Gurukkal is a historian and social scientist famed for critical historiography. He wrote history beyond the discipline as a pioneering researcher of interdisciplinary perspective. His specialisations in interdisciplinary fields such as social theory, historical human ecology, human geography, philosophy of science, social semiotics, Dravidian poetics, and theory of knowledge production vouch for it. He has authored eleven books brought out mostly by Oxford University Press and about 200 research articles in reputed journals in history and social sciences. His latest books are: Rethinking Classical Indo-Roman Trade, Oxford University Press, 2015 and History and Theory of Knowledge Production, Oxford University Press, 2019. He has authored a few widely cited articles in higher education policy, knowledge economy, and techno-pedagogy too.

Gurukkal’s studies in early South Indian social formations, archaeology of agro-pastoral heroism, mythical and legendary aspects of a Brahmin chronicle, beginnings of slavery in Kerala, early trade networks, circulation of religious communities through kinship network of maritime traders, exchange of cultures through trade networks, anthropology of early forms of exchange and political economy of maritime trade, beginnings of the caste system in Kerala are being cited by specialists the world over.

Gurukkal has lectured at several universities in the country as well as abroad such as Humboldt, Leipzig, Berlin, Heidelberg, Tubingen and RUHR (Germany); EHESS, Paris and CIRAD, Montpellier (France); Toronto, Kingston, McMaster (Canada); Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, SOAS, Reading, Westminister (UK); Shanghai (China); Tokyo, Taisho, and Toyobungo (Japan); Central European University, Budapest (Hungary), Vienna; and Geneva (Switzerland).