Purdue University

Graduate Student, Communication

Other Affiliations: IIT Bombay, Industrial Design Center
INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY, School of Managememt Studies
The Institution of Engineers(india), Civil Engineering

Doctoral Candidate / Graduate Lecturer

Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University

Thesis Title: Subalternity and Indigenous Existence: Negotiating Development Issues from the Margin

About

I am currently a doctoral candidate in the Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University. I did my Master of Design (with specialization in Visual Communication) from Industrial Design Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India and have a work experience of nine years in a Public Sector Enterprise in India in Marketing Communication Strategy, Media Management & Design Research. I did my Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering and Master of Business Administration (with specialization in Operations Management).

I am interested in designing communication strategies and ethnographic methodologies in the area of participatory sustainable community development, especially for underserved and subaltern communities of the third world countries.

In my doctoral research project I am studying the knowledge systems and everyday struggles of indigenous communities of eastern India (with an emphasis on their communicative aspects). I intend to examine how in a developing nation (e.g. India) the indigenous communities fight against hegemonic (neo-colonial and neo-liberal) forces and dominant discourses in their everyday lives. Specifically, the project will study how the indigenous communities collectively identify their development needs and how they collaboratively formulate locally-situated intervention strategies to accomplish their development goals. This study will document the locally-based articulations of indigenous people on development issues and will examine how subaltern development discourses might create alternate epistemologies to improve their quality of life. My long-term goal of engagement in such critical research projects is to locate discursive entry points for creating possibilities of social transformation.

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