Global North/Global South Collaborative Practices – Futures and Possibilities

30 years of SEPHIS will be celebrated at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence with a workshop on Global North/Global South Collaborative Practices – Futures and Possibilities. The workshop is aimed at working out a more equitable relation between scholars of the global north and global south in terms of research, pedagogy and collaborations. Social science humanities research and teaching across the globe has always worked within this framework of a north-south divide in spite of intentions to work through and beyond these divisions. The decolonial turn more so has led to recognizing the inherent biases and pitfalls of working with such a division but can we imagine concrete steps to address these concerns within the humanities and social sciences? For instance, what will it mean to teach a course with shared thematic; planned, designed and executed in a collaborative mode across locations in the global north and global south or even between the south and the south. Within the discipline of sociology and social anthropology one is now aware of how the global south cannot and should not be seen as only a field location for information but is an equal partner in producing what becomes knowledge and theory. Can we speak in “our” language without the vernacular replacing what may be seen as the “global” language or producing indigenous thought and knowledge? On the other hand, how do we critique linguistic hegemony by bringing in the vernacular without resorting to nativism? These broad questions will form the basis of our one day event commemorating the 30 year existence of SEPHIS at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence. We have planned the day as a series of three short but intense round table discussion with invited panelists.

PROGRAM

9:30 – 10:15 | 30 Years of SEPHIS – Introduction and Overview

Tuhina Ganguly and Subhashim Goswami (Dept. of Sociology, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, India)
Rajat Kathuria (Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence)
Claudio Pinheiro, Chair, SEPHIS (online) (Asian and African Studies, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Vinicius Kauê Ferreira, Coordinator, SEPHIS (Dept. of Anthropology, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Marina de Regt, Co-Chair, SEPHIS. (Dept. of Anthropology, Vrije University, Netherlands)

10:15 – 11:45 | Round table I – North/South/Global
This is a roundtable to interrogate the term global and ask how and why we still work with the concepts of the Global North and the Global South. If these terms need a reimagination, do they need to be replaced? Do we always need alternate categories or can there be merit in working with concepts as frames expansively to accommodate newer formations.
Chair: Siddharth Mallavarapu (Dept. of International Relations and Governance Studies, Shiv Nadar IoE)
Prabhu Mohapatra (Dept. of History, University of Delhi, India)
Marina de Regt (Co-Chair, SEPHIS/Dept. of Anthropology, Vrije University, Netherlands)
Iram Ghufran (Dept. of Art, Media and Performance, Shiv Nadar IoE)

11:45-12:00 Tea

12:00 – 1:30 | Round table II – Decolonization? Still and for how long?

We want to engage with work on decolonization that has been produced so far and how maybe we need alternative frames to think through decolonization and re-think the category altogether. If so what can one propose and what epistemic moment from the South may enable that.
Chair: Devika Bordia (Dept. of Sociology, Shiv Nadar IoE)
Yasmeen Arif (Dept. of Sociology, Shiv Nadar IoE, India)
Vinicius Kauê Ferreira (Coordinator, SEPHIS/Dept. of Anthropology, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Tuhina Ganguly (Dept. of Sociology, Shiv Nadar IoE, India)
Subhashim Goswami (Dept. of Sociology, Shiv Nadar IoE, India)
Hemanth Kadambi (Dept. of History& Archaeology, Shiv Nadar IoE)

1:30 – 2:30 Lunch

2:30 – 4:00 | Round table III – Equitable Collaborations

The challenges produced by the categories of the ‘global North/global South’ cannot be addressed unless we have strong, equitable collaboration especially among colleagues in different parts of the ‘South’. This panel invites collective reflections on existing and future avenues for facilitating collaborative research, pedagogical exchanges including joint syllabi, degrees, student exchange, and new research imaginaries that respond to the issues that are particularly important for ‘Southern’ scholars.
Chair: Jabin Jacob (Dept of International Relations and Governance Studies and Chair, Centre for Excellence in Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar IoE)
Claudio Pinheiro (Chair, SEPHIS Asian and African Studies, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Carmen Rial (Dept. of Anthropology, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil)
Leonardo Schiocchet (Institute of Social Anthropology, Austria)
Anirban Ghosh (Academic Writing, Shiv Nadar IoE)
Divya Kannan (Dept. of History& Archaeology, Shiv Nadar IoE)

4:00 – 4:30 Tea and Farewell

Date and Venue: 13 October 2023 – 9:30AM | Shiv Nadar IoE, Delhi-NCR, India