The Interdisciplinary
Postgraduate Student Conference was organised jointly by the departments of
Sociology, Social Work, Economics and Psychology. The coordinating department
for the academic year 2014-15 was the Department of Sociology. Abstracts were
invited from postgraduate students from these departments in the month of
November 2014 and the final papers were submitted in February 2015. A total of
95 papers were shortlisted for presentations on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.
The inaugural session started
around 9.15 am at Sky View, Central Block.
Prof. Suparna Kar from the Department of Sociology welcomed the
gathering. It was followed by the presentation of the concept note by Dr. Tony
Sam George, Head, Department of Psychology, who also spoke about the background
of the Conference and its format. The inaugural session was presided over by
Dr. Anil Joseph Pinto, Registrar, Christ University. He spoke about the greater
role of a University in nurturing a research culture which is interdisciplinary
in nature.
The Guest of Honour for the day
was Dr. Baldev Raj, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS),
Bangalore. Dr Baldev Raj is a highly acclaimed erudite scientist who reiterated
the need for intellectual honesty and integrity in academia which is rooted in
values. He also reinforced the need for interdisciplinarity as well as the
significance of being able to put academic research into practise. His speech
reflected the importance of being the change that we want to see.
Prof John Joseph Kennedy, Dean,
Humanities and Social Sciences offered the felicitation address. He spoke about
multidisciplinarity and urged the departments to go beyond current practice of
interdisciplinarity by accommodating more departments.
The proceedings of the conference
were released by the dignitaries. It was followed by the release of two
publications from the department of Sociology, one from Social Work and two
from the department of Economics. Prof. Greeshma from the Department of
Economics proposed the vote of thanks.
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| Release of Reflections from the Field, internship experiences of the students of MA Applied Sociology |
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| Release of Socius, the newsletter from the Department of Sociology |
After the inaugural session the
students were broken into five parallel sessions for their presentations. The
broader themes were Organisational Dynamics; Issues Among Emerging Adults;
Social Issues and Special Groups; Developmental Issues and; Research in Health
Sector; Gender, Sexuality and Marginalisation; Economics and Market;
Psychosocial Issues; Consumer-Work dynamics and Interventions and Policy. Each sessions
were moderated by a faculty member and the best paper from each session was
awarded a prize.
The best paper awards for each
session were as follows:
1.
CS 01: Organizational Dynamics - Pradeep Gopal
2.
CS 02: Issues among emerging adults - Shagun
Guha
3.
CS 03: Social issues and special groups -
Sucheta Mishra
4.
CS 04: Developmental Issues - Anupama Sudesan
5.
CS 05: Research in the Health sector - Shefalika
Shah
6.
CS 06: Gender, Sexuality and Marginalization - Disha
Mangsuli
7.
CS 07: Economics and Market - Roshni Wani Thapa
8.
CS 08: Psychosocial Issues - Vijayapriya C V
9.
CS 09: Consumer Work Dynamics - Anupama George
10. CS
10: Interventions and Policy - Astha Dugar
The valedictory session was held at 3 pm and was presided over by Dr. Mallika Krishnaswamy, Dean, Humanities and Social Sciences who offered the concluding remarks and gave away the prizes and certificates to the winners along with Dr Victor Paul, Associate Director, Departments of Sociology and Social Work. It was a truly enriching experience made even more memorable by the sharing of ideas and thoughts across the borders of our disciplines by the budding researchers and scholars.
