Inaugural seminar of the new Visiting ICCR Professor Gopal Karanth

During the academic year 2011/12, G K Karanth, Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Study of Social Change and Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore, is the second Visiting ICCR Professor at Lund University. He arrived in mid-September 2011, and is hosted by the Department of Sociology. 

Prof. Karanth has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, and his main research fields are Peasant Economy and Society; Caste and Social Stratification; Rural-Urban Linkages; and Sociology of Development. He will be second Visiting ICCR Professor at Lund University, after Prof. Lipi Ghosh who spent five months in Lund till March 2011.

The ICCR professorships at Lund University are an outcome of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Lund University, that was signed on 22 June 2010 by Mr. Balkrishna Shetty, former Indian Ambassador to Sweden, and Prof. Per Eriksson, Vice-Chancellor, Lund University. The agreement is valid for four years, with a new Indian Professor to be selected each year. SASNET was actively involved in finalizing the ICCR professorship at Lund University, with strong support from the Embassy of India in Stockholm. 

An inaugural seminar with Professor Karanth was held on Thursday 6th October 2011, at 15.00. The theme for his lecture was ”Changing Rural India: Caste and Social Mobility”. His lecture was preceded with a short presentation by Ashok Sajjanhar, Ambassador of India to Sweden and Latvia. After the lecture, a cultural programme was organised with the Tabla player Subrata Manna, singer Sudokshina Manna, and Kathak dancer Sohini Debnath, all from Kolkata. 

Venue for the seminar: Edens hörsal (auditorium), Lund University’s Department of Political Science, Paradisgatan 5, Lund. The event included Indian food and continued up to 7 P.M.
See the full programme including an abstract for Prof. Karanth’s lecture.