Workshop for Research Scholars 2009, CSSS Calcutta, 4-10 November

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Workshop for Research Scholars 2009
4-10 November 2009
(Beginning Doctoral, Doctoral and Post-doctoral Scholars)
Social Sciences Workshop 3
Theme: Violation and Violence

Description
What constitutes violation? How is it linked to violence? Violations of rights, freedoms, and human dignity are hardly random occurrences in our times. They are perpetrated by both private parties and public authorities. Resistance to such acts may also entail violation of 'unjust' laws, policies or practices in the shape of, say, civil disobedience or armed resistance. Violence — political, economic, cultural or domestic — is at times violation's ally; at others it may take on the form of counter-hegemonic protest or anti-hierarchical anarchic dissent. Arguably, 'violation' and 'violence' are contradictory resources having both hegemonic and radical potentials. To address the conceptual and methodological riddles that surround these ideas we need an 'interdisciplinary' prism, that is to say, a combination of historical, political, economic, cultural and sociological optics. This is particularly true in today's context. Live as we do in times when the experience of 'terror', both in terms of real events and their media-representations, is getting increasingly integrated to our everyday, the 'violation-violence' nexus demands being examined from perspectives that are not bound exclusively by strict disciplinary protocols. The Workshop will deal with these and similar issues. It is part of a project on 'Training in New Social Science Research Methods' being run by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC).

Eligibility
General Criterion: Candidates with postgraduate degree in any of the social science disciplines (e.g., Economics, History, Sociology, Political Science" Cultural Studies [Literature, Film Studies, Philosophy etc.], Development Studies, Environmental Science, Geography, Social Anthropology, Education)
For Beginning Doctoral Scholars: Candidates who have either just begun or intend to pursue doctoral research.
For Doctoral and Post-doctoral Scholars: (i) Candidates who are either about to complete or have recently completed their doctoral research; (ii) preferably within 35 years of age.

Format

• The Workshop will have two parts.
• Part One: 'Plenary Session'. The selected candidates will be divided into groups of 3. Each group will be assigned a set of Reading Material upon which the group will have to make a presentation.
• Part Two: 'Participants' Presentations'. A Beginning Doctoral Scholar will be required to present a twenty-minute 'Proposal for Research' and Doctoral and Postdoctoral Scholars will be required to present a forty-minute Paper. Resource Persons will interact with participants in both the sessions.
• Spread over 6 working days the workshop will be held from 4 November to 10 November 2009 at the CSSSC's Baishnabghata-Patuli campus in Kolkata. The Workshop does not have any fees. Local hospitality and travel expenses of outstation participants will be covered by CSSSC with partial funding from Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust (NRTT).

Deadline for receiving applications: 15 May 2009

Application: The Beginning Doctoral applicants are required to send a 500-word description of their proposed research and the Doctoral and postdoctoral applicants are required to send a 1000-word description of their papers along with curriculum vitae. Selected applicants will have to submit their final papers by 31 August 2009.

Please send your applications to the following address:
Ranjana Dasgupta
Research-Officer, CSSSC-NRTT Programme
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
R-1, Baishnabghata-Patuli Township
Kolkata 700 094
e-mail: programs[at]cssscal.org

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