Prof Om Prakash Mishra joined Indira Gandhi National Open University in July 2007. As the seniormost Pro-Vice Chancellor, he is Member, Board of Management, of the University.
Prior to joining IGNOU, Prof Mishra was engaged in teaching and research in Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He joined the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, as a Lecturer in 1987, and was appointed as Reader in 1993 and Professor in 2001. He was Head of the Department of International Relations in the University (1994-1996), and the Founder-Coordinator of the Centre for Refugee Studies.
He has supervised the research work of a number of PhD and MPhil scholars and published and lectured extensively on issues and themes related to Indian Foreign Policy and National Security, United Nations, Human Rights and Forced Migration. Some of the more recent publications of Prof Mishra include the edited volumes ‘The Elsewhere People: Cross-Border Migration, Refugee Protection and State Response’, 2003; ‘Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict in South Asian Region’, 2003; ‘Forced Migration in South Asian Region: Displacement, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution’, in collaboration with Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 2004.
In August 2004, Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh invited him to serve on the National Security Advisory Board, a responsibility he served with distinction. In November 2005, the University Grants Commission invited him to Chair an Expert Committee on Universities and Public Policy.
He was, till recently, running a nationally-coordinated programme on The Partition of India Revisited: Thinking Through and Beyond Violence, Trauma and Memory.
Prof Mishra has been a consultant to many reputed international research institutes and organisations, like the Global IDP Project of the Norwegian Refugee Council, UNHCR, and Brookings Institution etc.
He has served various academic committees and played an important role in curriculum development and course structuring. He has lectured extensively in Universities and research institutes in India and abroad and has many research publications to his credit.
He is a regular commentator on current political and international affairs in print and electronic media in the country and abroad.
Prof Mishra has been invited by many of the top teaching and research institutes and national and international NGOs and has been invited to countries including China, USA, Canada, UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Austria, Pakistan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Australia, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Russia etc. for various academic assignments.
Prof Mishra's first US visit was under the prestigious International Visitors' Programme of the Government of the United States of America, and he was in the UK at the invitation of University of Oxford.
More recently, he founded Global India Foundation — a think tank established with the objective of promoting national resilience and promoting international interdependence, together with professionals and citizens from various parts of India. The Foundation is an initiative to contribute in India’s efforts to realise its aspirations of playing a meaningful and constructive role in regional and global affairs. The Foundation was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in January 2007.
Prof Mishra’s interest and expertise straddle many issue areas in international relations, foreign policy and national security. He serves on various committees and expert groups in different capacities, and is regularly consulted on policy and governance issues by a number of Government departments, academic and research institutes and non-governmental organisations across the country.
He received a First Class first (Gold Medalist) in BA (Hons) in Political Science from North Bengal University in 1982, and a First Class in MA and MPhil in International Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 1984 and 1986, respectively.
Email : professor.mishra@gmail.com; opmishra@ignou.ac.in
