Interviews with Academics

The Doing Sociology Blog team spoke to Dr Soma Chaudhuri, Associate Professor in Sociology at Michigan State University, USA. Dr Chaudhuri shares her views on witch-hunting in the tea plantations of the Dooars.

Doing Sociology interviewed Dr. Rudolf C. Heredia on 'Collective Violence as the New Normal: History, Memory and Dialogue'. The interview was moderated by Dr. George Jose, Dean Jyoti Dalal School Of Liberal Arts (JDSoLA) - NMIMS.

In our latest interview with academics, we talk to Dr Santosh Singh, Associate Professor at Ambedkar University Delhi. Dr Singh talks on his extensive ethnographic study of caste politics in Punjab. He discusses mission singing, the Dera phenomenon, Ravidassias, Dr Ambedkar's contribution and more.

The Doing Sociology team interviewed Prof. Bandana Purkayastha of the University of Connecticut. She is currently an Executive Committee member of the International Sociological Association (ISA). She also has several other accolades to her name. She has recently been the co-recipient of the American Sociological Association's (ASA) Jessie Bernard Award (2019). She has also received the Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) mentoring award for 2019. In this interview, Prof. Purkayastha talks about the intersectional framework, interesting ways to study race, gender, transnationalism, the media and more. 

We spoke to Professor Pushpesh Kumar who teaches Sociology at the University of Hyderabad. He speaks to us about sexuality, state, citizenship and queer issues.

The Doing Sociology team interviewed Dr. Ankur Datta as part of our series What is Ethnography?Ankur Datta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, South Asian University, New Delhi. He has completed his PhD in Anthropology from the London School of Economics (LSE). He has conducted research among displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir. The monograph titled On Uncertain Ground: Displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir based on his research among displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu has been published by the Oxford University Press, New Delhi in 2017. 

You can find his works here. 

You can find an extract from Ankur Datta's rich ethnographic work here. 

The Doing Sociology team interviewed social anthropologists Prof. Lina Fruzzetti of Brown University and Prof. Akos Ostor of Wesleyan University. We spoke about the evolution of the discipline of Social Anthropology, visual ethnography, using film making as a research tool, and more.

About the speakers: 

Prof. Lina Fruzzetti teaches at the Anthropology Department at Brown University. Prof. Ákös Östor has previously taught in the Anthropology department at Harvard University. In 1988 he joined Wesleyan University where he is a Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Film Studies. Some of their co-directed films include Seed and Earth (1994), Fishers of Dar (2002) and Singing Pictures (2005). Some of their major co-authored publications include Kinship and Ritual in Bengal and Culture and Change Along the Blue Nile.

One can find more about Prof. Fruzzetti here and here. You can look up some of Prof. Ostor's works here. 

Doing Sociology interviewed Dr. Gaurav J. Pathania who is an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University, Washington DC. We interviewed him on campus politics in Indian universities, the transformations over the years, and the centrality of class and caste within it.

Speaker's bio:

Gaurav J. Pathania teaches Sociology at Georgetown University in Washington DC. He has taught Social Movements at George Washington University and served as a visiting scholar to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Southern California. His current research in cultural sociology critically examines contemporary identity movements in India and among the diaspora. He has authored the book The University as a Site of Resistance: Identity and Student Politics (Oxford University Press, 2018). He is currently an assistant editor of South Asia Research, published from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.