Second Global South Graduate Student Conference

May 4, 2023, 8:30 AM to May 5, 2023, 3:00 PM EDT
Virtual on Zoom

The Global South Research Hub housed within Center for Social Science Research at George Mason University is organizing the Second Global South Graduate Student Conference to be held on May 4 - 5, 2023.

CONFERENCE THEME

“Staying Alive: Precarity and Survival in the Global South”

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Global South has come to represent those spaces and people, cartographically and epistemologically that are on the periphery of the world social order, through the history of post-16th-century global capitalism, colonialism, empire, and contemporary neoliberalism. Global south solidarity networks such as the Bandung Conference served as the meeting point for nations and people to reflect on and imagine their position in the world. These networks created political spaces for anticolonial and anti-apartheid resistance, and imagined a collective future imbued with postcolonial camaraderie. These emancipatory visions never materialized. Through this graduate student conference, we hope to regenerate some of those old visions of solidarity, while global capitalism and its perspectives continue to shape the world unequally. Beyond a place of critique, we want to envisage a world where the South-South dialogues will create unexpected connections and possibilities of solidarity. There is a dignity and importance in the ‘global south’ – it carries with it the weight of most of the world but also a sense of possibility. 

This global conference will be held virtually allowing participation from across the world.

Program Schedule (All times in EDT)

May 4, 2023, Thursday

08:30 AM - 08:45 AM

Opening Remarks

Manjusha Nair, Director of the Global South Research Hub


08:45 AM - 10:15 AM 


Panel 1: Labor and Precarity

Discussants: Manjusha Nair and Deepika Hooda

  • Sayendri Panchadhyayi, Presidency University, India. "Intimate Transactions in Carework: Precarity, Purpose and Pleasure".
  • Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa, Northern Arizona University, USA. "Predicting counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Interaction of Stressors, Emotions, and Narcissism in the least Developed countries (LDCs)".
  • Shruti Talukdar, Tezpur University, India. "Maternalism in Domestic Work: Exploring the Class Boundaries and Strategies of Domestic Workers in Guwahati, India".
  • Sampurna Das, University of Delhi, India. "Gendered precarity amongst community health workers of rural riverine region of India".

10:15 AM - 11:45 AM


Panel 2: Identities and Imaginaries

Discussants: Iccha Basnyat and Golzar Salih

  • Janelle Levy, University of California, Irvine, USA. "The "Foreign-Mindedness" of Jamaican Educational Aspirations".
  • Sevil Suleymani, George Mason University, USA. "Reclaiming Streets for "Women, Life, Freedom", and the Shadow that Hunt us".
  • Debamita Guha, George Mason University, USA. "Queer Activism and Inclusive Urban Spaces in India: An Exploration".

11:45 AM - 01:15 PM 


Panel 3: Environmental Justice 

Discussants: Christopher Morris and Blake Vullo

  • Judith Mane, George Mason University, USA. "Why is there a contrast between officially successful public infrastructure and negative community outcomes?".
  • Arvind Geetha Christo, George Mason University, USA. "Displacement and Relocation from Protected Areas – The Indian Experience".
  • Atmaja Gohain Baruah, National University of Singapore and King's College London. "Power in Shifting Boundaries: Climate Change and Forest Conservation in the Margins".
  • Rahul Singh, Presidency University, India. "Mapping Rainfall in Urban Neighbourhoods".

May 5, 2023, Friday


08:30 AM - 10:00 AM 


Panel 4: Contested Mobilities

Discussants: Rashmi Sadana and Eirini Giannaraki

  • Anand Panamthottam cherian, The International Institute of Migration and Development, India. "Migrant Vulnerabilities:Labour Migration and Endless Precarity in Kerala".
  • Ijeoma Nwanwene, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. "Identity Loss: The Lived Experiences of Internally Displaced Persons in Selected IDP Camps in Northeastern Nigeria".
  • Fancy Jamatia, University of Delhi, India. "Multiple Realities of Displaced Returnees in Dumbur".

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM


Keynote Address

Speaker: Alf Gunvald Nilsen

Keynote Topic: "Authoritarian Populism in the Southern Interregnum"

NOTE: Announcement of "Best Student Paper" Awards


11:30 AM - 01:00 PM 


Panel 5: Digital Culture & Communities

Discussant: Lester Kurtz and Karthik Ramanujam

  • Ivan Kirschbaum, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. "Digital technologies from the slums: ICTs as a right to the city practice in informal settlements in Argentina".
  • Kajal Patel, Loyola University Chicago, USA. "To Be Fair: Colorism and Online Dating Among Young South Asians".
  • Kevin Nazar, George Mason University, USA. "Internet access and security in the Global South".

01:00 PM - 02:30 PM


Panel 6: Questions on Health

Discussants: Cortney Hughes Rinker and Kevin Nazar
  • Opeyemi Olodude, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. "Gender role. health seeking behavior and Malaria status of under-five children in Nigeria".
  • Udeepta Phukan, Tezpur University, India. "Metabolic (Mal)adaptation: Living with Hypertension in Tea Plantations of Assam".
  • Ibukunolu Olodude, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. "Ọba ní kòró (The king has corona virus): Punning as Yoruba Naming Strategy in Covid-19 Pandemic in Southwest Nigeria".

02:30 PM - 02:45 PM 


Concluding Session

The best student papers will be invited to be submitted to a special issue volume of a journal dedicated to the conference theme.

Do reach out to us if you have questions at cssr@gmu.edu.

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