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GITIKA DE

GITIKA DE

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GITIKA DE
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<strong>CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE Jawaharlal Nehru University</strong> SEMINAR SERIES <strong>GITIKA DE</strong> ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, HINDU COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF DELHI on <strong>Between Civic and Political Engagement: Ontology of Information as a Right</strong> <strong>Abstract : </strong>What is the nature of a right such as the right to information? What are the possible ontologies of such a right? Drawing on archival records of the Right to Information Movement and ethnographic fieldwork in Rajasthan, I seek to explore the processual, contextual, and phenomenological bases of a right to information to argue that: (a) the claim to a right to information was made meaningful through an appeal to civic virtue orchestrated by social movement mobilisation, (b) an interpretation of information among social agents was generated through contestations within a habitus of normative and power relationships and networks and the specific conjuncture of civic mobilisation, and (c) information as a right functions in the dynamic contestation between the state and society in the latter's claim to other social rights. By locating rights in the diversity of political and social experiences, I seek to understand the right to information in the embeddedness of structures, processes, and identities. <strong>30 October 2015</strong> <strong>ABOUT THE SPEAKER:</strong> Gitika De is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hindu College, University of Delhi, and is currently an Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Governance (CSLG), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, researching on the interface between social movements, lawmaking and policy with a focus on the Right to Information movement. Her research interests are broadly in the areas of Political Sociology, with particular emphasis on the study of political structures and processes, social movements and/or contentious politics, sociology of rights, anthropology of public policy and anthropology of violence.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.