Prof. Parinitha Shetty

Written by Sharanya DG 

Dr. Parinitha Shetty

Professor, Mangalore University, India

Dr. Parinitha Shetty is Professor in the Department of English at Mangalore University, India. She has been teaching in the university for more than thirty years. Her doctoral research was on popular fiction, specifically the genre of Romance in Kannada and English. For many years now, she has been working on the history of the Basel Mission in her region of Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka. She has also worked on issues of gender and teaches a paper on Gender.

In recent years, she has been writing editorials for newspapers such as The Indian Express and Deccan Herald.  She has also published her poetry in the online journal The Leaflet.

Areas of Interest: Gender Studies, Missionary Studies.

Email: parinith009[at]gmail[dot]com

Publications:

Research Articles:

  • “The Popular Formula: A Reappraisal.” Haritham: Journal of the School of Letters, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala. No. 13, 2001, pp. 53-62.
  • “Femina: The Writing of Sexuality and Gender.” Journal of Contemporary Thought, Forum on Contemporary Theory, The Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. Winter 2003, pp. 75-86.
  • “Re-formed Women and Narratives of the Self.” Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, The University of Calgary, Canada. Vol 37.1, January 2006, pp. 45-60.
  • “Saguna: The Fashioning of the New Woman.” Journal of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Spring 2008, pp. 52-66.
  • “Missionary Pedagogy and the Christianisation of the Heathens: The Educational Institutions established by the Basel Mission in Mangalore.” The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Sage. Vol. XLV. No.4, October-December 2008, pp. 509-551.
  • “Christianity, Reform and the Reconstitution of Gender: The Case of Pandita Ramabai.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Indiana University Press. Vol 28. No 1. Spring 2012, pp. 25-43.
  • “In The Name of Tradition.” Economic and Political Weekly. Sameeksha Trust Publication, Mumbai. Vol XLVII No 39 September 29, 2012, pp 19-22.
  • “Being Women: A Response to the Delhi Rape Case of 2012.” Journal of Contemporary Thought , Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda. Winter 2014, Vol 40, pp. 193-201.
  • “Marugadirekhegala Shodadalli: Basel Mission Shaalegala Prayogagalu.” Loka Jnana, Prasaranga, Tumkur University. May-August 2014, pp 47-57. (Kannada Article)
  • “Translation as Cultural Transaction: The Establishment of the Bramha Samaj in Mangalore.” Caesurae: Poetics of Cultural Translation. Vol.2:1, Special Issue, January 2017.
  • “Ullal Raghunathayya: Badalagutthiruva Samudayaondara Jeevana Charithre.” Loka Jnana, Prasaranga, Tumkur University. January-April 2023, pp 47-57. (Kannada Article)
  • “Difficult Negotiations: Daiva Worship within a Matrilineal Feudal Society.” Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 6, no. 4, 16 Jun. 2025, pp. 1.62–1.70, https://doi.org/10.71106/ECKO9206.
  • “The Crowd.” Economic and Political Weekly. August 23, 2025. Vol LX, No 34, pp 96-97.

Editorials

  • Karnataka Hijab Row: The Classroom is Important not Uniform. The Indian Express,10 February 2022.
  • Karnataka’s New Scheme for Women: A Bus ride for Equality. The Indian Express. 16 June 2023.
  • Campus has the right to speak, discuss, debate. Hindustan Times. 13 September 2023.
  • Our classrooms showed us the world. They must be protected from politics of division. The Indian Express. 27 February 2024.
  • A Subversive Humour. Deccan Herald. 11 April 2025.

Essays in Books:

  • “Conversion, Contestation and Community: Missionary Dialogues,” in Frenz Albrecht and Stephan Frenz, eds., Zukunft in Gedenken/Future in Remembrance, Norderstedt, 2007, pp. 132-152.
  • “Bekerung, Amnfechtung und Gemeinschaft: Missionsdialoge,” in Frenz Albrecht and Stephan Frenz, eds., Zukunft in Gedenken/Future in Remembrance, Norderstedt, 2007, pp. 152–75. (Translation of  Conversion, Contestation and Community: Missionary Dialogues into German).
  • “Moegling’s Commitment to Schools,” Herrmann Moegling: Conference Publication, Hermann Gundert Gesselschaft, Stuttgart, 2011, pp. 43-52.
  • “Medical Mission and the Interpretation of Pain,” in Siby K. George and P.G. Jung, eds. Cultural Ontology of the Self in Pain, Springer, New Delhi, 2016, pp 269-83.
  • “The Brahmin Girls’ Schools of the Basel Mission,” in Darwin L. Ed. Christian Contribution to the Women Empowerment. Christian Study Centre for Cultural and Social Change, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. 2018, pp. 183-193.
  • “Travelling Through Interstitial Spaces: The Radical Spiritual Journeys of Pandita Mary Ramabai Saraswathi,” in Philippe Bornet. ed. Translocal Lives and Religion: Connections between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World, Equinox, Sheffield, 8/02/2021.
  • “The Location of Hope in Human History,” in Ivan D’souza. Ed. Hope: Philosophizing From Multiple-Horizons, Association of Christian Philosophers of India, Delhi, 2025. ISBN: 978-93-6065-011-7, pp. xxv-xxxvii.
  • “Translating Matriliny through the Interpretative Structures of Colonial/Missionary Patriarchy” in The Basel Mission between Switzerland, Germany and South India: Entangled Histories from Conversion to Commerce. Eds. Mukesh Kumar, Amal Shahid, and Ella Daisy Müller. Leiden University Press, 2026, pp 173-201. ISBN. 9789400605473, 9789400605473, 9789087284954, 9789400605466.

Essays in Conference Proceedings:

  • Technologies of Communication and the Re-contouring of the Spatialised Practices of Gender and Sexuality, National Seminar on Reconstitution of Sexuality in Media and Popular Culture, 7-8 February 2014, Department of English, St Aloysius College, Mangalore, pp 6-14.
  • Pandita Ramabai: The Making of a Leader, UGC sponsored National Seminar on Women Political Leadership in Karnataka, 5th Feb 2016, Department of Political Science, SDM College, Ujire, Karnataka, pp 1-9.
  • Role of Inclusivity and Equity in Transforming Education, International Conference on Diversified Transformation in Education- Practices and Challenges, 24th February 2025, St Ann’s College of Education, Mangaluru, pp 5-8. ISBN 978-93-342-8827-8.

Books Edited:

  • Theory as Variation, R Radhakrishanan et. al. (eds.), Pencraft International, Delhi, 2007.

Book Reviews:

  • “A Community Transformed Through Colonial Modernity.” (Review of Indira Bai the Triumph of Truth and Virtue. Gulvadi Venkata Rao. Translated from the original Kannada by Vanamala Viswanatha and Shivarama Padikkal. Oxford University Press. 2019)  The Book Review, April 2020.