HSS IITGN – IIT Gandhinagar

Events & Talks

Campus Life

HSS Initiatives

Social Justice Seminar Series

February 25, 2021

Social Justice Seminar Series

Social Justice Seminar Series at IITGN is an attempt to initiate discussions on the themes of marginalization, exclusion, inequality and discrimination against…

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Graduate Seminar Series

February 25, 2021

Graduate Seminar Series

HSS-Graduate Seminar Series is a student initiative to serve as a platform for students to share their latest work and receive constructive feedback from their peers.

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Dialogues

February 25, 2021

Dialogues

An initiative of HSS@IITGN, ‘Dialogues’ celebrates IIT Gandhinagar’s ethos of cross- disciplinary interactions and exchange of ideas, thoughts and research…

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India Ki Khoj

December 09, 2020

India Ki Khoj

India-Ki-Khoj is an intensive module focusing upon the understanding and appreciation of India through diverse lectures and field visits.The program is designed and led by members of the…

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IIT Gandhinagar Campus

Academic programs

MA in Society & Culture

December 17, 2015

MA in Society & Culture

The Masters in Society and Culture, a unique program conceptualized and implemented by the faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar…

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Minor in HSS

August 05, 2015

Minor in HSS

The Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS) group at IIT Gandhinagar (IITGN) currently offers training in critical inquiry and understanding of the social world…

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PhD Program

August 05, 2015

PhD Program

The program develops around the existing broad areas of research: Linguistic Anthropology, Conservation and Human-Animal rapport, Digital Humanities…

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News & Updates

Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar

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Our MA student Dipayan Pal pens an opinion piece t

Our MA student Dipayan Pal pens an opinion piece titled 'Busting the myth of a failed meritocracy' for The Pioneer on 1st May 2021!

This Friday (23 April), we have the last Social Ju

This Friday (23 April), we have the last Social Justice Seminar of this semester.

Title: Abjection of youth/sexuality in contemporary Kerala

Date: 23 April 2021 Fri
Time: 5:00 - 6:30 pm

Speaker: J. Devika
Affiliation: Centre for Development Studies, Kerala.

Moderator: Udita Banerjee
Affiliation: PhD Scholar (HSS)

About the speaker: J Devika is a feminist researcher and teacher at the Centre for Development Studies, Kerala. She has contributed to the understanding of the history of gender, development, politics, and culture of modern Kerala. Her work is interdisciplinary, and she brings to bear her training as a historian on contemporary issues. She is interested in opening up the boundaries between academic and public and pedagogic discourses, the social sciences and humanities, and English and Malayalam. She also translates literature and social science between Malayalam and English, writes occasionally for children, besides offering commentary on contemporary politics in Kerala on www.kafila.online.

Abstract: This talk reflects broadly on the production of marginals in the context of Kerala State, India and more specifically, on the contemporary moment in which young people face the increased risk of abjection. I attempt to make sense of this by recounting the complex historical conjecture of demographic change and economic transformation subsequent shifts in the structure and functions of the family which seems to have intensified the disciplining of youth in Kerala. Further, I interpret the Kiss of Love protests (2014–2015) which originated in Kerala but spread to other places in India as an effort not only to challenge Hindutva violence in public spaces but also as an attempt to resist the more fundamental resistance to the abjection of the body and sexuality. I conclude with thoughts on further research.

Weblink:
https://iitgn-ac-in.zoom.us/j/96120604325?pwd=Y0dweFJLNWtNbU13dGVOaEFvVXNsdz09

Meeting ID: 961 2060 4325
Passcode: 229800

Friends, We are delighted to invite you to the nex

Friends,
We are delighted to invite you to the next event of "Dialogues."
On Wednesday, April 28, Professor Crispin Bates will deliver a talk on
'RETHINKING INDIAN LABOUR HISTORY: North Indian Overseas Labour Migration in the Colonial Era'

Please see below for further details"
Day: April 28, Wednesday
Time: 5:30 - 7:00 pm
https://iitgn-ac-in.zoom.us/j/99649686132?pwd=WGpyYnVFRE5NV0VHeFoyUFdPMGRXUT09

Meeting ID: 996 4968 6132
Passcode: 635588

Speaker Bio:
Crispin Bates is the Professor of modern and contemporary South Asian history at the University of Edinburgh and a Research Professor at Sunway University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He completed his PhD at Cambridge University, where he was also a Junior Research Fellow. He and has held Visiting Professorships in Paris, Calcutta, Kyoto, Tokyo and the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan. He has authored, co-authored and edited a
total of 15 books including a history of South Asia from 1600 to the present day entitled Subalterns and Raj, published by Routledge (20010), and a series of seven-volumes about the history of the Indian Uprising of 1857, entitled Mutiny at the Margins, published by Sage. In 2015-18 he led ‘Becoming Coolies’, a major AHRC-funded project on the origins of Indian Overseas labour migration in the Indian Ocean in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, for which he conducted research in archives throughout the Indian Ocean region. He is the lead academic editor of several book series including ‘Global South Asians’ from
Cambridge University Press.

Abstract:
Indian men and women travelled in unprecedented numbers overseas following the great Indian Uprising of 1857. This paper argues that there was an intimate connection between these two events: demonstrated by an analysis of 4,600 migrants from the port of Calcutta between 1857 and 1869. However, ‘push’ factors from north India and ‘pull’ factors arising from the demands of employers were only part of this story. Indians used informal networks and affective relationships to counter the exploitative arrangements set in place by colonial governments. Crucial to their migrations were intermediaries of various sorts. Known as ‘traf

The department of Humanities and Social Sciences,

The department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar is organising a workshop aimed at examining human-animal relations at the 'margins' through anti-caste socio-ecological understanding titled "Human-Animal Relations at the Margin: A quest for social justice" during August 17-18, 2021. The workshop attempts to understand the differences in the social and the order of nature through Dalit, Bahujan and tribal texts, artwork, and images, and hopes to initiate a discussion about our connections with animals such as dogs, pigs, vultures, donkeys, buffaloes to highlight one's marginalized existence and to seek social justice. Animals are a powerful reminder of the ‘sub-human’ status of underprivileged communities, whose narratives uncover dark, inhumane, and unsettling references to the animals. This workshop seeks to examine these entanglements. One may submit their Papers for this workshop latest by May 10, 2021, through this link. https://bit.ly/harm-workshop

#IITGNWorkshop #SocialJustice #HumanAnimalRelation

HSS doctoral scholar Camellia Biswas has been sele

HSS doctoral scholar Camellia Biswas has been selected for the Global Research Network ThinkTank Junior Fellowship in Climate and Energy. The GRN will be providing the necessary aids for her to write for various journals, magazines and conferences. They will provide funding if selected for any conference. As part of the Fellowship, she can organise a workshop or conference and they can fund that as well. Many congratulations to her!

Hearty congratulations to HSS Research Scholar Vys

Hearty congratulations to HSS Research Scholar Vysakh R. who has recently been awarded a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the prestigious Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research!

Vysakh will use this grant to pursue his PhD research on language endangerment, multilingualism, and environmental change in the Nicobar Islands.

Friends, We are delighted to invite you to the nex

Friends,
We are delighted to invite you to the next event of "Dialogues."
On Wednesday, April 14, Professor Rosinka Chaudhuri, Director and Professor of Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC), will deliver a talk on

"Civil and Political Liberty and the Happiness of Indians: Calcutta, 1843"

Please see below for further details

Day: April 14, Wednesday

Time: 5:30 - 7:00 pm

Zoom ID: 91861279321

Passcode: 311814

Speaker Bio:
Rosinka Chaudhuri (D.Phil. Oxon) is Director and Professor of Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC). She was inaugural Mellon Professor of the Global South at Oxford University, 2017-18, and has held visiting positions at King’s College, London, Delhi University, Cambridge University and Columbia University.

Her books include Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal: Emergent Nationalism and the Orientalist Project (Seagull: 2002), Freedom and Beef-Steaks: Colonial Calcutta Culture (Orient Blackswan: 2012) and The Literary Thing: History, Poetry and the Making of a Modern Cultural Sphere (Oxford University Press: 2013, Peter Lang: 2014).

She has edited: Derozio, Poet of India: A Definitive Edition (Oxford University Press, 2008), The Indian Postcolonial (with Elleke Boehmer, Routledge UK, 2010), A History of Indian Poetry in English (Cambridge University Press, 2016), An Acre of Green Grass and Other English Writings of Buddhadeva Bose (Oxford University Press, 2018), and a series titled Social Science Across Disciplines (co-edited with Partha Chatterjee, Oxford University Press, 2019). Most recently, she has edited, annotated and introduced George Orwell’s Burmese Days for Oxford World’s Classics as part of their Orwell series (2021).

Many articles, reviews and book chapters have been published nationally and internationally, while her translation Rabindranath Tagore’s letters, titled Letters from a Young Poet (1887-94) (Penguin Modern Classics, 2014) received an Honorable Mention in the category A.K. Ramanujan Prize for Translation (S. Asia) at the Association for Asian Studies Book Prizes 2016

Abstract:
1843 saw the formation of the first Indian political

We are happy to share details of a workshop 'Human

We are happy to share details of a workshop 'Human-Animals relations at the margins: A quest for Social Justice' organised by Humanities and Social Sciences at IITGN. Please see the flyer attached. Kindly circulate this among your colleagues and networks.

Abstract submission: 10 May 2021
Workshop dates (tentative): 17-18 August 2021

Human-Animal relations at the margins: A quest for Social Justice

Relations between humans and animals are multifaceted. The various ways of perceiving the ‘conjoint’ living have been analysed and examined from multiple perspectives and disciplinary lenses. While some animals and birds are positioned as superior in the Brahminical social order, others seem to be subordinated and are associated with certain ‘inferior’ caste groups. A lot has been written about the need to ‘decolonize’ animal studies and wildlife conservation, but there is no discussion or attempt to ‘de-brahminize’ animal studies and conservation science in India. While there is sufficient literature on tribal communities and their association with forests and animals, many excluded communities and their relations with animals are yet to make their presence in the mainstream academic discourse. This workshop will examine human-animal relations at the margins through anti-caste socio-ecological understanding. It attempts to understand the differences in the social and the order of nature through Dalit, Bahujan and tribal texts, artwork, images, symbols, and icons. It will explore the meaning-making processes by examining animal metaphors in marginalised communities' lived experiences to seek social justice. This workshop asks a simple question, ‘how do we understand human-animal through the lived experiences of the most marginal?

The workshop also hopes to initiate a discussion about our connections with animals such as dogs, pigs, vultures, donkeys, buffaloes to highlight one's marginalized existence through experiences of stigma, disgust, and degradation. Similarly, how conservation regimes and laws have prioritized animals considered ‘sacred’ or ‘protected’ over the socially oppressed communities, resulting in exclusion. Moreover, animals are a powerful remi

HSS-Graduate Seminar Series is excited to announce

HSS-Graduate Seminar Series is excited to announce two special talks to commemorate the birth anniversaries of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Talk 1

Title: Plebian Philosopher Mahatma Phule

Speaker: Prof. Umesh Bagade (Professor of History, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad)

Moderator: Khushboo Kumari (MASC, HSS)

Date and Time: 12 April, Monday, 5:00-6:30 PM

Meeting Link: https://iitgn-ac-in.zoom.us/j/97566336175?pwd=VjhYY1Q3bDZqeVMybHNEVVl2Q1ArQT09

About the Speaker: Umesh Bagade is a Professor of History in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. He works on the history of anti-caste movements, intellectual and social history of modern Maharashtra, historiography, studies of caste economy and history of caste gender consciousness. His book, Reform Movement of Maharashtra and Caste-Class Hegemony (2006) theorizes the dynamics of religious ideologies entrapped in caste-class contradictions of 19th century Maharashtra. His biography of Mahatma Jotirao Phule situates Phule as the major thinker who tried to build alternative culture in19th century Mahrashtra. Prof Bagade is currently working on trilogy of books tracing three different trajectories of caste consciousness in Modern Maharashtra unfolding changing textures of Dalit, peasant and Brahmin caste consciousness. He has served as Director of Rajashri Shahu Maharaj Research Center. He also worked as the member of editorial board of the journals like Shrivani, Samaj Prabodhan Patrika; he worked in various capacities on the board of studies in different universities and also worked as member of advisory Board of center of freedom struggle IGNOU New Delhi. He is president of Nana Patil Academy working as collaborative intellectual intervention in social transformation.

Abstract: Jotirao Phule never ever pretended to be a philosopher, nor he ever used the grandiose language of philosophy. He presented himself as a seeker of truth and identified and theorized the most important questions of his time. He discreetly reflected on manifold questions which came across his way. He also unassumingly grappled with the epistemological ontological que

Talk 2 Title: Invisibilisation of Ambedkarite Dis

Talk 2

Title: Invisibilisation of Ambedkarite Discourse in Bengal: Upper Casteness of Bhadraloks

Speaker: Dr. Subhajit Naskar (Assistant Professor, Dept. of International Relations, Jadavpur University)

Moderators: Camellia Biswas and Deepika Meena (Doctoral Scholars, HSS)

Date and Time: 13 April, Tuesday, 5:00-6:30 PM

Meeting Link: https://iitgn-ac-in.zoom.us/j/97585508254?pwd=bStCemIvUGhQTU9xMFBtTWExbktaZz09

About the Speaker: Subhajit Naskar is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations at Jadavpur University. He has been a vocal anti-caste voice and his research focuses on Caste embeddedness of the Bhadralok Culture in Bengali Society.

Abstract: Bengal is a site of exceptionalism, a bogey, mainstreamed in the academic discourses contrasts with the socio-cultural reality of the Bengali society, especially when looked through the lens of the margin. Historically, the discourse of the margin has been appropriated under the veneer of castelessness by the upper caste Bhadraloks. Upper Casteness of Bengali Bhadraloks camouflage caste as ‘culture’ to maintain hegemony. This talk will discuss how and in what ways the Ambedkarite discourse in Bengal is invisibilized.

We look forward to an active discussion and hope to see you all there!

We are delighted to share the news that Ashwin Tri

We are delighted to share the news that Ashwin Tripathi, HSS doctoral scholar has received the Newton Bhabha Ph.D. Placement Grant, presented by the British Council and ICSSR. This Ph.D. placement will allow her to spend 4 months at the University of Warwick to finish a part of her Ph.D. project.

"Perhaps, post-pandemic, where time can be both ha

"Perhaps, post-pandemic, where time can be both harried and emancipatory, the plea of leisure theorists that leisure should be viewed as a form of resistance holds promise for democratic futures. This would involve challenging and rejecting societal views about women’s (and men’s) expected roles and behaviours." writes HSS Phd Scholar Ashwin Tripathi in a co-authored piece with FLAME University Professor Tannsitha Samanta for Scroll.in

https://scroll.in/article/984799/instead-of-a-guilty-pleasure-indians-should-see-leisure-as-a-form-of-resistance

Prof. Arnapurna Rath and doctoral scholar Shivani

Prof. Arnapurna Rath and doctoral scholar Shivani Sharma have a publication in the journal, Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences! To read, please access the link below:

http://14.139.58.200/ojs/index.php/shss/article/view/1287

#Repost @iit_gandhinagar • • • • • • A

#Repost @iit_gandhinagar
• • • • • •
An evening at IITGN!

Photo by @mera_photo_wala_page

#RandomClick #BeautifulIITGN #IITGNCampus #IITGNStudentLife

The application deadline for 'MA in Society and Cu

The application deadline for 'MA in Society and Culture' and 'MSc in Cognitive Science' has been extended till February 10. Hurry up and apply now!

Visit the sites below for more information.
MA: https://hss.iitgn.ac.in/
MSc: https://cogs.iitgn.ac.in/

@iitgn_cogsci

Do join us for the next talk in the Social Justice

Do join us for the next talk in the Social Justice Seminar Series. The theme of this semester is Gender and Social Justice.

Title: Ethnonationalist-Neocolonial "development," gender discrimination and the case of Kashmir

Speaker: Prof. Ather Zia
Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Gender Studies program at the University of Northern Colorado Greeley

Moderator: Mohd Javaid
MA (Society & Culture)

Date: 29 Jan 2021
Time: 7:30 pm IST

Short bio of the speaker: Ather Zia, PhD, is a political anthropologist, poet, short fiction writer, and columnist. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Gender Studies program at the University of Northern Colorado Greeley. Ather is the author of Resisting Disappearances: Military Occupation and Women’s Activism in Kashmir (June 2019) which won the 2020 Gloria Anzaldua Honorable Mention award. She is the co-editor of Can You Hear Kashmiri Women Speak (Women Unlimited 2020), Resisting Occupation in Kashmir (Upenn 2018) and A Desolation called Peace (Harper Collins, May 2019). She has published a poetry collection “The Frame” (1999) and another collection is forthcoming. In 2013 Ather’s ethnographic poetry on Kashmir has won an award from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology. She is the founder-editor of Kashmir Lit and is the co-founder of Critical Kashmir Studies Collective, an interdisciplinary network of scholars working on the Kashmir region.

HSS-Graduate Seminar Series announces the next tal

HSS-Graduate Seminar Series announces the next talk of the series. Please find the details of the talk below.

Title: Graphic Diversity and Ethnic Identification in Contemporary Manipur
Speaker: Heinsam Olivia Devi (Doctoral Scholar, Tezpur University)
Discussant: Joita Das (MASC, HSS)
Date and Time: 03 February, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 PM
Meeting link: meet.google.com/raw-vzpu-rez

About the speaker: Heisnam Olivia Devi did her graduation in English Literature from LSR, Delhi University and completed her Masters from IIT, Gandhinagar, and she is currently a research scholar at Tezpur University, Assam. She has written on the Rohingya refugees and the scripts in Manipur and her research interest revolves around cultural studies, trans-border studies, gender and identity politics.

Abstract: This article describes how attention to the uses, attitudes, and perceptions of various scripts may provide a dynamic picture of the construction of ethnic identity beyond the framework of ethnic conflict in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. Currently, the languages of Manipur are written in several scripts such as Eastern Brahmi, Roman, Meitei Mayek, and Zo script. Drawing on data collected from interviews of college-age residents of Manipur from different ethnic backgrounds, representatives of cultural organizations in the hills and plains, and from analysis of social, print, and audio-visual media, the article argues that the alignments between script, ethnic identity and territory are not stable but change in relation to individuals’ or organizations’ positionality towards broader social and political ideologies. In graphically diverse regions such as Manipur, script serves as a semiotic resource through which people can incorporate distinct, but overlapping, ideas of belonging in the construction of ethnic identity.

We look forward to an active discussion and hope to see you all there!

HSS IIT Gandhinagar presents Malay Raychaudhuri i

HSS IIT Gandhinagar presents

Malay Raychaudhuri in Conversation with Daniela Cappello

On Poetry, obscenity and the Hungry Generation

Jan 25, Monday, 5:30pm IST

Zoom Link: https://iitgn-ac-in.zoom.us/j/96866914591

Malay Raychaudhuri (b. 1939 in Patna) is the well-known Bengali poet and writer who originally emerged with the avant garde movement "Hungry Generation" in 1961. This was a group of transgressive poets from West Bengal and other parts of eastern India who breached middle-class norms as well as aesthetic rules of literature through their rough language, highly sexual imagery and bohemian lifestyles. We will try and get a glimpse of those years through the eyes of one of the early members and initiators of the Hungry Generation.

Daniela Cappello is a doctoral candidate in Modern South Asian Studies at Heidelberg University. She did her postgraduate studies in Naples and her Erasmus in Paris, where she studied Indology and modern South Asian studies, developing a keen interest for issues about language, modernity, and transgression in Bengali literature. For her doctoral research, she has worked on the poetry of the Hungry Generation, exploring issues of sexuality, masculinity and transgression in their Bengali writings. She has edited the Bengali translation of Antonio Gramsci’s 25th Prison Notebook and authored articles on translation and science fiction comics.

Join us for a talk titled 'Psychological responses

Join us for a talk titled 'Psychological responses to reservation-based discrimination: A qualitative study of socially marginalized youth at a premier Indian university', slated for January 18, 2021, between 4-5:30 pm.

Details are as below:
Speaker: Anupam Sharma (Doctoral Scholar, HSS)
Discussant: Prashant Ingole (Doctoral Scholar, HSS)

Meeting link: meet.google.com/raw-vzpu-rez

Abstract: Given the history of caste politics in India, it is not surprising that the socially marginalized students face discrimination, especially after the introduction of the reservation policy (affirmative action) in educational institutes. Our qualitative study, informed by Meyer’s Minority Stress model, analysed in-depth interviews with 30 undergraduate students, 3 faculty members, and 4 administrative officials at a premier Indian university to examine the psychological wellbeing of the reserved category students. We analysed how the discrimination processes contributed to students’ poor academic performance, low self-esteem, and weak motivation. Student group affiliations and university resources created a supportive environment for the socially marginalized, despite a small risk of stigmatization due to enrolment in a few campus support-programs. Moreover, there existed a palpable frustration among the socially privileged students, resulting in discriminatory attitudes against reserved categories but not “lower” caste. Our findings call for the attention of college administrators, policymakers, and the society at large to ensure that well-intended social justice policies are efficiently implemented, to deliver justice to the underprivileged students of India.

#Repost @iit_gandhinagar • • • • • • T

#Repost @iit_gandhinagar
• • • • • •
The discipline of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar is back with the fifth edition of its unique semester course on ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’ (IKS) - this time in virtual mode. The theme for this year’s IKS is ‘The Indian Web of Arts and Aesthetics’ and will be co-taught by several distinguished scholars from different parts of the world. Ms Mana Shah, Lecturer, HSS, IITGN will be the first instructor for the course and will share her thoughts on ‘Chronicling History: The Indian Way’ on January 13 between 3:05 to 4 pm.

The course is open to all and the lectures can be viewed on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/IITGN1 (link in bio)

To know more, visit the website. http://iks.iitgn.ac.in/

Kindly contact the course coordinators in case of any query.
Prof Michel Danino (micheldanino@iitgn.ac.in)
Ms Mana Shah (mana.shah@iitgn.ac.in)

#IKS #IndianKnowledgeSystems

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