Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra

Faculty Image

Ankur Ranjan

Joined Institute on : 18-Aug-2025

  • Assistant Professor
  • Humanities and Social Science
  • PhD (submitted), IIT Madras
Contact Address

Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, BIT Mesra, Ranchi 835215

Hajipur, Vaishali, Bihar 844101

  • Phone Office - 9582608695
  • Phone Residence - -
  • Email - rankur@bitmesra.ac.in
Research Areas

My research explores modernity and its cultural discontents within the German intellectual tradition that has profoundly shaped and continues to shape academic discourses in political and moral philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and the philosophy of language. My interests lie in the post-Kantian history of ideas in the continental tradition, with a particular focus on eighteenth-century mysticism and Romanticism, as well as existentialism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. At the core of my work is an inquiry into the cultural constitution of modernity and the ways it enables—and constrains—the possibilities of autonomy and critique. More broadly, I engage with contemporary debates on authenticity, modern identity and difference, self-understanding, social ontology, and normative theory. These concerns anchor my academic pursuit of understanding how the ressentiment, anxieties, crises, and demands of modern culture can be both critically interrogated and re-thought.

Publications
Publication Year 2024
  • Ankur Ranjan;The Problem of Authenticating Authenticity in Charles Taylor.Warwick Continental Philosophy Conference: Approaching Value, University of Warwick;Seminar ;;2024
  • Ankur Ranjan;Taylor's Account of Authenticity as an Ideal of Self-fulfilment and the Tenacious Predicament of Inauthenticity.Self and Society Workshop, IIT Bombay ;Workshop ;;2024
  • Ankur Ranjan, Nguyen Van Thich;Exploration of Fear in the Pāli Canonical Texts: Contextualizing the Pandemic of Fear.Journal of Dharma Studies: Asian and Transcultural Religion, Philosophy, & Ethics;7 325-348;;2024
  • Ankur Ranjan, Sreekumar Nellickappilly;Taylor’s Ontologised Moral Realism and the Problem of Authenticity.Symposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences;Issue 12, Vol. 2 (Forthcoming) ;;2024
  • Ankur Ranjan, Sreekumar Nellickappilly;Elusive Difference in Taylor’s Conception of Authentic Identity.Tattva Journal of Philosophy;Forthcoming ;;2024
Publication Year 2023
  • Ankur Ranjan, Nguyen Van Thich;From Fear to Fearlessness: A Reflection on Pandemic Experience.International Conference on the Tenets of Buddha and Global Well-Being: Nature, Significance and Application, Gautam Buddha University;Conference ;;2023
  • Ankur Ranjan;Identity and Authenticity in Taylor.Philosophical Debates on Inclusion/Exclusion, University of Kerala;Seminar ;;2023
  • Ankur Ranjan;Rethinking Authenticity: An Arendtian Perspective.MANCEPT Workshop in Political Theory: Duties to Oneself, University of Manchester ;Workshop ;;2023
Fellow

June 2019-June 2024: Half-Time Research Assistant at Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India