation: The Vulnerability Contexts of Migrant Workers in India Cities, Co-author with D. Santa in Responding to climate change in Asian cities; Governance for a more resilient urban future (2017), Archer and Sarah (Ed.) Routledge New York.

  • May 2023 Part of the panel "Language and Ethics of Climate Change" Harvard Climate Symposium: Raising to the Climate Challenge, The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard Radcliff Institute at the Harvard Business School, Harvard University. 
  • May 2023 Part of the panel “Culture, Climate, and Health”at the annual Cambridge Symposium at the South Asia Institute, Harvard University. 
  • May 2023 "Prospects for South Asian Nuclearism, Disarmament, and Peace Politics" by Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University. 
  • May 2023 “Dialogue on Climate Justice in South Asia and Beyond” organized by David Lam Centre, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. 
  • May 2023 “Framing Climate Justice in South Asia: Caste, the Adivasi question and Changing Cliamte in India”, oranaised by the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria, Canada. 
  • October 2022, "Can Nuclear Energy & Democracy Co-exist? Citizen Struggles in India", Departmentof Asian Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada. 

  • August 2023 “Can there be Ethical Geoengineering? Doing Solar Radiation Modification in an Unequal World”, Science and Democracy Network Annual Meeting, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, USA.
  • June 2023 " “Caste in the Anthropocene”, Development Studies Association annual meeting 2023, University of Reading, UK.
  • June 2023 "The challenges for Managed Retreats in South Asia: Evidence from India". At What Point Managed Retreat: Habitability and Mobility in the ear of Climate Change, Columbia Climate School, Columbia University, New York. 
  • April 2023 "Climate Justice in South Asia: Dalits, Adivasis and Climate Change in India in Climate Change" in South Asia Symposium by Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Hawai, USA. 
  • March 2023, “What is different about Climate Justice in South Asia? Caste, the Adivasi question, and Climate Change in India” South Asia Institute, Harvard University, USA.
  • March 2023, “Caste of the Climate Change; Climate Justice in Kuttanad, South India” at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers on March 25, 2023, Denver, Colorado, USA. 
  • February 2023, “Nuclear Culture in South Asia: Protest Movements Against Nuclear Power Projects in India” at the UCLA Center for Korean Studies, February 25, University of California Loss angles, California, USA. 
  • June 2022, “People’s opposition to nuclear power projects in Kudankulam and Jaitapur,” in research workshop by the University College London’s Anthropocene Research Group, University College London, UK.