Academia BTS abhilasha jain & ayushi khemka

This is the 2nd part of our conversation with Neeraj and Santvana. Here we move from their lived experiences to the questions of community care; the “self care” fad and the politics of marginalisation; institutional access; research as a skill and ethic; and the linkages of spirituality and MH.

We are in conversation with Neeraj Kumar, and Santvana Kumar to talk about the psycho-social and political dynamics of MH in academia.
Dalit/non-binary queer Neeraj Kumar is the founder of 'the unsound project'. They are queer affirmative counseling practitioner, psychotherapist, and social worker. Their research and practice area include gender, sexuality, disability, queer, Dalit/Bahujan, mental health, and feminism. Currently, They are Mphil scholar with the School of Human Studies at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, working on Dalit/queer experiences with psychiatry care and associated with Nazariya-Queer feminist resource group as a consultant counselor.
Santvana Kumar is a Dalit Feminist Doctoral Fellow at CWS (JNU) and a Human Rights lawyer. A Third Culture Kid who discovered her love for baking in Germany and perfected her banana bread recipe in Zanzibar. A veritable E-news buff who would be the ideal personal shopper. Forever an Island life lover who found peace through swimming. An Analytical overthinker always seeking clarity.

In this episode we talked to Rajni, and Paridhi from Centre for Women’s Studies, JNU about their research work. Rajni is at present in the 4th semester Of her PhD, and Paridhi is in the final semester and was due to submit her thesis. Tune in for a fun conversation on fieldwork, UGC mysteriously empty coffers; and some writing tips from our guests.

*Audio issues*:  The episode saw multiple connectivity failures, and call drops. Therefor, some bits of the audio may be slightly patchy, and or the volume may not be consistent. Our guest is based in Rajasthan, and we are here in Delhi, the internet stability was a trouble from both the ends. We hope, you would enjoy the episode nevertheless. 

 In this episode we discuss with Asif Khan from JNU, the different problematics of online academics at the time of the Corona epidemic. Asif talked us through how the shift to online classes, exams, and submissions has proven to have failed most students/researchers. As he rightly points out the attitude of the policy makers, and authorities in power, towards its higher ed population is often patronizing. They are not considered active social makers, despite the fact that India (and world over) student protests have been pro active in bringing about policy changes. amidst all this the discussion led us to together think about the big P word, PRODUCTIVITY. What does this word even mean, especially in the context of academia, where diverse university spaces and different often difficult home lives have left majority of us stranded, and emotionally exhausted. 

In this episode we kick start the podcast on Indian academia, from within Indian Academia. We introduce ourselves, things you can look forward to, some rants, some first time recording awkwardness, and more.

You can also email us at academiabtspodcast@gmail.com for any feedback, comments or observations.