Image: Courtesy of Dev N. Pathak, Sociology, SAU.
About The Department - Vision and Beyond



Over the last half century or so, a vast body of knowledge(s) on the region has evolved within South Asia that mostly remain within the countries of their origin due to a number of reasons. In this specific context, there is a crucial need to share some of this knowledge in contemporary times when, despite assertions of localisations and mini-narratives, the universal does retain its emphasis through a constant dialectics of the two. The debate between the local and universal or mini-narratives and meta-narratives continue to rage, and is more clearly visible in the context of South Asian context. Even so, we are acutely aware of the non-existence of regular and serious forums for South Asian scholarship in social sciences to showcase our own research and thinking. We are also quite conscious of the fact that the process of establishing sociology in the region has created its own peculiarities which has established close inter-relationships between sociology and social anthropology, history, cultural studies, archeology and other related disciplines. We consider the porousness of South Asian sociology one of its most enduring strengths. On the other hand, we are not unaware of the unfortunate regressions sociology has experienced in different South Asian contexts over the last 30 years or so marked by numerous institutional failures.



It is within the context(s) outlined above that the Department of Sociology at South Asian university, initiated in 2011 witihn the Faculty of Social Sciences contributes to teaching, training and knowledge production. It is not intended to be a mere forum for the production of cutting-edge intellectual knowledge and exchange of that knowledge traversing across national borders in South Asia and beyond. Our expectation is that this knowledge would dislocate the persistence of an imposed framework emanating from the colonisation process and postcolonial politics of knowledge. Despite the passage of over fifty years since the process of official decolonization began in the region, much of the analyses of our problems, situations, histories and dynamics emanate from Euro American academia; this is certainly the case when it comes to conceptual formulations and theoretical approaches that are being employed in exploring the region’s social and cultural complexities often without much self-reflection.



The Department of Sociology strongly believes in the need to reformulate this situation by effectively centering South Asia without naively shunning thought from these established centers of knowledge be they in Europe or North America. We believe in an active and robust engagement with these issues within South Asia. In this context, through the work of its faculty and the research of graduate students, the Department would bring forward the newer forms of knowledge that comprehends and represents the South Asian context with a more authoritative and nuanced voice. We strongly believe in the need to actively intervene in the process of knowledge formation through a constant sharing of knowledge that the region produces as well as through interaction with the world beyond the region.



The courses taught in the Department as well as the research carried out by its faculty members reflect this overall vision and our collective commitment towards innovation, move beyond untenable stereotypes, and explore a new world of knowledge within the discipline of Sociology.


Class of 2011, Department of Sociology, South Asian University; Image: Courtesy of Dev N. Pathak, Sociology, SAU.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

On Gender and Sexuality @ SOCIOLOGY @ SAU

Department of Sociology
Faculty of Social Sciences
South Asian University

 Young Scholars’ Conference, 15-17 October 2015

Discourses, Dialogues and Praxis in Contemporary South Asia
Thursday 15th October

10 am-11:30 am: Opening Plenary Round Table  Sexual Violence and Impunity in South AsiaUma Chakravarti, Urvashi Butalia, Sahba Hussain, Navsharan Singh and Sahba Hussain
Chair: Professor Sasanka Perera, South Asian University

 Tea break: 11:30 am-11:45 am

 Panel 1: 11:45 am -1:15 pm: Queer Lives, Queer NationChair/Discussant: Dr Navaneetha Mokkil, Jawaharlal Nehru University
 
The ‘gay gaze’ and the web
Utsa Mukherjee, Royal Holloway, University of London & Anil Pradhan,
Jadavpur University, Kolkata

Querying the Nation:
The Queer "identity" and the National Narrative in the Sri Lankan English Novel
Deepthi Siriwardena, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

 Hindu Myths, Queer Sexuality and Neo-liberal Economy:
Exploring Identity politics in Contemporary India
Archit Nanda, Delhi University

1:15-2:15 pm: Lunch
 2:15 -4pm: Panel 2:
Contemporary trends in marriage and conjugality
Chair/Discussant: Dr Parul Bhandari, Centre of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH)

Love in Tourism and Inter-racial marriages:
Construction of gender and sexuality: A spatial analysis
Neha Nimble, Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai

 Problematizing the Legal and Meta-Legal Dynamics of Cohabitation in India
Charusheel Tripathi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Socio-Economic Analysis of Marriages in Nepal:
A Case Study of Three Villages in Dhanusha District
Ratnakar Jha, South Asian University

Women in inter-religious marriages – A Case study in Kerala
Shani SS, Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai

 Tea break: 4 pm-4:15 pm

Panel 3: 4:15-5:45 pm
Chair/Discussant: Dr Mallika Shakya, South Asian University New Delhi

 Gender, Sexuality and Family Violence among South Asian Immigrants:
Canadian PerspectiveRangapali Ranaweera & Malinda Panagoda

 Domestic Violence Against Women in Bangladesh:
An Analysis from Socio-Legal Perspective
Razidur Rahaman, University of Dhaka

Gender Issues in Export Oriented and Import Competing Industries:
Evidences from Indian Manufacturing
Kishor Jadhav & Tareef Husain, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar

 Friday 16 October
 10-11:15 am: Keynote lectureChanging selves and sexualities: Perspectives from 'other' worlds.Professor Nivedita Menon, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
Chair: Dr Ravi Kumar, South Asian University

Tea break: 11:15 am-11:30 am
 Panel 4: 1130-1:15 pm
Gender, Performance and Form: Visual media
Chair/Discussant: Dr Dev Pathak, South Asian University New Delhi

Transgressing Boundaries, Transforming Cultures: the Constructs of Gender, Sexuality and Region in the Bedeni films of West Bengal
Spandan Bhattacharya, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Gender and Visual Representation:
A study of the photographs by Pushpamalan N and Mickalene ThomasDevika N, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Sohag, Samdaun and Kohbar:
Understanding the expressions of ‘self’ by the women of Mithila
MS Suman, Delhi University

1:15-2:15pm: Lunch

 Panel 5: 2:15-3:45 pm:
Gender, Performance and Form: Dance
 Chair/Discussant: Dr Gitanjali Surendran, Jindal Global University

 Situating Lavani in popular culture and Media
Sejal Yadav, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Revisiting Gender through Bhavai
Minakshi Rajdev, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Mapping the Contours of Gender and Sexuality Representation in Indian Classical Dance forms:
A Case Study of Odissi
Sipra Sagarika, Punjab University, Chandigarh

 Tea break: 3.45 pm-4 pm
Panel 6: 4-5:45 pm:
Gender, Sexuality and Urban Space 
 Chair/Discussant: Dr Rukmini Sen, Ambedkar University Delhi

 Like a moth to a flame: an exploration of dance and desire in public space.
Meghna Bohidar, Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai

 Politics of Sexuality in Urban Space – A Study of Kiss of Love Protest.
Mahima Taneja, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

 Creative Practice as Resistance:
The queer collective as an example for forms of resistance in the city
Sumithra Sunder, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore

Saturday 17 October:
 Panel 7: 10 am-11:30 am:
Gendered labour
Chair/Discussant: Dr Chudamani Basnet, South Asian University

Vulnerability of Migrant Women Workers at their Pre-departure Stage:
A Case of Sri Lankan Women Domestic Workers in the Middle East
Dushmanthi Silva, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu

 “Was I born to cook for others?” Unraveling the questions of servitude through an affective attachment of love and labor between the domestic workers and the neo-middle class Bengali women
Anindita Chatterjee, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

(In)Fertile Ground for Commercial Surrogacy in India: Making a Feminist Sense
Sneha Banerjee, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

 Tea break: 11:30 am-11:45 am
Panel 8: 11:45-1:15pm:
Gender at Play
Chair/Discussant: Dr Diya Mehra, South Asian University

 The Binao and Bijao of ‘Homo’ Beauty Parlours:
Personal Narratives of Same-Sex Desiring Subjects of Meitei Society, Imphal
Sunny Sharma Gurumayum, Ambedkar University Delhi

Is Man’s Beauty indispensable for his Masculinity?
Sharmin Akhter, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka

 Gender at play:
A case study of physical education in Manipal
Esther Moraes, Manipal University, Manipal

 1:15-2:15pm: Lunch

Panel 9: 2:15pm- 3:45pm. Gender, identity and conflictChair/Discussant: Dr Ankur Datta, South Asian University

 Identity-in-conflict:
Realising realities in the midst of fiction in Rehnuma library Centre, Mumbra
Reetika Revathy Subramanian, Partners for Urban Knowledge,
Action and Research (PUKAR), Mumbai

Feminism in turbulent times:
A Study on Meira Paibis of Manipur 1970-2004Naorem Jonsan Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

 Sexual borderlands: the unmaking of a tribe and a new gender consciousness
Deepa Kozhisseri, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

 Tea break: 345 pm-4 pm

4 pm: Film Screening:
Nirnay (Decision)Directors: Pushpa Rawat & Anupama Srinivasan
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