Research Community News


Indian Embassy develops social media for increased interaction

The Embassy of India in Stockholm is in the process of increasing its interaction with Indians in general and Indian students in particular that are living in Sweden via the Embassy’s social media. Activities are now continously being uploaded on its Facebook page. Among recent updates could be mentioned information about the Ambassador’s visit to Jönköping University on Thursday 11th October 2012, and her visit to Lund University the following day, when she both participated in a meeting with university researchers and other staff, and attended the ICCR Professor Installation Seminar. All events are illustrated by a generous set of photographs.
Go for the Embassy of India’s Facebook page.


Funding granted for SASNET/NCI workshop and eight other Indo-Swedish workshops

SASNET and the Nordic Centre in India (NCI) university consortium have been granted SEK 400 000 from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) for organizing a workshop entitled “Urbanization and Migration in Transnational India: Work and Family Life from a Welfare Perspective” in collaboration with the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore. The workshop is planned to take place 5–7 March 2013.
Earlier in 2012, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research announced a special call for proposals for arranging workshops/hearings to explore future research co-operation specifically with India. The purpose is to facilitate contact and the exchange of experience between Swedish and Indian researchers; to bring knowledge from the international research community to Swedish research; and to be of considerable value to research in FAS’ areas of responsibility. Decisions were taken on 3 October 2012. Go for the decisions.
Altogether nine projects were approved. Besides the workshop organized by SASNET, NCI and ISEC, eight more research group leaders from Swedish universities were also granted funding for India workshops, three at Karolinska Institutet, two at Lund University, and one each at Stockholm, Umeå and Örebro universities. Full information. 


UNRISD invites papers on Social and Solidarity Economy

As the international development community considers a post-2015 development agenda, UNRISD research is focusing on ”alternative” development policy and strategy. One strand of this inquiry concerns advocacy, policy and practice related to ”Social and Solidarity Economy” (SSE). The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), based in Geneva, Switzerland, invites researchers to submit proposals for papers that critically examine the scope for expanding social and solidarity economy (SSE), and its potential and limits as a distinctive approach to development.
Related to this call for papers, should be mentioned that a  one-day conference on ”Solidarity Economy and Alternative Finance: A Different Development Model?” that was being held in Geneva on Wednesday 3 October 2012, as a Side Event at the UN Human Rights Council's 2012 Social Forum, co-organized by UN-NGLS and UNRISD (more information).
The deadline for submitting papers is 15 November 2012. Key themes should be:
– Conceptualizing, measuring and appraising SSE
– Expanding SSE through market relations
– Enabling SSE through public policy and the state
– Social movements, networks and the politics of change
More information.


Doctoral dissertation on Danish Missionary Children on Colonial South India

Karen Vallgårda from the Saxo Institute, Section for History at University of Copenhagen, defends her doctoral dissertation entitled ”Bringing Children into the Fold. Danish Missionaries in Colonial South India 1864–1918” on Tuesday 16 October 2012, at 13.00. With a background in history and anthropology, Karen has published several articles bringing forth critical perspectives on the history of Danish missionaries in India. The assessment committee consists of Associate Professor Søren Ivarsson, University of Copenhagen; Associate Professor Elizabeth Elbourne, McGill University; and Professor Bengt Sandin, Linköping University. Venue: KUA (Københavns Universitet Amager), Njalsgade 80, hall 22.0.11.
Abstract: Bringing Children Into the Fold probes the meanings of childhood in the encounters between Danish Christian missionaries and Indians in the Madras Presidency from 1864 to 1918. Through “micro historical entries” the dissertation examines aspects of the missionaries’ ideas about and efforts directed at different categories of children. The dissertation documents that the missionaries invested remarkable resources in the reform of reproductive practices, in childcare, and in education. They were convinced that children’s education, in the broad sense, was crucial to their growth into Christian adulthood, and that caring for heathen children was a Christian duty. Being a good human being entailed knowing and embodying one’s position in social orders that were both local and colonial. Read more.


Three Swedish universities among 100 highest ranked by THE

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-13 will published on Wednesday 3 October. This year is the ninth year that THE has published a global university ranking, but the third year of a new more comprehensive ranking system developed in partnership with Thomson Reuters. The THE rankings employ 13 separate performance indicators, making them the only global university rankings to examine all the core missions of the modern global university - research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.
In last year’s THE ranking for 2011-12, three Scandinavian universities appeared among the top 100 in the world, Karolinska Institutet as No. 32, Lund University as No. 80, and Uppsala University as No. 87. In South Asia, the top university according to the THE ranking was the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, ranked to be somewhat below No. 300 in the world.


Prosun Bhattacharya new Fellow of the Geological Society of America

In April 2012, Professor Prosun Bhattacharya from the Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, was elected a Fellow of the prestigeous Geological Society of America (GSA), a global professional society with a membership of more than 24,700 individuals in 103 countries. In the motivation for electing Prof. Bhattacharya, it was stated the “he has made seminal and sustained contributions on the problem of arsenic mobility and toxicity in aquifers. His work not only addresses the source, mechanism, and distribution of arsenic in sediments and groundwaters, but also remediation and manage-ment of arsenic-contaminated groundwaters in underdeveloped countries.” More information on Prof. Bhattacharya’s research.


Interns wanted for Symposium on India-China issues in New Delhi

A Symposium on India-China issues will be held in New Delhi, India during the period 8 October till 5 November 2012. It is jointly organised by the India China Institute at the New School, New York, USA, and the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. The organisers hereby announce their interest to invite Masters level students with interest in India China issues to apply for an internship for the symposium. Interns would be based at the CPR office in Delhi and would be given a stipend and certificate. Applications should be sent to Dr Geetanjali Chopra at the Centre for Policy Research.


Doctoral dissertation on Maoist Cadres in Post-War Nepal

Dan V. Hirslund, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, defended his doctoral dissertation entitled ”Sacrificing Youth: Maoist Cadres and Political Activism in Post-War Nepal” on Wednesday 5 September 2012.
The thesis is an ethnography about young, lower-level cadres in Nepal’s Maoist movement after the 2006 transition to peace. It investigates the mobilization of a new generation of young people to the Maoist’s youth movement and how they are recruited to a program of revolution and self- sacrifice. The overall question explored is what it means to become a revolutionary when the war is over and how it has formed Maoist youth activism and Nepali political culture. The examination committee consisted of Thomas Blom Hansen, Stanford University; Marie Lecomte-Tilouine, CNAS France; and Inger Sjørslev, University of Copenhagen. Read an abstract of the thesis.


Lund University researchers meeting on Sustainable Sanitation solutions in India

Some of the participants at the meeting: Sara Gabrielsson, LUCSUS; Lars Eklund, SASNET; Cecilia Ruben, SEI; Prakash Kumar, WASH; and Peder Hjort, Division of Water Resources Engineering.

More than 20 researchers and students turned up for an informal SASNET meeting on sustainable sanitation solutions in India that was held at Lund University on Monday 24 September 2012, 12.15–13.15. Researchers working on not only sanitation issues but also water supply, hygiene, human health, environmental health, development, disaster risk reduction and policy promotion had been invited to meet Cecilia Ruben, Research Fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and Prakash Kumar, Executive Director for the Indian WASH Institute. They came to Lund on their own initiative in order to launch a dialogue with colleagues in Lund regarding the implementation of a Sida-financed Partnership Driven Collaboration research project on sustainable sanitation solutions in India, that is jointly run by SEI and WASH since 2010.
The project is entitled ”Enhanced Sustainable Sanitation Provision in Flooded Areas of India: Researchers and Practitioners Collaborate for Policy Reform and MDG Fulfillment”. It is a three-year Sida-financed Partnership Driven Collaboration research grant that was awarded the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the end of 2010, focusing on sustainable sanitation research, living examples, capacity development, communications and policy work in India. Moreover, the findings and outcome of the grant activities are likely to have implications on the international sustainable sanitation landscape and global efforts for disaster relief in the case of flooding. Final report is to be delivered to Sida in April 2014. More information.
The meeting at Lund University, planned in collaboration with SASNET deputy director Lars Eklund, was held at Lund University Centre for Sustainable Studies (LUCSUS), at Sal Rio, Geocentrum, Sölvegatan 10, 4th floor. The audience consisted mainly of students from the Lund University International Master’s Programme in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science (Lumes), plus researchers from LUCSUS and the Division of Water Resources Engineering. The local host was PhD Candidate Sara Gabrielsson.


Time to apply for Linnaeus Palme grants for the period 2013-14

Palme

The Linnaeus-Palme programme is an exchange programme for teachers and students, financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); and administrated by the International Programme Office for Education and Training. The aim of the programme, launched in 2000, is to promote long-term cooperation based on mutual benefit between higher education institutions in Sweden and those in developing countries in order to stimulate further global internationalisation of higher education. The programme has two components: Linnaeus scholarships for outbound Swedish participants and Palme scholarships for foreign participants.
An annual application is made by the Swedish institution – in a dialogue with the foreign partner institution. Funds can be authorized for at period of up to eight years, but decided upon by the Programme Office on a yearly basis.
Applications for the contract period 1 July, 2013 – 30 June, 2014, should normally be delivered to the International Office or equivalent authority at the local Swedish university not later than 15 November, 2012. However, at Lund University the deadline for submitting applications is 1 November 2012, and then the application should be forwarded to Mr. Henrik Hofvendahl at the university’s Division of External Relations. Mr. Hofvendahl will then compile the applications from different departments into a frame application and get this signed by the Vice Chancellor or Pro-Vice Chancellor, before sending it to the International Programme Office for Education and Training before 15th November.
Read the full guidelines for the Linnaeus-Palme programme applications 2013-14.
SASNET has also published an informative page on the programme, including detailed information about all South Asia related collaboration projects given grants over the years at all Swedish universities. Go for SASNET’s page.

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