Discussants:
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Dr. Abraham Lotha completed his PhD in Anthropology from City University New
York (CUNY) in 2009, prior to which he had obtained a Masters degree in Anthropology
from Colombia University in New York. He has authored several articles and books on
social change and Naga culture. He is also the director of Chumpo Museum, a unique
attempt at showcasing living Naga traditions and cultures, in Chumukidema (Dimapur).
Dr. Lotha is currently the principal of St. Joseph’s College, Jakhama (Nagaland).
Dr. Arkotong Longkumer teaches Religious Studies at the School of Divinity, at the
University of Edinburgh in Scotland. His research interests intersect around the study of
local Christianity, indigenous religions, contemporary Hinduism and religious reform
movements in South/Southeast Asia. He is the author of Reform, Identity and Narratives
of Belonging: The Heraka Movement of Northeast India, and has contributed to several
academic journals and books.
Dr. Arupjyoti Saikia is a historian who teaches at the Department of Humanities and
Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati. He is the author of
A Century of Protests: Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900 and other books and
academic articles related to the social and environmental history of 19th and 20th century
Assam. He has been a post-doctoral fellow at the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale
University and is currently working on floods and river islands in the Brahmaputra
Valley of Assam.
Prof. Bengt G. Karlsson teaches social anthropology at Stockholm University, where he
was until recently the Head of the Department. His main research interest relate to the
larger issue of society-environment interface, with particular focus on the politics of
ethnicity and environment in India. Having taught in London, Chicago and Shillong, he
has also authored several books and articles and has edited special issues of academic
journals. His book, Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology of India’s Northeast, was released
in 2011.
Prof. C. Matthew Snipp is the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Chair in the
School of Humanities and Sciences and director, Institute for Research in the Social
Sciences’ Secure Data Center at Stanford University. A sociologist, he has worked with
indigenous communities in the United States and is interested in research on
demography, economic development, poverty and unemployment. He has authored
several articles in academic journals and has authored three books.
Prof. Chandan K. Sharma is a sociologist who teaches at Tezpur (Central) University.
He has done extensive research work on social movements, ethnicity, migration, culture
and society in Northeast India. He has published articles and books in both Assamese and
English, his most recent book being a polemical tract titled Axomiya Kon? Ek Rajanaitik,
Samajtattvik Avolokan (Who are the Assamese? A Political, Sociological Perspective).
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Dr. Dolly Kikon is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the department of Social
Anthropology, Stockholm University. She completed her PhD, titled Disturbed Areas
Act: Intimacy, Anxiety and the State in Northeast India from the department of
Anthropology, Stanford University. Her research interests include political and legal
anthropology, food cultures and indigenous politics.
Dr. Duncan McDuie-Ra is the associate dean (research) at the University of New South
Wales (Australia). He teaches Development Studies and his areas of interest are urban
sociology, race and ethnic relations and migration. His most recent publication, Northeast
Migrants in Delhi: Race, Retail and Refuge, is an ethnography of the work and lives of
students and workers from the hills states of Northeast India (to India’s capital).
Prof. Kalpana Sarathy teaches Social Work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences
(TISS), Guwahati. Her research interests include gender and sexuality, mental health and
qualitative and participatory research methods. She has more than a decade of experience
of teaching in the Northeast and has mentored research students with a wide range of
interests in Mizoram, before moving to Guwahati.
Prof. Kalyan Das is a faculty member at Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change
and Development, Guwahati. A geographer by training, he has worked extensively on
human security, quantitative analysis of the economic transformation in Assam, social
costs of flooding, as well as the social cost of using pesticides and insecticides in the
farming sector in Northeast India.
Prof. Monirul Hussain teaches at the department of Political Science in Gauhati
University. A sociologist by training, he has worked on identity movements and
development in Assam. He has contributed to a wide range of academic journals and
books on issues pertaining to forced migration and development. He is the author of
Interrogating Development: State, Displacement and Popular Resistance in Northeast
India that was published in 2008.
Prof. Nandana Dutta teaches English at Gauhati University. Her areas of interest
include post-colonial theory and literature, identity and modernity, migration studies and
travel writing, as well as gender studies. She has edited several books on Assamese and
English literature. Her book, Questions of Identity in Assam: Location, Migration and
Hybridity was published in 2012 to much critical acclaim.
Dr. R.K. Debbarma teaches at TISS (Guwahati). He recently completed his PhD in
political science from the University of Hyderabad. He is the author of Heroes and
Histories: The Making of rival Geographies in Tripura, wherein he engages with his
abiding interests in the politics of space and place-making in Northeast India.
Prof. Rowena Robinson is a sociologist who teaches at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Bombay. She has worked extensively on religion and religious conversions
in India and has taught in New Delhi, Guwahati and Mumbai. Her latest book Boundaries
of Religion: Essays on Christianity, Ethnic Conflict and Violence was published in 2013.
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Dr. Sanjay (Xonzoi) Barbora teaches at TISS Guwahati. A sociologist by training, he
has authored several articles and edited books on resource conflicts, agrarian change,
forced migration, media and human rights. His current research focuses on the outmigration from the Brahmaputra valley to other parts of the Indian sub-continent and
beyond.
Dr. Subhadeepta Ray teaches sociology at Tezpur (Central) University. He completed
his PhD from the department of sociology, Delhi School of Economics (Delhi
University). His research interests include the sociology of science, sociology of India,
medical sociology and sociology of literature.
Prof. Thomas Blom Hansen is the Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Chair in South Asian
Studies at the department of Anthropology at Stanford University. He is done seminal
work on nationalism, contemporary urbanism and comparative religion. His latest book
Melancholia and Freedom: Anxiety, Race and Everyday Life in a South African
Township, was published in 2012 and it engaged with the varied theoretical and political
concerns that he currently engages with.
Dr. Uddipan Dutta is a linguist who works at the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social
Change and Development, Guwahati. He completed his PhD from Gauhati University
and has published several books, including Creating Robin Hoods: The Early Period of
Insurgency of ULFA, Its Parallel Administration and the Role of the Assamese
Vernacular Press (1985-1990).
Prof. Virginius Xaxa is the Deputy Director of TISS, Guwahati. A sociologist by
training, he has taught for several years at Shillong and New Delhi. He is interested in
research on indigenous communities in India, agrarian change and social mobility. His
book, State, Society and Tribes: Issues in Post Colonial India published in 2008 engaged
with the politics of representation of indigenous communities in India.
Dr. Yengkhom Jilangamba is a historian who teaches at TISS Guwahati. He completed
his PhD titled Territory and Identity in Northeast Frontier of the British Indian Empire
from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2010. His research interests are on issues of
identity, territory, peace-making and violence.