Announcements

Call for Papers

In South Asia, the systematic analysis of issues pertaining to gender first emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, and even later with regard to sexuality. Research and practice engaging with questions of gender and sexuality have undergone critical changes in the past few years. From paradigms that were solely organized around binaries, dualisms and difference, there is now a discernible shift towards analysis and interpretation with regard to the diversity of gendered and sexual identities and practices, seeking to account for fragmented experiences, diverse representations and multiple perceptions of gender and sexuality within the South Asian region. Simultaneously, rapid socio-economic changes in the region continue to pose new challenges to conceptualizations, theorizations and gendered politics. In contemporary times, South Asia has been witness to many new socio-economic and political dynamics: the emergence of neoliberal ideologies and the global marketplace, militarization and war, religious revivalism, rising violence against women, the feminization of poverty, the emergence of LGBT movements and a simultaneous backlash to queer visibility, all amidst growing mediatisation, including via social media, which perforce give rise to new questions as to what constitute the analytical and critical categories necessary for thinking about gender and sexuality, and the way such categories actually operate in everyday social life. As part of their annual intellectual calendar, the graduate students of the Department of Sociology at South Asian University present the Young Scholars Conference on a specific theme, which is open to other graduate students, young researchers and teachers. Based on the theme, ‘On Gender and Sexuality: Discourses, Dialogues and Praxis in Contemporary South Asia’ and the outline above, we invite empirically grounded papers which critically reflect on gender and sexuality in South Asia.

All inquiries should be addressed to the Coordinator – On Gender and Sexuality: Discourses, Dialogues and Praxis in Contemporary South Asia: scholars-conf@soc.sau.ac.in

Call for Papers

Department of Sociology, South Asian University in association with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung will organise an international conference in 21 & 22 March 2014 on the theme Educational Transformation and Transformative Education: Possibilities and Alternatives to the Educational Crisis. The conference would look at the possibilities and alternatives to the crisis generated in the field of education by impact of neoliberalism. Some of the tentative themes to be debated during the conference would include the following:

Imagining a transformative education:
1. Resistance as the beginning of transformation; the distinct forms of resisting neoliberalism in education.
2. Alternative as the beginning of resistance; embryonic alternative visions within crisis and the resistances
3. Existing educational alternatives in South Asia and their transformative potential to neoliberal orientations
The changes in South Asian education as neoliberalism arrives and the nature of responses to the changes
Contribution of Critical Pedagogy towards imagining an alternative
1. Can education autonomously effect socio-political transformation
2. Consequences of locating education within the larger socio-economic and political matrix
3. Teacher as an agent of transformation
4. Conceptualising extensions of pedagogy beyond classroom
5. Establishing necessity to connect socio-economic and political realities with pedagogy
Social movements as pedagogical possibilities

Last date of submission of abstracts (500 words): 15^th December, 2013

Submission of selected papers: 1^st March 2014

For details see: Critical Knowledge in/for South Asia

For any other enquiry contact: educonference2014@gmail.com

Theatre Workshop

Department of Sociology
Invites all for a production oriented theatre workshop

The Department of Sociology is organizing a month-long theatre workshop. The workshop will be production oriented, and at the end of it participating students will produce a play. The workshop is open for students and teachers from across Departments and Faculties at SAU. To formalize it, the interested students and teachers need to formally register for the workshop, and abide by the basic rules of attendance. At the end of the same, they will develop their script, direct and act in the play. All the participants will, in addition to acting in a play, also receive a certificate from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Objectives:

To facilitate extracurricular activity to channelize students’ creative energy;
To implement theatre as a tool of learning in social science;
To facilitate a sense of belongingness to the university among students from across disciplines.

Who can Join/Participate?

The workshop is open for all students and faculty members of South Asian University. However, a willing participant has to register for it formally and be regular in the workshop.

Resource Persons:

Tariq Hamid, Actor/Director, WINGS, Delhi (http://www.ourwingss.blogspot.in/search/label/About%20Us) Tariq Hamid has been in limelight of Indian Theater since the epochal performance of Chand Roz Aur… A Theatrical Tribute to Faiz Ahmad Faiz; the play has gone to places within as well as beyond India winning awards to his credit. Besides, Tariq Hamid has extensive experiencein conducting workshops with youth and producing/directing plays.

Hadi Sarmadi (Actor/Director, Bahrup, Delhi) Famously known as the grave hero of Jawaharlal Nehru University, he has worked for over a decade with the group Bahuru, won awards for his landmark performances, and has been renowned for his workshops with youth all over India.

Venue & time of workshop:
Akbar Bhawan/4.30- 6.30 PM

Frequency per week:
Three days

Days of the week:
Monday, Friday, Saturday

Workshop structure:
Acting Warm up + Script development
Acting warm up+ script development
Public Lecture: Theatre and Personality Development
Acting warm up + script development
Actor is the singer/musician
Actor is the writer/creator/producer
Acting, scripting, and stage management
Acting, scripting, and direction
Acting, scripting, direction and light
Public Lecture: Theatre and Education
Direction
Director, Actor, and Production
Play Rehearsals
Play Rehearsals
Play Rehearsals+ Acting tips
Conflict resolution through theater
Play Rehearsals

Duration of workshop:
One Month (29th February- 7th April 2012, with an interim gap of 12th March to 19th March for mid-semester exams)

Performances after workshop:
Street theatre: 8th April (at SAU)
Stage Performance: 9th April, India Habitat Center

Registration till 28th:
Students from South Asian University can register by filling up a form. Kindly collect the form from Mr. Sam George (PS, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences) and submit to Mr. George before 28th February. Once registration closes, any new entry may be difficult due to logistical issues.

Eligibility:You need to be enrolled with South Asian University; you need to have an interest in any aspect of theatre (acting, writing, music, stage designing, light work, etc). Even novices can apply.

Rules:
All registered have to be regular with the workshop. Those who are absent for three times would forfeit their registration. Irregular participants would not be cast in the performance at the end of the workshop; Irregular participants would not be issued certificates of participation either.

Coordinator:
Professor. Dev N Pathak, Department of Sociology

Research Methods Field Research Trip

The planned research field trip is part of the Research Method course, being offered in the winter semesters. The objective of the research trip is to provide students with hands-on experience of research techniques and procedures−−data collection, analysis, and reporting. During the field work students apply research techniques they learn in their course to the real field. The Department of Sociology believes that the field trip helps students become better producers and consumers of sociological knowledge. The field trip is mandatory and will be supervised by two faculty members.

Primary Field activities
Interviewing
Observation
Social mapping/document collection

1.March 31,2012 to April 7,2012, Sarnath Temple, Banaras, India, Major Topic- Religion and Society