Radhika Nair has a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Media and Mass Communication from Indraprastha College for Women at Delhi University. She has a Master’s degree in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. Additionally, she has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. For three years, she worked as an Advocate at the High Court and district courts of Delhi, while working part-time on building a legal aid NGO in Delhi from the ground up.
An interest in international law and access to justice led her to pursue an Advanced LLM in European and International Human Rights Law at Leiden University in 2020. She has extensive experience with not-for-profit organisations, research organisations and policy think tanks in various capacities.
My focus area at NLSIU: At present, I am working with the Centre for Labour Studies under the guidance of Professor Babu Mathew on developing a Fifth Labour Code covering the informal sector workers who have largely been left out of the four new labour codes implemented by the Central government. Additionally, I am working with the Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) department on revising course material, curriculum development, and assisting with the delivery of off-campus lectures.
Publications
- Guest column titled ‘Refugee protection in India calls for the adoption of a specific law’ published in Mint on October 28, 2021. https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/refugee-protection-in-india-calls-for-the-adoption-of-a-specific-law-11635353951190.html
- Policy paper titled ‘Refugee Protection in India in the Absence of Specific Legislation: An Overview’ published by the Social and Political Research Foundation, New Delhi published on October 22, 2021, for their Curated Voices series.
- Policy paper titled ‘Evaluating the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019’ published by the Social and Political Research Foundation, New Delhi on June 9, 2020, for their Curated Voices series.
Rongeet holds a a B.A., LL.B (Hons.), and an LLM in International and Comparative Law from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (WBNUJS). He has recently joined the Ph.D. programme at WBNUJS. He had a short stint in the industry as a corporate lawyer at Argus Partners, Mumbai. After obtaining his LLM degree and clearing the UGC-NET examination in 2022, Rongeet briefly worked at Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata as an Assistant Professor of Law.
Areas of Interest: His areas of interest include critical approaches to International Law, particularly the Third World and post-colonial prisms. He also has an inclination towards International Human Rights Law and International Refugee Law.
Outside of work, he enjoys following football, socio-political satire and honing his culinary skills.
Focus area at NLSIU: Currently, his focus will be to assist in the delivery of academic courses taught on campus alongside working with the Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) department.
Sebanti is a cultural anthropologist with an interest in Sound Studies, Religious Studies, and Gender Studies. She earned her doctorate degree in Sociology from the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. Her areas of interest are Anthropology of sound, visual documentation of cultural practices, research on gender violence and labour settings.
Her monograph ‘Styling the Sacred: Choral Voices from Goa and Shillong’ is currently under review with Bloomsbury Music and Sound Studies Series, USA. As a co-recipient of the India Arts Foundation Research grant, she is also working on a film titled ‘Ki Sur- The voice.’
My focus area: My focus at NLSIU is to immerse into the ethos of interdisciplinary learning and researching while discovering how to intersperse questions of legality and politics in the realm of culture.
Publications
- Chatterjee, Sebanti (2023): Choral Voices: Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality. Bloomsbury Academic, February 2023
- Chatterjee, Sebanti (2022): Choirs on the Coast: Impact of COVID-19 on Musical Pedagogy and Festivals, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2022.2133489
- Chatterjee, Sebanti. (2020). Performing Bollywood Broadway: Shillong Chamber Choir as Bollywood’s Other. Society and Culture in South Asia. 6. 304-327. 10.1177/2393861720923812.
- Chatterjee, Sebanti (2019). Childs Play India Foundation – exploring a new mode of community music making in India. Vol 4 No 4 (2017): Post-IP: Journal of the International Forum for Studies in Music and Dance. 231-239.
- Clausen, Bernd/Chatterjee, Sebanti (2012): Dealing with ‘western classical music’ in Indian music schools. A case study in Kolkata, Bangalore, Goa and Mumbai. In: Knigge, Jens/Niessen, Anne (eds.): Musikpädagogisches Handeln. Begriffe, Erschei – nungsformen, politische Dimensionen [Musikpädagogische Forschung, 33] (Music Education: Concepts, Practices, and Political Dimensions). Essen (Die Blaue Eule), 112–131.ISBN 978-3 89924346
Blogs, Portals, Magazines, Newspapers
Sheetal completed her LLM in Human Rights at National Law School of India University, Bangalore, where she was the batch topper, and secured four gold medals. After completing her post graduation in 2020, she joined the Madhusudan Law University in Odisha, where she taught Constitutional Law and Hindu Law to the undergraduate students.
She later joined NLS as a Research Associate for a project funded by Niti Aayog. Her areas of interest are Gender, Feminist interpretation of law and Constitutionalism. She also has a special liking towards Refugee Studies and how the intersectionality of gender is played within its realm. She is also a professional baker.
Focus area at NLSIU: Gender Studies and Child Rights.
Publications
Academic writing
o Article “Homonationalism or Radical queer –LGBTQ+ right articulation in India post-Navtej Johar” selected for publication in Gender Human Rights and Law, Volume 9 published by Centre of Woman and the Law
o Published article titled “Investment and Human Rights: Sensitizing the Arbitration Mechanism to Protect Human Rights in the Host State” in Volume 7, Issue 2 of Indian Journal of Arbitration Law
Non-academic writing
o “In Odisha, No Love from the Government in the Time of Encephalitis” on 19th October 2016
o “Chhattisgarh Security Forces Mask Unconstitutional Vigilantism Under Garb of & Perception Management” on 14th December 2016
Shivani is a lawyer and a literature graduate interested in studying the intersections of law, literature, and politics. On completing a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degree from O.P. Jindal Global University, she litigated at the High Court and trial/civil courts in Bangalore, working on criminal, commercial, and public interest litigations. She also holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from SOAS, University of London, where her dissertation was declared the runner up for the BASAS (British Association for South Asian Studies) Master’s Dissertation Prize 2023.
Areas of interest: Her areas of interest are criminal law, legal history, South Asian literature(s), and feminist theory and jurisprudence.
Outside of work, she enjoys travelling and reading fiction.
Focus area at NLSIU: She is currently working with the Writing Centre at NLSIU, an initiative focused on helping students develop and strengthen the foundational skills of academic reading and writing that are essential for a successful engagement with any discipline.
Varada completed her BA LL B (Hons.) from the National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi, with gold medals for overall academic performance in the programme, and in the subjects of Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Administrative Law. She also has a PG Diploma in Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics from NLSIU, Bengaluru, and an LLM from the University of Melbourne in 2022 as an Alex Chernov Scholar. During this time, she also worked as a research staff in the University of Melbourne’s Academic Research Office.
Varada has litigation experience of over four years. She began her career as an Associate at Wadia Ghandy & Co., Mumbai where she was engaged in arbitration and litigation matters for two years. Thereafter, she assisted the former State Attorney of Kerala, Mr. K V Sohan as his Research Assistant for another two years. After her LLM, she resumed her work as an advocate in the High Court of Kerala for a brief stint before turning to academia. She cleared the UGC NET in 2022 and has worked as Guest Faculty at NUALS, Kochi where she taught Insurance Law and Banking Law.
Areas of interest: Human rights, women and child rights; however, she will be focusing more on Labour Law, Professional Ethics, Medical Law and Ethics at NLSIU.
Outside of work, she is drawn to music, poetry and recreational cooking.
Focus area at NLSIU: She is currently assisting Dr. Saurabh Bhattarcharjee, Associate Professor of Law, in the ‘Labour Law-I’ course for fourth year students of the BA LLB (Hons) programme. She is also involved in teaching the Professional Ethics module for a Bridge Course student. Apart from this, she is engaged in the PG Diploma programme for Medical Law and Ethics offered by the PACE department.
Vidya was a researcher at NLU Delhi on an interdisciplinary project (under an MoU between IIT-Delhi and NLU-Delhi). The project aimed at developing a framework for potential algorithmic bias with a specific lens on legal applications within the Indian context. She was a practising advocate in Delhi for two years, before deciding to venture into academics. She has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Delhi and an LL.M (Business Laws) from NLU Delhi where she secured a gold medal for Competition Law. Prior to this, she worked as a Cisco firewall engineer for three years having obtained a B. Tech degree from Pondicherry University.
Areas of interest: Her areas of interest are tech policy and competition law.
Focus area at NLSIU: Currently, she is co-teaching the core course – Reading Judgments and Statutes, for first year students of the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP).
