Ari Sitas

Ari Sitas is a poet, dramatist and sociologist who is also involved lately in musical work in and around the Indian Ocean. His first poetry collection “Tropical Scars” was published in 1989 and has subsequently seen another 7 volumes published, the last of which was “The Vespa Diaries” in 2018. His work has been translated into many languages. Some of his Sociological and creative work has been published by Tulika Press in India. Sitas has had a two decade association with JNU which granted him in 2016 the inaugural Baghat Singh Chair in Historical Studies. His latest work was the staging of “Giraffe Humming” a musical and visual reconstruction of the tale of the move of three giraffes from Africa to Bengal and then to China in 1414CE. He has been awarded the Order of Mapungubwe, by the South African presidency in 2019 for his contribution to scientific and creative work.