Arun Kumar

I am a historian of modern South Asia with expertise in the social-economic and colonial history of modern India. I write about working-class experiences, desires, and dreams, history of the night, letter-writing, education, and labour market.

Arun Kumar joined the History Department in September 2019. He is a historian of modern India and a public history intellectual with an interest in social, economic, educational and labour history. His work explores different facets of working-class life histories, including their dreams, education, night-time histories, and childhood. He is currently working on his first book project, which is tentatively titled as The Silent Rebellion: Working-Class Dreams, Education and Welfare Capitalism. Dr. Kumar's research has appeared in journals such as Past & Present, South Asia: Journal of South Asia, Journal of South Asian Development, and his writings have been translated into Ukrainian language.

He frequently writes opinions, columns, and essays for newspapers and magazines such as The Telegraph, The Indian Express, The Wire, Aeon, Scroll. His academic and public engagement work on rural libraries has been featured in Mumbai Mirror, Times of India, Dainik Jagran (Hindi newspaper). Times Higher Education interviewed him in 2021 for his work's impact on community engagement.

After finishing his schooling in a rural school in Uttar Pradesh in North India, Dr. Kumar moved to Delhi University in 2007 to study BA Honors History at Delhi College of Arts & Commerce. He was the president of the History Association and an advisor to the Student Union. For his MA History, Dr. Kumar studied at St. Stephen's College and the Department of History, Delhi University. He was awarded the prestigious Lala Ram Mohan Prize for securing the first rank in the university. He completed his PhD (2013-17) in South Asian history at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Goettingen University. His PhD on the educational dreams of Indian workers was part of the Transnational Research Group on 'Poverty and Education in Modern India' which was funded by the Max Weber Foundation.

Kumar's PhD work was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Prize of the German Historical Institute London for the year 2018.

Before joining Nottingham University, Dr. Kumar worked as a research fellow at the International Institute of Social History Amsterdam, Linnaeus University Sweden, and the Merian-Tagore International Centre for Advanced Studies (ICAS) New Delhi.