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CSSS organises a seminar by Sangeeta Chattoo

CSSS organises a seminar by Sangeeta Chattoo

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CSSS organises a seminar by Sangeeta Chattoo
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Centre for the Study of Social Systems

School of Social Sciences

 

CSSS Colloquium

 

Sangeeta Chattoo

(Department of Sociology and Health Sciences, University of York, UK)

 

Will be presenting a paper on

 

Liquid Life, Therapeutic Milieu: Framing Genetic Disorders at the Margins of Prevention and Cure

 

Date & Time:  November 27, 2018 (Tuesday), 3.30 pm

Venue: CSSS Committee Room (No: 13), SSS-II

Abstract:  This paper attempts to understand the social and ethical implications for a notion of care posed by the framing of inherited/genetic disorders simultaneously within two public health registers of prevention and cure, using data from a multi-sited ethnographic case-study of thalassaemia in India.  I use the notion of a therapeutic milieu to first analyse how individual families negotiate the life-saving and life limiting process of blood transfusions as standard treatment; where the boundaries between the normal and the pathological, health and disease seem to fade.  A focus on the materiality of the disease and the milieu lead to two important questions: i) how do parents engage with ‘novel’ treatments, especially stem cell/ bone marrow transplant, promising a cure, and therapeutic risk?, and ii) in what ways might state subsidy for expensive transplants aimed at addressing inequalities in access to healthcare, paradoxically, further stratify and institute new (?) forms of inequalities through arbitrary/ bureaucratic norms about whose life can/can’t be saved. 

Bio:  Sangeeta Chattoo is a medical anthropologist and associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, and Health Sciences, at University of York, UK.  An alumnus of D school, she taught at UWA, Perth, before moving to University of Leeds and then York. Sangeeta has a long standing interest in inequalities and health, with a special focus on race, ethnicity, citizenship and public policy; reproductive technologies, genetics, risk and global health; and South Asia. She is an editor for Frontiers /medical sociology (an open access online journal); and lead editor, 2nd edition: ‘Understanding ‘Race’ and Ethnicity: Theory, History, Policy and Practice (2019), Bristol: Policy Press.  Her project website and publications can be accessed at: 'Inherited blood disorders, globalisation and the promise of genomics: an Indian case-study'

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.