Good day, Dr. Pankaj Kumar Verma. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Ah.

Uh, uh, hello. Uh, I am Pankaj Kumar Varma and I come from Marazan district of Uttar Pradesh. I started with my graduation in English honors which I completed from Banaras in the university and then pursued masters from the same university. Uh, and passed out in 2017. Then I cleared it and.

Take your time, Professor. Please share

Uh, I got Edison in.

To PhD in IIT Tirupati and I completed my PhD in 2022 and then since then I have been teaching. This is I taught one year in Dehradun as Assistant Professor and then 2023 onwards I have been teaching teaching in Boxing University, Hyderabad.

That's it. That is my professor in Germany.

Thank you for sharing that, Professor Varma.

Yes.

Professor Verma, good to have you here. Let’s begin by diving into your research expertise. Could you outline the focus of your PhD dissertation and its significance within the field of English studies?

Yes, so my PhD topic was pre modern concerns. Contemporary concerns are pre modern text and eco aesthetical study of bulb. So basically my PhD thesis I explored the text of Balbir from equestical perspective. So if you talk about equestics, it comes under the purview of eco criticism which is like critical exploration of.

Uh, environmental issues in literature, how environment is depicted in literary narratives, how, how it impacts the plot of the story and how the characters are influenced by the surrounding their environment and etcetera and et cetera. So basically.

In my text uh of Palanki Ramayan, while doing research I uh, I, I I find found out how the people in Raman call in Raman is they were basically living in harmony with the nature.

Who they are caring and uh, eco friendly approach towards nature. That is the finding of my literature. Uh, uh, that that is the finding app my resource thesis.

Understood, Professor Verma. It seems your dissertation emphasizes ecocriticism, particularly analyzing how pre-modern texts like Palanki Ramayan represent environmental themes and human-nature harmony. Could you elaborate on how this research aligns with or contributes to contemporary dialogues in eco-criticism or environmental humanities?

Uh, yes. So currently in the age of Anthropocene, uh, there is like, uh, uh, courses that are introduced in, uh, our, uh, course modules, whether it is undergraduate level, post-graduate labour or PhD work of people have been exploring, uh, the idea, how, uh, the humanistic query about the environmental crisis in the 21st century. Where human have, uh, dominated, take and can.

Taken control over nature and I've been exploiting, uh, natural resources since, uh, industrialization, since the beginning of industrialization. So uh, uh, many environmental humanities, the courses, uh, pertaining to environmental humanities, the text novel poems, etcetera are being introduced in the curriculum and which we are, which provide an insight my resource.

It's inside how to deal with these courses and, uh, uh, and, and provide, uh, a better understanding of holistic approach towards nature.

That makes sense. Your work clearly contributes to bridging pre-modern ecological perspectives with contemporary environmental concerns, offering valuable insights for curriculum development in environmental humanities. How do you integrate such findings into your teaching methods, particularly when engaging undergraduate or postgraduate students in discussions of eco-criticism or related topics?

Yes. So basically the finding that my resource thesis is basically.

How the ethical attitude, how we should develop?

Ethical eco, ethical attitude towards nature, which uh, which mean caring towards nature of friendia, uh, of friendly way towards, uh, environment and a sustain sustainable way of living. So, uh, basically, uh.

Uh, introducing or revising our, uh, mythological texts, whether any kind of narratives in and, uh, and uh, portraying it as a eco friendly approach that gives you insight that even our, we respects and we have.

We have attitude that these are our classical text, these are our some, some people believe that these are the religious texts which they have a huge respect for us. So they believe in the words of these text, whether it's classical texts, religious text or any kind of a text which is related to your Dharma and. Your way of understanding, Your way of approaching.

To environment, so if these texts are modified and make a very eco friendly narrative they can be introduced in our curriculum and that will change the human understanding about the environment and that will might provide some perspective how to maintain.

Sustainable way of life on this earth.

Thank you, Professor Verma. Your approach of linking classical and religious texts to contemporary eco-friendly narratives for academic curricula is both innovative and impactful. By embedding sustainability within deeply respected literary traditions, you propose a method to instill environmental consciousness in students. Let’s move to teaching practices. Beyond integrating eco-ethical narratives, how do you ensure active student engagement, particularly in delivering complex topics like eco-criticism or environmental humanities?

Yes, uh, there are, uh, different ma methods to engage student within the classroom actively For this, uh, we can, uh, uh, we can, uh, basically, uh, use what we call flipped classroom method where the.

Student take uh. Stars where they are assigned the topic, they study it they through different sources and then. They they come to the class and then they talk, they present those they explain to the teacher and other their classmates in the classroom. So it is like the flipped classroom made third day that gives them agency to to to to explain the things which makes them.

We make them prepare for a better, having better understanding about the topics and how, uh, to, uh, deal with the subject and to explore and gather more and more knowledge about the topics. Another uh, way of, uh, exploring, uh, engaging the classroom actively is a huge, is a way of, uh, based, uh, basically classroom teaching. Where student take charge themselves. Where they are active, uh, they set their goal, they set their assessment and everything. And a teacher becomes facilitator and he just guides him, the students. So that is another method. So by active, uh, teaching, I, I mean, uh, uh, there are other things if you, even if it is conventional classroom mode where I am lecturing, I am teaching students and they are feeling bored or something.

Like that, then we can, uh, use since, uh, some humorous, uh, ice breaker, ice breaking session or we try to make narrative interesting. Uh, we use stories, humor to deploy to, to just pass our message and other tools. Like sometimes we can so video clips, sort video clips, some kind of funny rings, which is really.

Impactful. So these are the techniques, uh, through digital techniques, through humor, through, through storytelling, we can even engage, make classroom engagement interesting while teaching in conventional mode also.

Thank you, Professor Verma. It’s evident that you value multiple pedagogical methods—like the flipped classroom approach, active learning, humor, and multimedia integration—to foster student engagement, even with challenging topics. You’ve highlighted a commendable balance between structured instruction and student autonomy. Let’s now shift to your experience guiding student research. Could you share an example of how you've mentored a student or group from initial research conception to final output?

Yes. So to guide the student and 1st uh, we need to uh.

What are the problems that they have in mind? What are the queries genuine query they have in their mind and uh, and related to what topics? Suppose a student have uh, really a query regarding the environmental crisis in 21st century. So what? What idea comes into their mind? First thing in that idea comes into their mind. So I would suggest them first go and.

Uh uh, give them time and ask.

Use some research tools like like like like Google scholars and other AI tools as well to download paper research paper good books article good lectures and related to those topics and study for a couple of months. And when the go, they go through these kind of reading, extensive reading.

Literature review through multiple sources, they, they will come off, uh, with better ideas. They might now be be able to frame their, uh, topics and, and they might have some understanding what, how they wanna approach to their study. And then after we can, we can suggest them what could be the suitable.

Methodology, whether there should be that should be data collects on what we quantitative study, they can follow or they can they should follow qualitative methods of research or data collection field visit, whatever based on the topic they have chosen and we can certainly provide input into that.

Understood, Professor Verma. Your process demonstrates a thoughtful and student-centric approach—encouraging initial brainstorming, extensive literature review, and then methodical guidance on research methodologies tailored to their topics. This ensures both intellectual growth and quality outcomes. Given your experience with research guidance and publications, could you provide an example of a research project you’ve published or collaborated on, and the insights it brought to your field?

Yes. So basically, uh, first couple of papers that are published in uh, uh, journals is, which are indexed in Scopus, uh, and they are related to my research thesis, basically eco-consciousness in Balmiki Ramayana and related to these topics and where I explored as I explained regarding my thesis that.

Uh, how the ecosystem exploration of the desktop Baltic Remiere and how the kind of eco-consciousness of caring or towards nature. So that is the, my couple of paper that I published. Then I have, uh, I have published a paper on Sita Aspen, which are, which is a, a, a female protagonist of the history of Palmiki Ramayan. So from eco feminist perspective. So how Sita is.

Move to the nature and how a female body is.

Is considered parallel to the nature because both of female body and nature are considered as a birth giver. They serve and they serve. They serve humanity as well. They are they produce basically. So they are contributor and they take care of nature and their society and surrounding and people everything.

In a better way than a man can. So that is a feminist perspective. Another paper, a couple of papers that I have written, one book chapter that I have written that explored the Yog Sutra of Patanjali, which talks about how you can heal basically the human problems, so.

That is one book chapter that I have published, which is published in by Springer. Uh, there are a couple of more papers that I am working working on and which are, which are currently under review and they are area of my interest. For example, one paper I have written on wetlands. So basically the wetlands are uh, uh, second most largest. Carbon sinks on this earth, but people don't know the.

The value of bit length and a lot of because I'm developing because of infrastructural development and agricultural land contribution, these wetlands are being converted into.

Industrial, industrial land and because of that lot of.

What we call marine marine biodiversity and ecosystem are are currently at.

At each stake, their lives are at each stake which disrupt the entire cycle of earthly ecosystem on this planet. So that is another research paper that I have written, another paper that I have written on forest fire. So basically you see on the summer the forest fire across India, basically in the hills, in the Himalaya, on Himalayan hills, it is rapidly. Or growing every year.

So we see in the summer forest fire is happening which destroying the entire ecosystem of North.

A Himalayan region. So these are the my research paper that is currently under review.

Thank you, Professor Verma. It’s impressive to see how your research breadth spans eco-consciousness in classical texts, eco-feminism, environmental degradation, and biodiversity preservation, offering both literary and pragmatic contributions. Your work bridges theoretical exploration with pressing environmental challenges, which demonstrates its multifaceted value. Let’s proceed to discuss how you balance teaching responsibilities alongside such extensive research efforts. During intense periods of academic workload, how do you ensure that neither teaching nor research quality is compromised?

Yeah. So The thing is that we can while teaching, what about the teaching, what are the course and we are teaching during in the our classroom, in our classrooms while guiding student, we can assign them project, a short term project for six months and all and in that project we can whatever the topic they choose related to the course.

At the end of the day, they can if it is very critical. And it is where retail in very logical and rational manner with a scientific inquiry, we can provide our teachers feedback on that. And then we we can say the student that we they can convert it into research research papers full article and we can submit those article to, to, to, to good journals for publication. And also that is one step three that we can adopt.

Maximize our research output as well as employed teaching and convert those teaching into a kind of scientific inquiry that that would really contribute into to to the academia and and scholarly fault. So that is one another thing on individual level, we can apply for projects if we. For there are bodies like SSSR, IKS and it's a different bodies which provides forms if you have some idea on the research. So if we have we can make a proposal and then we can.

Ask for a project if we get. Consensus, if those project proposal are accepted and get funds, uh, we get fund and, uh, uh, money's our sense of function, then we can, uh, uh, you, we can basically employ our student as well to take up that project, to be part of that project. And we can deploy the first field visit and all, and they collect data and then we can make them. Uh, make them, uh, convert them.

Uh, use to data to basically, uh, writing our, uh, research paper and research projects. So that would be another way of, uh, managing both teaching and research.

Thank you, Professor Verma. Your method of integrating student-driven projects into research pursuits is resourceful and shows a commitment to fostering both student development and scholarly contributions. Additionally, seeking funded projects and involving students in data collection and fieldwork stands out as a strong collaborative model. Now, moving towards collaboration, have you had any experience working on interdisciplinary or institutional projects, and how do you contribute your expertise in such environments?

Yeah, so currently I just submitted a project.

To ICSSR for 27 lack of, uh, uh, research fund, uh, and that proposal that I made on uh, uh, particularly vulnerable tribes of Telangana and the tribe Navy is Chenchu. So basically in that proposal I have, uh, basically my idea is that if I get one proposal, then we can explore.

Uh, the change study on change to drive, which are whose, whose, uh, cultural tradition, the which term indigenous knowledge and uh, are basically being, uh, uh, is vanishing slowly because after I paid industrialization and migration to the cities and everywhere. And we can, uh, we can secure their animistic tradition, cultural practices. Their language.

And other environmental practices, how they have been maintained their life in the ecosystem, uh, animistic tradition and what are the resources that I wish them regarding their culture, regarding their approach to nature and et cetera. So these are the things which are practical in application. And through this research, we can basically. Contribute something meaningful based on the real data.

Real knowledge and, uh, real life experience.

Understood, Professor Verma. Your submission of the ICSSR project focusing on preserving the cultural and environmental practices of the Chenchu tribe illustrates a deep commitment to interdisciplinary research, blending ethnography, environmental studies, and linguistic preservation. It also highlights your ability to address real-world challenges with academic rigor. Considering your extensive experience and interdisciplinary focus, how do you envision contributing to fostering research output and student development in the department you would potentially join?

So based on this project, similarly, I would like to write more proposal. Uh, uh, this idea comes and develop file teaching the classroom itself. So what you, you what we do? We have some idea we discussed with our colleague or if colleague, some the colleague might be from different discipline or while teaching the classroom is some students are interested cutting out resource They are bright they have. Personal thinking, scientific attitudes, we can also discuss with them and we can make proposal and convert those some those studies into fully skilled research paper and then we can.

Collaborate this way we can collaborate with our colleagues or our junior scholars students and we can get that paper published into a fully skilled research paper and we can contribute into into the VIT in our future in our in present institution.

The institution we are going to work.

Thank you, Professor Verma. Your dedication to collaboration—whether with colleagues across disciplines or with students—is commendable. It shows a proactive approach to enriching both personal research output and institutional standing. Your emphasis on nurturing bright students and fostering high-quality academic contributions aligns significantly with departmental and institutional goals. Let’s now evaluate your capacity to mentor research candidates. Could you describe how you assess potential candidates for research mentoring and ensure they thrive in their projects?

Our scheduled time for the interview is now up. Before we conclude, do you have any questions related to the role or the company?

I don't have any query but certainly if have in future if I have any query I'll contact you.

Understood, Professor Verma. It’s been a pleasure discussing your experiences and expertise. I will ensure that your candidacy is reviewed comprehensively. Thank you for your time, and I wish you all the best in your academic endeavors. Let me know when you'd like me to conclude this session.

Yeah, please conclude the session now.

Thank you. Thank you for your time and.

Look, wonderful opportunity.