Education

• Ph.D (Mahatma Gandhi University)
• M.Phil. (Kerala University)
• MA (Kerala University)

Course Offered

• Undergraduate: Communication Skills,Science Fiction, Food and Cultural Studies.

Experience

• Associate Professor, Dept. of Humanities, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology from July 2021 to present
• Assistant Professor, Dept. of Humanities, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology from September 2014 to 2021
• Reader, Dept. of  Humanities, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology from September 2011 to 2014.
• Lecturer, Dept. of  Humanities, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology from September 2007 to 2011.
• Four and a half years as guest faculty in the School of Letters at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.

Research Work / Area

• Communication Skills
• Science Fiction
• Food and Cultural Studies

Projects

1. Fast Track Project: A Study on Creative Writers and Artists in Dept of Space
2. Co-Investigator: Assessment of the Contribution of IIST Alumni in ISRO
3. Cultural Mapping of Tribal Cuisines from Kerala

Selected Publications:

Popular writing

• Column on food memories Ruchiyormakal in the online weekly Grihalekshmi– from 27th June 2023 to 29th August 2024.
  https://grihalakshmi.mathrubhumi.com/taste-travel/ruchiyorma-childhood-taste-memories-1.9055275
  https://grihalakshmi.mathrubhumi.com/taste-travel/chakka-aluva-memories-ruchiorma-1.8974603
  https://grihalakshmi.mathrubhumi.com/pen-point/jiji-j-alex-share-childhood-memories-about-a-special-fruit-1.8897479
  https://grihalakshmi.mathrubhumi.com/pen-point/dr-jiji-j-alex-share-memories-about-her-teachers-1.8877944

Book Chapters

• Alex, Gigy J. “Food Representations and Visual Politics of Body in Malayalam Film Songs.” Body, Politics and Representation. Political Readings of BodyEd. Anu Kuriakose. Chintha Publications. Thiruvananthapuram. 2023, pp. 44-53.
• Alex, Gigy J. “Cookbooks from Kerala. Creative Adaptations and Inscriptions of Alternative Modernities.” Gender and Modernity in Kerala. Politics, Praxes, Paradoxes. Ed. Meena T. Pillai. Orient Blackswan,2023, pp158-173.
• Alex, Gigy J. “Wild Wild West Wind, Calm Down.” Stories, Poems and Essays on Tribal Literature and Tribal Representation in Literature. TMYS Review University of Victoria. December 2023. Pp. 63-74.
• Mohan, Monisha and Gigy J. Alex. “The Making of the Goddess: Acritical Appraisal of the Depiction of the Goddess Bhadrakali in Malayalam Cinema.” Eds. Anway Mukhopadhyay and Souvik Narayan Hore. Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2023. pp214-232.
• Alex, Gigy J. “Post-human in the Post-Anthropocene Universe: From an Insouciant Frankenstein to an Alien Saviour.” Literature, Theory and the History of Ideas: An Updated Compendium. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Eds. Arshad Ahammad A and Nada Rajan. 2021. pp139-146.
• Alex, Gigy J. “Science Fiction: A Journey Form Gothic to Posthuman through Colonial and Postcolonial Trajectories.” Myth, Fantasy and the Quest for Identity in Science Fictions Ed. Dr. Soumya Murukesh Kalady: Publication Division. Centre for Comparative Literature 2017 (pp. 121-26).
• Alex, Gigy J. “Eluding identity: Shifting Paradigms of Culture and Identity in Parzania and 1947: Earth” Alternative Voices: Researching Language, Culture and Identity. Ed. S. Imtiaz Hasnian, Sangeetha Bagga Gupta and Shailendra Mohan. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. New Castle upon Tyne, UK. 2013.
• Alex, Gigy J. “A Supple Self and its Nuances: An Analysis of The Namesake and A Married Woman”. Remapping the Female Map: Jhumpa Lahiri and Manju Kapur. Ed. Kalpana Rajput. Yking Books, Jaipur. 2012.
• Alex, Gigy J. “Life Gets Uncomplicated Here. A Cruise through Lahiri’s Stories.” On the Alien Shore. A Study of Jhumpa Lahiri and Bharati Mukherjee. Ed. Jaydeep Sarangi. Gnosis. Delhi: 2010
• Alex, Gigy J. “The Last Supper” (Thiruathazham). Translation of the play written by R. Narendraprasad. Haritham Journal of the School of Letters. Number 15. 2003.

Journal papers

• Alex, Gigy J. and Babitha Justin. “Slamming the Door: Reinventing Kitchen Narratives in Contemporary Indian Movies.” South East Asian Review of English. SARE, Vol. 59, Issue 2. 2022.
• Shyamprasad and Gigy J. Alex. “Interpretation of Fact and Fiction: The Story of History in Benyamin’s Select Novels.” Shodha Prabha (Issn: 0974-8946) (A Referred & Peer-Reviewed Quarterly Research Journal). Vol. 47, Issue: 4, No.05, October-December 2022. Pp 145-149.
• Shyamprasad and Gigy J. Alex. “Silenced Voices in the History of Migration from Kerala. Women’s Mobility and the Agency of Nursing in Nisabda Sancharangal.” MZU Journal of Literature and Cultural Studies. Vol IX. Issue 1. June 2022. Pp 11-29.
• Alex, Gigy J. “Body, Gender: Visual Politics of Food Representations in Malayalam Film Songs.” Sanghaditha. A publication of Anweshi. July 1, 2022.
• Mohan, Monisha & Gigy J. Alex, “Culture of Fear and Conservation of Nature. Critiquing the Construction of Sarppakavu in Kerala”. International Journal of Fear Studies. University of Calgary. Winter 2021. https://prism.ucalgary.ca/items/698269b4-cc9d-40a8-8d88-8bf7f55b5aba
• Alex, Gigy J. “Cookbooks from Keralam: Creative Adaptations and Inscriptions of Alternative Modernities”. Benjamin Bailey Foundation Malayalam Research Journal,2021.
• Alex, Gigy. “A Real Literary Feast.” Indian Literature, vol. 64, no. 2 (316), 2020, pp. 198–202. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27266794.
• Kuriakose, Anu & Gigy J Alex, “Queering Space, (Trans) Forming Kerala: An Analysis of the Cultural Politics in the Emergent Queer Pride Parades and Allied Trans - Beauty Pageants” Littcrit, Volume 44, No. 2, pp.88-96,2018.
• Kuriakose, Anu & Gigy J Alex: “The Personal is Political: Narrativising transgender Identity in the Documentary That’s My Boy” International Journal of English Language Literature in Humanities. Vol 6 No 11 (2018)
• Monisha Mohan & Gigy J. Alex, “Of Grove and Lore: Dichotomic Spaces of Sacred Grove in Ananthabhadram” Lapis Lazuly - An International Literary Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp.86 -97,2018
• Alex, Gigy J. “Interrogating Histories in Saadat Hasan Manto’s Short Stories”, The Criterion: An International Journal in English. Vol 8,Issue II April 2017.
• Alex, Gigy J. “A Mercy-A Rendezvous with Histories and Memories”. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature: A Quarterly Online Journal for Teachers of English. Vol 6. No: 2. April-June (e-journal)-2015.
• Alex, Gigy J. “Review of Narcopolis” TES Literary Supplement. Volume I. Issue 1. 2012.
• Alex, Gigy. “The Pleasures and Principles of Culinary Art: Shifting Paradigms in Cooking with Stella and Mistress of Spices.” International Journal on Multicultural Literature. Volume II. Issue 2 July -2012.
• Alex, Gigy. “Empowering Women Handling Multiple Roles in Indian Scenario” Contemporary Discourse. Volume III. Issue 1 January -2012.
• Alex, Gigy. “Dainam dina upayogam” (Everyday Use) Translation of a short story written by Alice Walker. Sameeksha. A Monthly Journal of Arts and Ideas. Volume 1 Issue 3. August 2005.

2025

• Expert talk in the one-day National Seminar on ‘Food, Literature and Culture’ organised by The Department of English, HHMSPB NSS College for Women, Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram on 21/01/25.

2024

• Resource Person at the Nallmuthu Gounder Mahalingam College, Pollachi, Tamilnadu during the 6-day lecture Series on Decoding the Aesthetics of Literary Theory on 26-10-24.
• Resource person for the webinar series LITERATI: The Literary Exploration, Summer Cycle 2024, held on February 20, 2024 on “Culinary Studies and the Digital Media.”
• Resource person for the Endowment Lecture on “Culinary Exodus: Understanding Our Platter” held at St Joseph’s College, Irinjalakkuda, Thrissur, on 23-02-24
• Plenary Speaker at the One Day National Conference at Women’s Christian College, Nagercoil, on 19-03-24
• Resource person at the One Day National Conference at Thiruvalluvar College, Papanasam, on 23rd April 2024

2023

• Resource Person for the online Webinar on Research Article Writing: Basics and Structure, on 04-05-23 at VIT Vellore.
• Resource Person for the online Webinar on Review of Literature: Strategies and Steps, on 08-06-23 at VIT Vellore.
• Keynote Address, “Shifting Paradigms: Translation and Culture”, during the National Level Workshop on Translation: Innovative Technologies and Transforming Trends organized by the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Madurai Kamraj University on 31.03.2023.
• Plenary speaker of the National Seminar on Changing Perspectives on Food, Culture and Identity at Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta on 23-03-23.
• Resource person for Cultural Studies Research Forum's special discourse on "Food Studies" on 19-02-23 under the patronage of Vallaths TES

2022

• Plenary speaker of the National Seminar on “Language and Literature: A Blend of Culture and Nostalgia” at Salem Sowdeswari College on October 28th 2022
• Resource Person in the UGC - HRDC sponsored Refresher Course in English organized by the Department of English and Comparative Literature, School of English and Foreign Languages, Madurai Kamaraj University on “Flavours of Fictions: Strategies to Read Culinary Narratives” on 13.08.2022.
• Webinar on “Edible Emotions: Reading Select Culinary Narratives” at School of English & Foreign Languages at The Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University) Gandhigram Dindigul on 15 July 2022.

2021

• Keynote Address, ‘Cultural Discourse of Cuisines: Reading Select Culinary Memoirs from Kerala’, 5-day International Virtual Conference on Cultural Studies from 6th to 10th September 2021, at Nirmala College, Muvatupuzha
• Online lecture on Culinary Narratives from Sociocultural perspective: Recent Trends in Malayalam Literature organised by research Forum, Dept of English, University of Calicut on 23rd June 2021

2020

• Keynote Address, “Human and Post-human Interventions in Science Fiction: An Overview” at the one-day seminar on Mapping Scientific Discourse in Fiction. Sacred Heart College. Kochi. 3rd February 2020.
• Plenary Lecture: “The Cultural Politics of Culinary Representations in Indian Food Narratives” at the one-day national Seminar on Language, Literature, Media and Culture held at Annai Women’s College, Karur on 28-02-2020.
• Plenary Lecture. “Teaching Literature and Culture: Technology and Techniques “Two-Day NAAC Sponsored National Seminar on Innovative Pedagogical Approaches and the Enhancement of Students’ Participation in the Teaching Learning Process, held at Newman College. Thodupuzha on 5-6 March 2020.
• Webinar. “Hunger and Taste: Transforming Gustatory Preferences amid the Pandemic”. Dept of English. Assumption College. 27-06-2020

2019

• Seeing and Believing: A discussion on Women and Cinema; Talk delivered at Cotton Hill Govt Higher Secondary School on 19-10-2019 in connection with the COTSA All Round Development Programme.

2018

• Keynote Address “Reading the Sociocultural Spaces within Cinema: A Study on Recent Malayalam Films. Dept of English. MES College Nedumkandam. 25 - 01-2018.
• Science Fiction: A Journey from Gothic to Posthuman, through Colonial and Post-colonial Trajectories. Sree Sankaracharya University. Kalady. 08-03-18
• Research in Literature: Changing Paradigms. Post Graduate and Research Department of English. Newman College. Thodupuzha 09-03-18
• Under the Greenwood Tree Club Monthly Seminar. Trivandrum. Literature in Contemporary Life. 24-05-18
• “Cultural memory as a Curator in Food writings from Kerala”. School of Letters, MG University. 8 September 2018
• Plenary lecture- Kitchen Narratives: The Politics of Cuisine in Kerala. At the International Symposium on Cultural Studies: Theorizing Praxis. Institute of English, Kerala University. 11 October 2018.

• Tale of a Culinary Enchantress- Chandrika Vaidya

  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5CUymHIdFInQ3M6oixNr8Ty1sQrmOnN/view?usp=sharing

  A documentary on Chandrika Vaidya, a tribal culinary expert and a tribal medical practitioner from Vithura. She is from the Kani tribe, and used to participate in several programmes organised by Kerala Government, SC/ST Department, Kerala Institute for Research Training and Development Studies of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and various such organisations.

Ph D Awarded

2024

• Shyamprasad R - Mapping Spaces, Journeys, and Subjectivities: A Geo critical Exploration of Benyamin’s Novels

2023

• Monisha Mohan- Kavu as a cultural imaginary: A Study on the representation of sacred groves in Malayalam cinema

2020

• Anu Kuriakose - (Trans)forming Space: Construction and Contestaton of Trangender Identities in Selected Malayalam Films

Ph D Ongoing

• Amalu Shaji (Visual Cultural Studies)
• Jorlin Jose (Digital Humanities and Shakespeare)
• Bizmi Nizar (Memory Studies)
• Sukanya V Mohan (Folk and Ecocriticism)
• Maria Philip (Film and Culinary Studies)

2023

• Three-day National Conference on Food and Culture: Transforming Perspectives and Paradigms from December 13-15, 2023.
• Dept of Humanities, IIST, Thiruvananthapuram and Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences, NIT, Thiruchirappalli, jointly organized a five-day online workshop on Academic Writing and Publishing from July 24-28, 2023.
• English Language Specialist Program by Dr Mackenzie Bristow on Bridging the gap between communication and science on 22-02-23.

2021

• Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), in association with AICTE- ATAL, conducted an FDP on Life Skills Management from July 12-16, 2021.

2017

• Theorizing Space: Three Day National Conference on the Intersections of Space and Culture. December 14-16,2017, organised by Dept of Humanities, IIST, Littcrit and Centre for Cultural Studies. University of Kerala.

2016

• Four Day National Workshop on Film Studies - June 21st – 24th , 2016, organised by Dept of Humanities, IIST and Centre for Cultural Studies. University of Kerala.

2015

• Four Day National Workshop on Research Methodology in Cultural Studies.- June15 – 18, 2015, organised by Dept of Humanities, IIST and Centre for Cultural Studies. University of Kerala.