He is also Executive Director of the Center for Transcultural Studies,[1] an independent scholarly research network concerned with global issues based in Chicago and New York.
Gaonkar has two main sets of scholarly interests: rhetoric as an intellectual tradition, both its ancient roots and its contemporary mutations; and global modernities and their impact on the political.
Dilip Gaonkar hails from the Ankola region in Karwar district (south of Goa).
Gaonkar is married to Sally Ewing, a writer and former Associate Dean of Advising and Student Affairs at Northwestern University's School of Communication.
Goankar's doctoral thesis at the University of Pittsburgh was titled Aspects of sophistic pedagogy (1984).