The classroom can be a space for us to engage in deep learning, rigorous debate, collaboration and critical thinking. It\u2019s a space where our senses can be active and nourished. However, entry into the classroom has been historically limited to upper-caste cis men. What happens when these exclusions are challenged?
\nThis is a bonus episode of Research Radio, where P Thirumal and Carmel Christy join us to discuss their EPW article on higher education in India and their scholarship on media studies. Dr P Thirumal teaches at the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad. He teaches courses related to theory, history and media Science with reference to modernity and deep time. His scholarship has focused on the cultural histories of North East India including embodiment studies focussing on discriminatory practices of Dalit Bahujans in higher education institutions in India. Dr Carmel Christy K J is currently an International Fellow of the Urban Studies Foundation, Glasgow, which is affiliated to the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden. She teaches journalism at Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi. Her research on the politics of gender, sexuality, caste, religion, media and urban space broadly focuses on spatial production of marginality and responses to it in India.
\nWe will be discussing their co-authored piece \u201cWhy Indian Universities Are Places Where Savarnas Get Affection and Dalit-Bahujans Experience Distance.\u201d We will also discuss Christy\u2019s book \u201cSexuality and Public Space in India: Reading the Visible\u201d and her article \u201cUniversities as Spaces of Disaffection\u201d and Thirumal\u2019s recent article \u201cRegurgitative Violence: The Sacred and the Profane in Higher Education Institutions in India\u201d and \u201cDominant Bodies and Their Ethical Performances: Violence of Caste Embodiment in Higher Educational Institutions.\u201d
Audio courtesy: Summertime by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060 [CC BY 3.0]