Issues related to empowerment of women in Academia have been discussed at various forums for the last two decades. But what has been achieved and what remains to be achieved? Which recommendations were implemented and which were not? Why? Vineeta Bal examines these issues with special reference to the current socio-economic situation of India.
In a traditional classroom, the teacher acts as both an instructor and as a guide, but this changes in online teaching. A teacher is now no longer just an instructor but is also a content developer and designer of online curricula. She or he will also need skills in content-communication online. Teachers should also ensure appropriate video and voice qualities and if needed, some enrichment of the content before sharing them with students – all of which make online teachers “super”teachers!
My experience of being a person with disability and my interaction with persons with disability allow me to posit that the absence of the knowledge about the lived experiences of the disabled and the preconceived notions about normalcy allow to attach different social meanings to impaired bodies and these meanings question the knowledge of the disabled .
Existing polarizations of caste, religion, gender and class also shape the repercussions of the current crisis in many ways. The switch to online education has amplified the manifestations of caste, gender and class divisions among students. On June 1, 2020, a 14-year-old Dalit girl student committed suicide in Kerala because her family could not afford a smart phone for her to attend online classes. There are many incidents of domestic violence against women reported during the lockdown.
So how do we accomplish our research goals? There was no point pining for a lab that you could not visit. The only solution to this was to redefine our goals.
Essays in this series discuss the plausibility of turning the crisis created by the ongoing COVID 19 Pandemic into opportunities while reorganizing academic research. The papers in this series will identify the problems and potential solutions to the current academic uncertainties and think aloud about ways of reimagining knowledge production practices. What difficulties do researchers […]
Whenever the question of juxtaposing Ayurveda with modern medicine arises, it is posited by some influential commentators as a case of placing holism side-by-side reductionism. Such a view is an overstatement of facts and this essay seeks to put things in perspective.
In a partly autobiographical sketch, V Madhurima reminisces about the time she spent as a Physics Professor in Mizoram University during 2007-2012. This essay highlights some of the unique features and challenges of being a researcher in one of the North-East states of India
Confluence Series on under-represented groups in academia.
I envisage a distant, distributed mode of education which is efficient at teaching and measuring learning. It is of great advantage when applied to cases and countries where there is demand for highly quality educated people – in short, a society striving for more education with only minimal capital and financial resources to deliver them.
