Author: Ram Kumar
Dr Chirag Dhara authors an opinion piece in The Indian Express
Dr Chirag Dhara, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS has authored an opinion piece in The Indian Express titled, Here’s how extreme heat is undermining food security and public health across the world.
The piece follows Dr Dhara’s recent co-authored paper A post-AR6 update on observed and projected climate change in India.
A chapter by Neha Mishra and Sayantan Datta published in the book, Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes.
A chapter authored by Neha Mishra and Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professors of Practice, Krea-CWP, titled Paam Padati, has been published in the book Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes. The book has been published by Tulika Books and Columbia University Press, and has been edited by Sasanka Perera and Renny Thomas.
Brief Note About the Chapter
In this chapter, authors investigate attitudes and practices associated with paam padati — a common greeting among the hijras — through vignettes from online interviews with hijra, transgender and intersex persons. They identify how caste is simultaneously invoked and denied in discursive practices like paam padati. They also document other emerging greetings in hijra collectivities across India (jai shri ram, jai shri mahakaal). In doing so, they identify how contemporary forms of colonialism — like Hindutva/Hindu nationalism — rewrite and redirect the respect borne by gestures of greeting. By analysing their interlocutors’ narratives, they underscore the urgency of decolonial praxis in gender and sexuality studies in India to interrogate (i) the erasure of caste in historicizing cultural practices of gender- and sexually transgressive communities; and (ii) the quest for seeking precolonial roots by invoking one’s belonging to dominant religious collectivities alongside a fractured belonging to the subjugated collectivity. The authors argue that decolonial praxis in gender and sexuality studies includes an analytical lens that combines frameworks of religion, caste and coloniality.
Brief Note About the Book
The volume presents a set of keywords and concepts anchored in the region’s languages and its vast cultural landscape. It reiterates specific attitudes, ways of seeing and methods of doing, embedded in the historical and contemporary experiences in South Asia. The words, concepts, ideas, and attitudes in this volume explore the contexts of their production and how their meanings have changed at different historical moments. Individual essays, from across disciplines, argues for the importance in moving away from the intellectual shackles of colonial and neo-colonial experiences while also not succumbing to the traps of local reductionist nativisms and cultural nationalisms.
Dr Shriddha Shah participates as panellist at STS India Network Conference
Dr Shriddha Shah, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SIAS, was invited as a panellist for the session ‘In Memory of JPS Uberoi’ at the STS India Network Conference: Co-shaping of Science, Technology, and Society in India, held from 15–17 December 2025 at OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat, NCR, Delhi.
Sayantan Datta publishes chapter in The Hindu eBook The Genetic Frontier: How Gene Editing and Synthetic Biology Are Redefining What It Means to Be Human
A chapter authored by Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professor of Practice, Krea-CWP, titled Who Gets to Profit from DNA Data?, has been published in The Hindu eBook The Genetic Frontier: How Gene Editing and Synthetic Biology Are Redefining What It Means to Be Human. In this chapter, Datta investigates the data economy surrounding genetic material, asking whether DNA is a resource to be mined or a shared inheritance demanding stewardship and respect.
Nangsel Sherpa speaks at Shared Futures Conclave in Sikkim
Nangsel Sherpa, Faculty Teaching Associate, Krea-CWP, spoke at the ‘What gets Told?: Media, Memory & Representation’ session of the Shared Futures Conclave, held on 4–5 December 2025 in Gangtok, Sikkim. The Shared Futures Conclave aims to build a sustained platform for dialogue on the socio-environmental and developmental questions central to the Sikkim–Darjeeling Himalaya. Organised in collaboration with Reading Himalaya, the Centre for Himalayan Studies at Shiv Nadar University, and Sikkim University, the Conclave brought together scholars, practitioners, policymakers, community leaders, and media professionals working across the Eastern Himalayan region.
Dr Lakshmi Narayanan participates in ANRF PMECRG Lightning Talk Series
Dr Lakshmi Narayanan Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS, participated in the third session of the ANRF PMECRG Lightning Talk Series, an initiative aimed at popularising the Prime Minister’s Early Career Research Grant (PMECRG) Awardees, on 12 December 2025.
During the session, he spoke about his research field and shared insights into his ongoing research project. The event featured multiple awardees and was telecast live on YouTube.
IFMR GSB faculty co-author article in The Management Accountant
An article titled ‘Cost Audit in the ERP Era – Configuring ERP to Enable Accurate Reporting of Costs’, co-authored by IFMR GSB faculty members, Professor Jayaram Ramakrishnan, Professor of Practice, Finance; Professor Balasubramanian G, Senior Professor, Finance, Accounting and Quantitative Finance, and Professor Srinivasan Kalyanasundaram, Professor of Practice, Finance, has been published in the December 2025 issue of The Management Accountant, the official magazine of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India.
Dr Swarnamalya Ganesh facilitates ‘Courting Cultures’ workshop at Baari Dance Festival 2025
Dr Swarnamalya Ganesh, Associate Professor of Practice, Literature and Global Arts, SIAS, served as a mentor for the Baari Dance Festival 2025, held from 12–14 December in Chennai—a weekend celebrating dance, dialogue, and meaningful collaborations. She also facilitated a workshop titled ‘Courting Cultures’ at the festival, where she explored the cosmopolitan past of early modern South India, tracing the multicultural influences embedded within Sadir. Drawing on interactions with Islamic lineages, as well as Persian, Dakhni, Marathi, West Asian, and European traditions, the workshop highlighted how South India’s artistic practices are deeply interconnected and collectively inherited.
Dr Dipanjali Deka publishes essay in Critical Writing Pedagogies
A short essay titled ‘Writing, Music and the Art of Close Reading’ by Dr Dipanjali Deka, Visiting Assistant Professor, Krea-CWP, has been published in the ‘Origin Stories’ series of the Critical Writing Pedagogies newsletter. The newsletter is a collaborative publication of the Undergraduate Writing Programme at Ashoka University and Krea-CWP.
In this reflective piece, Dr Deka explores the shared sensibilities that connect writing with singing and reading with listening.
