DECEMBER 2023
Eroteme Newsletter
VOLUME 1
Centre for Sociology and Social Anthropology, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati
FOREWORD At the outset, I wish to congratulate the 2022-2024 cohort of the Centre for Sociology and Social Anthropology (CSSA), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati Campus for producing a thoughtful, and informative newsletter. The editorial team members of Eroteme have been inclusive, inventive, and resourceful in their commendable effort to showcase the work of their faculty, seniors and alumni who have graduated from the Centre. At TISS Guwahati, CSSA is the only Centre that focuses on imparting a disciplinary grounding in Sociology and Social Anthropology for students from the region. In doing so, it demands great diligence and effort from individuals who join the programme for two years. In the short time that they pass through the classrooms past the famed bamboo grove pavilion, students engage with their peers and an increasingly difficult world around them with equal measures of passion, empathy, and conviction. In class and outside, they raise questions about growing inequalities and find meaningful answers in engagement with communities, as well as planetary concerns. These thought processes and questions are foundational to Eroteme’s participants. Together they have produced a laudable newsletter that showcases their generosity and inquisitive spirit. As the current cohort pass on the baton to the ones who have come after them, I wish them all success in their future endeavours. When they venture out into the professional world, I hope they will retain their humility and confidence to ask the big and small questions that need to be asked in our world today. Sanjay Barbora
EDITORIAL NOTE We are delighted to present Eroteme’s first-ever newsletter — a student-led initiative under the Centre for Sociology and Social Anthropology. The Eroteme Newsletter intends to be a brave space that allows the voices and experiences of the CSSA students from their everyday lives. The issue exhibits the events undertaken and successes achieved by the CSSA students, both within and outside the realm of academics. The Newsletter’s remarkable substance is a testament to the CSSA faculty and students' unwavering diligence and dedication, creativity, and enthusiasm for disciplinary engagement and beyond. We deeply attribute the success of this Newsletter to our faculty and student contributors’, both past and present, the editorial team who spent hours curating, editing, and reviewing the content, and finally our advisor, Professor Sanjay Barbora whose guidance and direction have been invaluable throughout the process. We hope the Eroteme Newsletter finds a home in readers across disciplines.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword………………………............1 Student Spotlight.……………....2 Centre Highlights ….............…2-4 Faculty Publications...........…3-5 Society Unveiled………..........….5-7 Interview: Alumni Corner....7-10 Dissertation Corner………........11-13