A two-day Young Researchers’ Workshop was organised by the Centre for Regional Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad titled ‘Migration and Borderlands: Ethnographic Explorations’ on 17th-18th August, 2023. Vice Chancellor Prof. B. J. Rao was the Guest of Honour for the inaugural session chaired by Prof. K. Suneetha Rani, the then-acting Dean of School of Social Sciences. The coordinator, Dr. Salah Punathil, briefed the audience about the inception of the workshop and the need to bring recent ethnographic studies to the fore. There were six key resource persons, including Prof. Sasheej Hegde from the Department of Sociology. The keynote address titled Family, Community, State: History and Ethnography in the Study of Borders was delivered by Prof. Farhana Ibrahim from IIT Delhi and was followed by a vibrant discussion.
Over the two days, a special lecture was delivered by Dr. Sahana Ghosh from the National University of Singapore on Ethnographic Approaches to South Asian Borderlands: Methods, Ethics, Conceptual Frames. Dr. Swargajyoti Gohain from Ashoka University delivered a lecture on Difficulty of Studying Borders. Apart from the special lectures, there was also an enriching panel discussion on Detection, Detention and ‘Deportability which included Dr. Gorky Chakraborty from IDSK, Prof. Bani Gill from University of Tübingen, Dr. Sahana Ghosh and Dr. Salah Punathil. The panel discussion was chaired by Prof. Farhana Ibrahim.
The workshop also saw eight young researchers from across the country present their research work spanning over two days. Each paper was discussed committedly by a discussant who remarked on improving and enriching the work by providing their valuable insights. The workshop was also attended by 15 registered participants from across the country who took their time out, joined for the two days, and contributed to the discussions and deliberations.
