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M.A., Ph.D. (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi – AUD)

B.A., M.A. (University of Delhi)

Prof. (Dr.) Ashwin Varghese

Assistant Professor

Email ashwin.varghese@jgu.edu.in
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ORCID ID 0000-0003-0911-2562

M.A., Ph.D. (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi – AUD)

B.A., M.A. (University of Delhi)

Biography

Dr. Ashwin Varghese, FHEA, is a political sociologist studying power, policing, and algorithmic governance. He was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre of Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge, where he led an independent research project on algorithmic governance and the changing dynamics of discretion. During this period, he was also a College Research Associate at King’s College, Cambridge. He has also worked as a Researcher on the Research Council of Norway-funded project Algorithmic Governance and Cultures of Policing: Comparative Perspectives from Norway, India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa (AGOPOL), and as a Research Fellow on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Insight Grant -funded project Police Unions, Democratic Security, & Social Justice. His broader research interests include political economy, critical perspectives on AI, theories of the everyday, and ethnographic methods.

  • Regulate, Mediate, Facilitate: Sociological Perspectives on Governance and Development 
  • Sociology of Science, Technology and Digital Society 
  • Social Inequalities 
  • Social Identities 
  • Indian Society: Introduction to Key Issues 
  • Understanding Knowledge Production 
  • Interdisciplinary Seminar 3
  • Researcher Contribution Increment Scheme Award – Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge (2025)
  • Emerald Literati Award for Outstanding Paper (2023)
  • Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) – Advance HE, UK (2026)
  • Research Network Affiliate – Centre of Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge (2026-Present)
  • College Research Associate – King’s College, University of Cambridge (2024-2026)

Varghese, A., & Jauregui, B. (2026). ‘An association with discipline’: Duty, politics and police associations in Kerala, India. Policing and Society, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2026.2740127

Varghese, A. (2026). Algorithmic governance and postcoloniality: A case study of AI traffic enforcement systems in Kerala, India. Sociology Compass, 20(7). https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.70228

Varghese, A. (2026). E-governance and the Kerala model: Unpacking the changing dynamics of discretion, autonomy and control. Tayarisha Working Papers Series, Vol. 2: Digital Governance Politics and Management: A View from the 91Ƶ South. Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. https://www.wits.ac.za/tayarisha/activities/research/publications/working-paper-series/

Ganguly, S., & Varghese, A. (2026). Teaching sociology and invoking sociological imagination in neoliberal times: Possibilities and predicaments in new contexts. Journal of Sociology, 62(3), 402–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833261463854

Varghese, A. (2025). The dialectics of discretion in algorithmic governance and smart policing. Big Data & Society, 12(4), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251403966

Varghese, A., & Rajeev, A. (2025). Gender, work, and the anthropomorphisation of technology. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 36(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/elr.2025.10042

Varghese, A. (2024). E-Governance and Smart Policing in Kerala, India: Towards a Kerala Model of Algorithmic Governance?. In: Kuldova, T.Ø., Gundhus, H.O.I., Wathne, C.T. (eds) Policing and Intelligence in the 91Ƶ Big Data Era, Volume I. Palgrave’s Critical Policing Studies. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-68326-8_7

Varghese, A., & Rajeev, A. (2024). Unpacking the gendered nature of police work in India. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 14(1), 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-11-2023-0067

Varghese, A. (2022). Police interactions in post-colonial India: How particularistic accountability, legitimacy and tolerated illegality condition everyday policing in Delhi and Kerala. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 11(2), 162–180. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-12-2020-0057

Varghese, A. (2021). Combating capitalism: A case study of left polity in Kerala. International Critical Thought, 11(2), 303–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/21598282.2021.1886593

Varghese, A. (2021). Review of Santosh K. Singh (Ed.), Remembering India’s Villages, Aakar Books, New Delhi, 2021. Romanian Journal of Indian Studies, (1), 161-164. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=980055

Varghese, A. (2021). Legally Sanctioned but Socially Opposed: Experiences of Navigating an Interfaith Marriage. Explorations, 5(2), 265-276. http://app.insoso.org/ISS_journal/Repository/Ashwin_Aishwariya.pdf

Varghese, A. (2020). “Filling a Time-Use Sheet: A Reflective Exercise in Gender Roles.” Log-In Gender: An Online Portal for Educators, January 1. https://logingender.wiscomp.org/filling-a-time-use-sheet-a-reflective-exercise-in-gender-roles/

Varghese, A. (2020). “Gender Demographics in Higher Education.” Log-In Gender: An Online Portal for Educators, January 24. https://logingender.wiscomp.org/gender-demographics-in-higher-education/

Varghese, A. (2020). “Pandemic and Displacement of Healthcare to Domestic Care.” Log-In Gender: An Online Portal for Educators, March 18. https://logingender.wiscomp.org/pandemic-and-displacement-of-healthcare-to-domestic-care/

Varghese, A. (2019). “Objectivity in Research: Foregrounding Gendered Access.” Log-In Gender: An Online Portal for Educators, December 16. https://logingender.wiscomp.org/objectivity-in-research-foregrounding-gendered-access/

Varghese, A. (2019). Book Review: Sanjay Srivastava, Yasmeen Arif, and Janaki Abraham, eds. 2019. Critical Themes in Indian Sociology. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 53(3), 441-468. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0069966719860367

Varghese, A. (2018). “Abolishing the Orderly System: Colonial relic feeds off hierarchies of caste and class within police rank and file.” The Leaflet, September 3. https://theleaflet.in/abolishing-the-orderly-system-colonial-relic-feeds-off-hierarchies-of-caste-and-class-within-police-rank-and-file/

Somani, D., & Varghese, A. (2016). Reconstruction Through Annihilation: Caste and Modern Society. In Kumar, P. A. (Ed.), B.R. Ambedkar and Social Justice: Towards an Egalitarian Social Order (pp. 1-24). New Delhi: Meena Book Publications.
Email ashwin.varghese@jgu.edu.in
ORCID ID 0000-0003-0911-2562