R Karthick Narayanan

Dr. R. Karthick Narayanan is a linguist, digital archivist, and digital humanities specialist based in Chennai. He currently serves as the Executive Director and Co-founder of the Council for Diversity and Innovation (CoDIN) and as was previously the Chief Community and Data Officer at UnReal TecE LLP. His work sits at the intersection of language, technology, and cultural preservation. He focuses on translational research and the infrastructure-documentation bridge, specifically applying AI and language technologies for social good. A core pillar of his work is the documentation and digital archiving of under-represented and indigenous languages in South Asia. Guided by the principles of epistemic justice and community-centered archiving—rooted in Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility—he has been instrumental in public initiatives like the Tholkudi Digital Repository. Beyond linguistics, his archival work extends into ethnomusicology, notably through the Suvadugal project, which involves the extensive documentation of traditional folk musical instruments and their acoustic identities. As an accomplished scholar and writer, he co-authored the book Marum Ulagil Maraya Oligal (Sahitya Akademi), a work that earned him the SPARROW–R. Thyagarajan Literary Award.