Prafulla C. Kar, currently the Director of Forum on Contemporary Theory, was formerly the Head of the Department of English, M. S. University of Baroda. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah, USA in 1973. A former Deputy Director and Academic Associate at the American Studies Research Center, Hyderabad, he was the recipient of both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral Fulbright Fellowships to study in the United States. He was also a Fellow of the School of Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth College in 1986. Professor Kar is the editor of the Journal of Contemporary Thought and has published several books and papers on American literature, literary theory, Indian English literature and cultural studies.

Professor Kar is the recipient of the 2012 Nicolas Guillen Award for Philosophical Literature of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. The Award was presented to him on July 20, 2012, during the international meeting of the Caribbean Philosophical Association in the St. Augustine campus of the University of West Indies, Trinidad for his “extraordinary contribution to the study of the humanities in India and the impact of his work across the globe.” The Committee also noted his role “in the growing cultivation of dialogue across the Global South and the institutions he has developed such as the Centre for Contemporary Theory, the Journal of Contemporary Thought, and the annual conferences that have in recent times brought in the voices of the Caribbean.”  Past prize winners of the Award include Wilson Harris, Rambai Espinent, Edwidge Danticat, Junot Diaz, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.