A. R. Venkatachalapathy (b. 1967) is a professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. He studied in Chennai before doing a PhD in history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Chalapathy has taught at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli; the University of Madras; and the University of Chicago. He has held research assignments in Paris, Cambridge, London, and Harvard. He was the Indian Council for Cultural Relations Chair in Indian studies at the National University of Singapore (2011-12). He has published widely on the social, cultural, and intellectual history of colonial Tamilnadu. Apart from his writings in English he has written and published extensively in Tamil. His more than thirty books include non-fiction, compilations, scholarly editions and translations. Over the last few years he has been writing in the popular media. He was awarded the VKRV Rao Prize for History in 2007. Presently he is working on a biography of Periyar.
