Multiple Publics: Sites, Boundaries and Contestations in India
Convenors: Dr. Sarbeswar Sahoo & Dr. Naveen K. Thayyil, IIT Delhi
9-10 October 2015 at IRD Conference Hall (7th Floor, Main Building, IITD Campus)
This workshop aims to understand the emergences and multiplicities of competing publics and their role in democratic transformation of Indian society and polity through:
1)Sites of Public Formation: exploring the various sites in which the multiplicity of the public sphere is discernible, like in religious formations, gender politics and environmental movements. In so doing, we aim to unravel not just the “multiple publics” but also the “multiple strands”, often contradictory within specific issue based publics.
2)Negotiations and Contestations: In what ways are citizenship claims negotiated and contested, and what discourses are employed towards this end? What mobilization techniques are used and the rationalities employed during such processes?
3)Boundaries: In what ways are boundaries asserted, maintained and transgressed within realms of specific issues through languages of marginality, justice, rights or public interest?
Those interested in attending this workshop, may please contact the organizers at: sarbeswar@hss.iitd.ac.in or tk.naveen@gmail.com
TENTATIVE PROGRAMME
Day I: 9 October 2015 (Friday)
9.00 – 9.30 AM: Registration and Coffee
9. 30 – 9.45 AM: Welcome Address
Ravinder Kaur, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
9.45- 10.00 AM: Introduction of the Conference Theme
Naveen K. Thayyil and Sarbeswar Sahoo, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
10.00 – 11.30 AM: Opening Keynote Address
Aditya Nigam, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
Ephemeral Publics: Beyond Public Sphere and Political Society
11.30 – 11.45 AM: Tea Break
11.45 – 1.15 PM: Panel I: Boundaries and Green Publics
Discussant: Pratiksha Baxi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Naveen K. Thayyil, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Constitutional Courts as Green Coffee houses: Dominant Rationalities and Boundaries in Environmental Jurisprudence at the Supreme Court of India
Swargajyoti Gohain, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Hydropolitics and the Trans-national Public Sphere in West Arunachal Pradesh
1.15 – 2.15 PM: Lunch Break
2.15 – 3.45 PM: Panel II: Religious Sphere and Publics-Making
Discussant: Sitharamam Kakarala, Azim Premji University, Bangalore
Shireen Mirza, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
Religion Making the Civic: New Urbanisms of Hyderabad Old City
Khalid Wasim, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tuljapur Campus
Hamam and Waan-e-Peiand for Public Discussion: In Search of Public Sphere in Armed Conflict of Kashmir
3.45 – 4.00 PM: Coffee Break
4.00 – 5.30 PM: Panel III: Media, Mediation and Democracy
Discussant: Divya Dwivedi, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi
Mediated Publics and Indian Democracy
Sindhu Manjesh, American University, Washington, D.C
Citizens as Journalists: Opportunities and Challenges of Participatory News Mediation via Mainstream Media in India Today
Day II: 10 October 2015 (Saturday)
9.30 – 11.45 AM: Panel IV: Sites of Subalternity and Science
Discussants: Milind Wakankar and Sanil V., Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Sarbeswar Sahoo, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Marginality, Representation and the Rights Discourse: Civil Society and Development in South Rajasthan
Shiju Sam Varughese, Central University Gujarat, Gandhinagar
Science, State and Democracy in the Era of Biopolitics: Endosulfan Survivors as ‘Non-Publics’ in Kerala
Subhasis Sahoo, Allahabad University, Uttar Pradesh
Emergent Public Sphere: Talking Science in Contemporary India
11.45 – 12.00 PM: Coffee Break
12.00 – 1.30 PM: Closing Keynote Address
Sitharamam Kakarala, Azim Premji University, Bangalore
Publics, Counterpublics, Agonistics: Thinking about Democracy in the Era of ‘Pluricultural’ Populism
1.30 – 2.30 PM: Lunch Break
2.30 – 3.00 Closing Remarks
Naveen K. Thayyil and Sarbeswar Sahoo, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi