Confirmed speakers and titles

Experiencing the State: Marginalised People and the Politics of Development

Thursday 12 March - Friday 13 March 2009

The range of potential delegates and the depth of proposed papers reflect a series of engagements with this subject matter. As the final conference, the theme of ‘Experiencing the state’ has demonstrated its theoretical relevance and utility to academics working in a variety of disciplines including: anthropology, development studies, geography, sociology and political science, amongst others.

The 2 day conference will forum the work of more than 15 delegates, with a keynote speech, public lecture as well as round tables. Within the panels we intend to create a forum in which critical discussions of the papers’ theoretical and practical applications might take place. To facilitate this, papers will be submitted a month in advance of the conference for review by participants and discussants alike.  The roundtable discussion between discussants will then provide an alternative environment in which to problematise some of the broad themes of the conference, and provoke new questions and lines for analysis.  

Keynote speaker:
Professor Niraja Jayal
(Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India)
Craving the State: Claims to Social Citizenship in western India



Public Lecture:
Professor Barbara Harriss-White (
Development Studies at Queen Elizabeth House and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University)
Globalisation, Economic Citizenship and India’s Inclusive Developmentalism


Confirmed panellists include:

Sunita Abraham (IDS, University of Sussex)
Change in the Stratified Political Plenum? Citizens, Panchayati Raj Institutions and NGOs in rural arenas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka

Kaustav Banerjee (Associate Fellow, Council for Social Development, New Delhi)
Developmentalism in a Democracy & the Paradox of Backwardness

Kim Beazley (Doctoral Student, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge)
Experiencing Displacement: A Case of State-Society Interaction from Rural India

Vasudha Chhotray (Lecturer in Development Studies, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia)
How Samaj Pragati Sahyog works the state and why it succeeds 

Deepta Chopra (Doctoral Student, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge)
Participation and Politics in the making of State Policy: The case of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, India

Brendan Michael Donegan (Doctoral Student, Department of Anthropology, SOAS)
Spaces for negotiation and mass action within the National Rural Health Mission: ‘Community monitoring plus’ and people’s organisations in tribal areas of Maharashtra

Rubina Jasani (National Health Service)
‘Sarkar nadi us paar rehne wale logon ke liye hai’ (The state exists for the people living on the other side of the river) : Everyday perceptions of the state among the survivors of the communal violence of 2002 in the slums of urban Ahmedabad

Nida Kirmani (Research Associate, Religions and Development Research Programme, University of Birmingham)
Bridging the Religious Impasse: The Growth of Muslim Women's Organization within the Indian Women's Movement

Priyanca Mathur Velath (Centre for the Study of Law and Governance,Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
Development-Induced Displaced Persons and the State in India - The Neoliberal Dilemma and SEZs

Fiona McConnell (Doctoral Student Department of Geography, Queen Mary’s University London)
The ambiguous position of Tibetan exiles in India: from governmental discourse to quotidian geographies

Mira Mohsini  (Doctoral student, Department of Anthropology, SOAS)
Engagement and Disengagement from the Margins: Perceptions of National and State Awards Schemes for Highly Skilled Artisans

Nandini Nayak (Department of Development Studies, SOAS)
Gender and Social Policy in India: The dynamics of access to rights for Single Women and Women Heading Households

Clarinda Still (Lecturer in Modern Indian Studies, University of Oxford)
Experiencing the State from the Margins: Dalit Perspectives on the State in Andhra Pradesh

Louise Tillin (IDS, University of Sussex)
Who wants a new state? Competing visions of statehood in India’s newest states

Philippa Williams (Doctoral Student, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge)
Improvised Citizenship: Experiences of the 'developmental state' in a North Indian 'Muslim mohalla


Two bursaries are also available for young academics/researchers based in India to participate in this conference.
They go to Kaustav Banerjee and Priyanca Mathur Velath