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CSSE Occasional Lecture Series

About the Speaker:   Dan Arnold is Assistant Professor of the Philosophy of Religions in the Divinity School, University of Chicago. Dan is a scholar of Indian Buddhist philosophy, which he engages in a constructive and comparative way. His particular interests are in Indian Buddhist Madhyamaka, and in the appreciation of Indian Buddhist philosophy as an integral part of the broader tradition of Indian philosophy. In this regard, he has been especially interested in issues disputed between Buddhist schools and the orthodox Brahmanical school of Purva Mi asa . His first book, Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion (Columbia University Press, 2005)— won the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion. His essays have appeared in Philosophy East and West, the Journal of Indian Philosophy, and the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, among other places. He is currently studying issues involving the intersection of Buddhist philosophy of mind, epistemology, and the category of intentionality.

About the Speaker: UZRAMMA has been associated with the cotton textile industry of India since 1989. She founded a not-for-profit research consultancy for the industry, Dastkar Andhra, in 1992, which continues to be active in the fields of natural dyeing and marketing of cotton handloom fabrics after her retirement in 2005. In 2005 Uzramma founded the Decentralized Cotton Yarn Trust which is setting up small-scale units to process raw cotton to yarn at field locations using specially designed and developed electronically driven machinery. These units enable field-to-fabric cotton processing at village level, eliminating the damaging stages of baling & unbaling of cotton. The product is a new cotton fabric named ‘malkha' with improved lustre, absorbency and durability. Uzramma is committed to the cause of promoting the artisanal mode of production as a mainstream economic activity. She is a practicing goldsmith trained under the contemporary British jeweller Catherine Mannheim and at the City of London Polytechnic, London . At present she is fully involved in the project to set up small-scale cotton field-to-fabric production units.

About the Speaker : Vikram Raghavan is senior counsel in the World Bank's Legal Vice-Presidency, where he works in two different practice groups. As a member of the East Asia and South Asia practice group, Vikram is “country lawyer” for the World Bank's operations in India , Myanmar , and Korea . In that capacity, he provides legal and transactional advice on a variety of constitutional, operational, and local law

issues that arise in World Bank-financed projects in those areas. Previously, Vikram worked as country lawyer for World Bank portfolios in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh , India , Nepal , and Pakistan.  Most recently, he focused on Iraq, Iran, and the West Bank and Gaza . He is part of a select team preparing the 2011 World Development Report on conflict, security, and development.

Vikram has published several articles on international law and constitutional law. He is a graduate of the National Law School of India University and NYU Law School , and is admitted to practice law in India and New York State . He is a member of the American Society of International Law and serves on its executive council. He is the

author of a leading treatise on Indian communications regulation (Communications Law in India , LexisNexis 2006) and is presently working on a book about the founding of modern India focusing on how the Constitution was adopted. Finally, with his friends, Vikram created a much-visited blog on Indian constitutional law, governance, and legal developments: www.lawandotherthings.blogspot.com .

About the Speaker: Professor M. H. Suryanarayana is faculty member at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Development Economics, Applied Econometrics, and Consumer Demand Analysis. He has worked with the National Sample Survey Organisation, Planning Commission of India, and UNDP-International Poverty Centre. He has published extensively on issues related to poverty, inequality, health, and food security.

A detailed academic profile of M. H. Suryanarayana is found at http://www.igidr.ac.in/~surya/.

About the Speaker: Professor Supriya Roy Chowdhury is Professor at Centre for Political Institutions, Governance and Development at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. Her research and teaching interests are globalization and labour; urban poverty; social movements; comparative development.

Supriya Roy Chowdhury has published important articles on informal labour, urban activism and globalization. Some of her publications include, Class in Industrial Disputes: Case Studies from Bangalore,” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. Xl111,  no 22. 2008, "Slums and Civil Society: the Limits of Urban Activism," in Darshini Mahadevia (ed) Inside the Transforming Urban Asia: Processes, Policies and Public Actions, Concept, 2008, and "Globalization and Labour," in Baldev Raj Narain (ed) Globalization and Politics in India (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2007) and "Public Sector Restructuring and Democracy : The State, Labour and Trade Unions in India," Journal of Development Studies, vol.39, no.3, February 2003.

A detailed academic profile of Supriya Roy Chowdhury is found at http://www.isec.ac.in/Supriya.htm .

About the Speaker: Professor A.R.Vasavi is faculty member at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore . Her research and teaching interests are in Agrarian and Rural Societies, Sociology of Education, Sociology of India ; Agrarian and Rural Societies and Development Studies.

A.R. Vasavi's publications include the book, *Harbingers of Rain: Land and Life in South India * (Oxford University Press, 1999). Besides publishing numerous journal articles, she has edited *The Inner Mirror*: *Translations of Kannada Writings on Society and Culture* (The Book Review Press, 2009) and co-edited *In an Outpost of the New Global Economy: Work and Workers in India 's IT Industry* (Routledge, 2008).

About the Speaker: Dr. Harsh Pant is faculty member at the Department of Defence Studies, King's College, London. His research and teaching interests are in International Relations Theory, Security Studies, Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Asia-Pacific Security, Middle East Politics and US Foreign Policy.

About the Speaker : Anupama Rao is Associate Professor at the Department of History, Barnard College, Columbia University.

Her publications include, 'The Caste Question: Struggles for Civil Rights and Recognition by Untouchables in India, 1927-1991 '(University of California Press). She has edited three books: 'Discipline and the Other Body: Correction, Corporeality, Colonialism,' Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006, 'Gender and Caste: Contemporary Issues in Indian Feminism', New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2003 and 'Violence, Vulnerability, and Embodiment: A Gender and History Reader'. London: Blackwell, 2005.

About the Speaker : Yoginder Sikand is Research Associate at CSSE. He was formerly Professor at the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia.

About the Speaker : Andre Béteille is one of India's leading sociologists. He is particularly well known for his studies of the caste system in South India. He was a Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics at the University of Delhi where he is Professor Emeritus of Sociology since 2003. He has written many books including Caste, Class and Power: Changing Patterns of Stratification in a Tanjore Village (1965, 1996), Studies in Agrarian Social Structure (1974);, Inequality among Men (1977), The Idea of Natural Inequality and Other Essays (1983), Antinomies of Society: Essays on Ideologies and Institutions (2000), Equality and Universality: Essays in Social and Political Theory (2002), Anti-Utopia: Essential writings of Andre Beteille, edited by Dipankar Gupta (2005) and  Social Class (2005).  He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2005.

About the Speaker : Anand Teltumbde is a leading activist-scholar on issues related to Dalits in India. His publications include Khar lanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop (2008), Hindutva and Dalits (2005), Anti-imperialism & Annihilation of Castes (2005) and Ambedkar on Muslims (2003).

About the Speaker : Girish Nikam is a Delhi-based political journalist. His columns appear in Dainik Bhaskar , Rajasthan Patrika , and Outlook (Hindi). He is presently doing prime time election analysis for Star News and India TV. He has previously worked with Indian Express , The Times of India & India Today .

About the Speaker : Peter Fitzpatrick is currently Anniversary Professor of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London and Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Kent. He has taught at universities in Europe, North America and Papua New Guinea and published many books on legal philosophy, law and social theory, law and racism, and imperialism. His most recent book is Law as Resistance : Modernism, Imperialism, Legalism (Ashgate, 2008).