Current Research

The faculty members of CMCS are engaged in research on specific themes:

Dr. Manjula is working on a Joint Research Project with Dr. Amita Bhide  “Local Governance and Gendered Citizenship” in selected Panchayats, which represent the different geo- political areas of Maharashtra- Konkan, Western Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidarbha and tribal belts.  Two workshops were organised as a part of this Project during this period. Project has completed data collection and its analysis and is in the documentation phase.  Two regional seminars at Amaravati and Nagpur were organised in February 2009.

Dr. B. Manjula has completed the Report ‘No One is Here’, a Research Project on Gender and Governance in Kerala, looking at the issues and challenges of micro finance and Self Help Groups in the context of gendered governance and participation.

Dr. Manjula worked as an honorary consultant for the Report Gender and Governance in Kerala, funded by the State Planning Board of Kerala. The Report was published in November 2008. 

Dr. Manjula is working on a research project ‘Gendered Governance and Inclusion, a joint research project by Dr. B. Manjula and Dr. Amita Bhide, funded by The Hunger Project (THP). The project is in the data analysis phase.

Dr. Manjula and Dr. Bhide jointly organised National Seminar on Engendering Governance and Participatory Citizenship in Maharashtra

Dr. Manjula, Dr. A. Monteiro and Dr. K. P. Jayasankar are working on an edited volume entitled’ Mediascapes: Shifting Boundaries and Contested Terrains’. Routledge has expressed interest in publishing the book. The manuscript of the edited Volume will be completed by December 2009.

Dr. Manjula and Dr. Thomas Isaac are working on an edited volume entitled ‘Kerala’s Development Experiences’. Sage is publishing the volume, and the manuscript will be completed by December 2009.

Dr. Manjula is working towards a Research Project ‘Understanding the Historicity of Tribal Development in the context of PESA’. This research will be funded by The Hunger Project and faculty across Schools will be involved in it.

Dr Manjula has presented the initial proposal on doing a research on   ''Engendering Governance in Rajasthan, Bihar and Karnataka' and it involves faculty across Schools. The project proposal was approved and will be funded by Agaz Foundation, New Delhi. The Project will commence on September, 2009.

Dr Manjula will be starting research on ‘Kudumbhashree' in Kerala, and it will be funded by Kudumbahshree Mission, Government of Kerala. The Project will commence on October 2009.

The Diversities International Project is still in process. Currently, compilation and editing of student contributions are in process. The collaborating partners are the Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney, the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore and the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Prof. Anjali Monteiro, Prof. K.P. Jayasankar and Ms. Shilpa Phadke are involved in the project. A workshop of the project will be held in December 2009. Prof. Ien Ang of the University of Western Sydney and her team will be visiting Mumbai and the Centre will organise a public lecture and a workshop involving students.

Prof. Anjali Monteiro undertook and completed an evaluation study of Jana Sanskriti for the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

Ms. Shilpa Phadke has begun research on a project exploring young urban middle-class women’s responses to feminism in the 21st century.

Ms. Shilpa Phadke is working on a book titled: Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai’s Streets along with Shilpa Ranade and Sameera Khan to be published by Penguin, India.

Ms. Shilpa Phadke along with Brinda Bose of Department of English, University of Delhi is working on an edited volume titled, ‘Explode Softly: Sexualities in Contemporary Indian Visual Cultures’. This volume follows a workshop held in February this year funded by the Institute Research Council and will be published by Seagull Publications, Kolkata.

Mr. K V Nagesh is working on a paper on the Telugu films of the ‘left’ focussing on the period from early 1970s till date. This paper explores the themes that film-makers reflecting the multiple ‘left’ ideologies have made in this period.

Ms. P. Niranjana is working on access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and its role in rural development.

Dr. Sujith Parayil is working on paper titled, “Bhaber Abhibyakti”: Photography and the Emotional Metaphors”. This paper intends to explore how photographic visual vocabularies translate the emotional states of the people, where he is using selected photographs from the North Eastern Regions.

Dr Sujith Parayil is working on another paper titled, “Body, Unconscious Memories and Subordinate Spaces: A study of Kalabhavan Mani’s films” (tentative title). This paper explores how Kalabhavan Mani’s (a Malayalam film actor) films have been reproducing the stereotype ethnographic body within an imaginary social relation of Kerala. Most of his films have followed particular mode of representative strategies to identify the body as a cultural sign to manifest subalternity.