Guest Lecture on Assistive Technology and Social Inclusion

A guest lecture was arranged for the sixth semester BA elective students (Sociology of Development) on Friday, 10 November 2017 during 11-12. It was held in Room No 210, second floor, Block I. The guest speaker was Mr Akhil S G, Research Assistant, Assistive Technology with the International Center for Free and Open source software. He is also the founder of an NGO ‘Sahridaya’ that focus on community development.

The interactive session began with reflections and understanding of concepts like ability, talent, inclusion and free. The question raised was whether the current social space is inclusive and free. It was a stimulating exercise that helped students to think out of box. After this, the idea of open source software was introduced. The last part of the interaction was based on the efforts of the research team at the international center to help the differently abled people to use their ability and the immense potential of assistive technology in transforming people’s lives.

Socius: Call for entries

Conference on Contemporary Challenges to Indian State and Society

Program Schedule

DAY 1 : 15-11-2017
Timings	Particulars	Guests/Speakers/Resource Persons	Venue
9.30 am.	Registration: C 911
10.00 am	Inauguration of the Conference	GUESTS Dr Anindya Sinha                                        Dr Anil Pinto   Dean, Academic Affairs, NIAS               Registrar, Christ University Keynote Speaker: Dr N Jayaram Former Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru	C911 Central Block, 9th floor
11.30 am	Group Photograph
11.40 pm. – 12 noon	TEA BREAK
12 noon	Session 1	Anthropological Approaches to the Understanding of State and Everyday Life in India Discussants: Dr Rajeev K and Suparna Kar 1.       Manpreet Dhillon - AADHAR as Neoliberal Governmentality 2.       Brijesh Chandra Tripathi - Electoral politics or autonomous mobilisation	C911 Central Block, 9th floor
1.00 pm	LUNCH BREAK
2.00 pm.-4.30 pm.	Session 2	Anthropological Approaches to the Understanding of State and Everyday Life in India Discussants: Dr Rajeev K and Dr Vagishwari 1.       Rakesh Kumar - Dominance of Khap over marriage norms and their encounter with State Institutions: A case study of Haryana 2.       Mohon Kumar Naik - The State and Local Structure of Power on Land Acquisition and Livelihood, among tribal people in southern Odisha. 3.       Jitendra Borday - Working class neighbourhoods everyday political mobilization, culture: Studying Ramabai Nagar locality in Mumbai 4.       Aditi Dey Sarkar-Impact of Development initiatives like Microfinance 5.       Meghna Desai - Tracing the remnants of medieval Chitvel 6.       Kushal Bothra and Kanika Vageria - Multifaceted Matrix of External Menace & Challenges to India’s Security from China and Pakistan: A Critical Analysis	C911 Central Block, 9th floor
4.30 pm	TEA BREAK
DAY 2: 16-11-2017
9.30 am. – 11.30 am.	Session 3	Education and New Pedagogy Discussants: Dr Shivali Tukdeo, NIAS and Dr Greta, CU 1.       Manjit M.Bhatti - A Critique of Alan Sokals Hoax: In the Defense of Interdisciplinarity 2.       Madhushree Joshi - Revisiting Ancient Indian Philosophy to study its relevance in today’s Legal education 3.       Sreehari Ravindranath - Preparing Children in Value Education in the 21st Century: The Connected Learning Initiative (CLIx) Approach 4.       Edilbert Fernando, Akshay Kothari, Edward Ntokwo, Renault Fernandes and Shine George - The Application of Biometrics in Identification to Enhance Student Anonymity and Mitigate Identity-Derived Bias in Collaborative Learning Environments	C911, Central Block, 9th floor
11.30 am	TEA BREAK
11.45am -1.00 pm	Session 4	Internal Conflicts and Challenges Discussants: Dr Manoharan, CU and Dr Anshuman Behera, NIAS 1.       SoumyaAwasthi - Religious Discourses and their Impact on Regional and Global Geopolitics: A Study of Deobandi in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan 2.       Anshuman Behera - Internal Security Scenario in India: Interrogation of Narratives 3.       Ningthoujam Koiremba Singh & Praveen MN - Ethnic Conflicts and Insurgency movement in India’s transnational Security dynamics: a Case Study of Naga Insurgency	C911, Central Block, 9th floor
1.00 pm	LUNCH BREAK
2.00 pm -3.00 pm	Session 5	Urbanisation of Wildlife and Conservation of India’s Natural Heritage Discussants: Dr Anindya Sinha, NIAS and Dr Maya M, CU 1.       Maan Barua & Anindya Sinha - Governing Life in Indian Cities, or Why Conversations between Ecology and Geography are an Imperative 2.       Nishant Srinivasaiah, Srinivas Vaidyanathan, Raman Sukumar, and Anindya Sinha - The Elephant in the Village: Impacts of Rural Transformations on the Behaviour and Management of the Asian Elephant in Southern India	C911, Central Block, 9th Floor
3.00	TEA BREAK
	POSTER  PRESENTATIONS
DAY 3: 17-11-2017
9:00 am.-10.15 am	Session 6	Urbanisation of Wildlife and Conservation of India’s Natural Heritage Discussants: Dr Anindya Sinha, NIAS and Dr Maya M, CU 1.       Jyothi K. M &Kshitija Kanchan - Urban Wildlife: A road towards Co-existence 2.       Pradeep Kuttuva,  Krithika Srinivasan, Aditya Ganesh, Tim Kurz, Stephen Hinchliffe and Anindya Sinha– Street-Dog Biopolitics in Contemporary India	C911, Central Block, 9th floor
10.15 am	TEA BREAK
10.30 – 11.30	Session 7	External Security Challenges Discussants: Dr M. Mayilvaganan, NIAS and Dr Manoharan, CU 1.       Anjani Devi - Geopolitics and Fishermen Issue: A Perspective from India-Sri Lanka Relations in the Post-LTTE Period 2.       Praveen P K- Return of Geopolitics 3.       Justin J. - Cybercrime and Cyber Warfare: The challenges before digitalized India 4.     Indrajit Sharma, Dr. N. Mohandas Singh- Emerging Challenges to India’s External Security: Perspective from Northeast Region (presented by Sai Deepthi)	C911, Central Block, 9th floor
11.30-12 noon		VALEDICTORY Presided over by Dr John Joseph Kennedy Dean Humanities and Social Sciences

Guest Lecture on Climate Change

The Department of Sociology organized a talk on Climate Justice for the students of 1st and 2nd year MA Applied Sociology and for BA students perusing sociology on November 7, 2017. The talk was delivered by Prof Ellen Zimmerman a visiting Fulbright Scholar. Prof Zimmerman is Professor of Anthropology, at the Department of Sociology, Framingham State University, Massachusetts, USA. 

Since Climate Change is an issue which is currently very relevant, and discourses of sustainability are becoming very important, this talk was organized for students to understand some of the problems that are relevant to climate change. The talk was about the kind of disparities and inequalities that exist when it comes to the impact of environmental disasters such as cyclones, hurricanes etc caused due to climate change.

Prof Zimmerman spoke about climate change having a tendency to affect some sections of society more than others. She addressed various factors such as economic status, gender and race that play a major role in how an individual and groups can be affected by Climate Change. She presented examples and cases from both India as well as the USA. She talked about the disparities in the way relief was given when it came to the aid given to victims of environmental calamities. An illustrative example that she addressed looked at how underprivileged communities are often forced to live on Flood Plains making them more vulnerable to devastation. These disparities should be looked at as a violation of human rights. Through all her examples, Prof Ellen Zimmerman gave the issues of Climate a Human Rights angle.

This was a very beneficial talk for the students of sociology as it has given us a different way of looking at climate change where we look at the kind of disparities that exist when it comes to people being affected by Climate change. The idea that environmental issues can affect one section of society more than the other is very thought-provoking. As sociology students, it very important for us to be aware of such cases as tomorrow we will be part of these projects that provide relief. We must ensure that we keep an eye out for such patterns of discrimination and make sure these problems don’t repeat themselves. This talk has been an eye-opener for a lot of us students and we are sure to benefit from this session.
Report by Dheeraj