Two Perspectives on the 
National Young Sociologist Workshop by Shreya Murali (II EPS)

On Saturday,the 30^th of June 2013, Shreya Murali student of II EPS and winner of the ‘Young Sociologist 2012-2013’ visited I EPS to give a presentation on the ‘Young Sociologist’ competition and discussed her experience as a participant. The Annual ‘Young Sociologist’ Competition conducted by Christ University provides a platform for undergraduate students across the country to interact, participate and exchange their views on important social matters.

  In the presentation Shreya Murali introduced this competition and stressed on the importance having reliable and primary data to support one’s academic research paper. She also gave the students valuable insight into how to structure and format a research paper and collect accountable data.

Shreya Murali also gave an account of her experience with the competition. The topic she had chosen for her research was ‘India the biggest democracy: A Farce’. In her paper she sought to unveil the deep seated social stigma against the transgender community in India and critique the Amendment to section 36 (A) of the Karnataka Police Act which empowered the commissioner to pass orders to maintain a register on names and places of all the transgenders, who are reasonably suspected of kidnapping or emasculating boys. Her research also revealed that only 8% of the people that participated in her survey (on the perception of the rights of the transgender community) were willing to have people from the transgender community in the workforce, the rest were either neutral or appalled by the idea. This research unmasks the dichotomy in the system where an entire section of the population has been deprived of its political rights.

As many students raised their hands to ask the speaker questions it was clear that they were quite inspired by the presentation and were curious to know more about the subject. Shreya Murali’s passion was contagious and encouraged us all to participate in the following ‘Young Sociologist’ competition.

By:   Ishita Karra

I EPS

The students of I EPS attended a workshop on the National Young Sociologist Competition, an annual inter-collegiate event where budding sociologists avail the opportunity to prepare and present a full-scale academic paper. This national-level competition is held by Christ University in December every year which witnesses participation from across the country. The workshop was conducted by Shreya Murali of II EPS who was the “National Young Sociologist” for 2012. Having conducted a previous workshop on academic writing with I EPS, Shreya quickly went through the basics of a good academic piece and as always, emphasised on the importance of avoiding plagiarism and giving credit where is it due to be given. 

After establishing the codices of academic writing, Shreya moved on to another important factor in academic writing; Authentic and reliable research.  Research was the soul of any academic piece and it was to be done with utmost sincerity and dedication. Research, she said, has to be intense and could possibly last for weeks which means that one should never have a laid-back attitude regarding the same. Towards the end of the workshop, Shreya presented her award-wining academic paper Titled “India is the world’s biggest Democracy – A FARCE” in which she took up the research regarding the lack of emancipation of the third gender. Her presentation gave the students a sound idea of what an academic paper looks like and how research is meant to be carried out. Post the workshop, the students of I EPS seemed to be nervous regarding the fast-approaching deadline for CIA 2 in sociology which involved writing of a well-researched academic paper. Although we don’t know whether Shreya will take part in the “National Young Sociologist 2013”, we would have liked her to break a leg at the competition this year but considering that has just broken her hand, we would, instead, just like to wish her All the Best for her future endeavors in appreciation for the help given and time devoted to the students of I EPS.

By

Jaikishan Agarwal

I EPS