Mahanirban Calcutta Research group

Debashree Chakraborty is a Researcher at Calcutta Research Group. She has previously worked as a Junior Research Fellow at the Department of English, Assam University. She has also worked as a Research Associate in an ICSSR sponsored Major Research Project and has taught at the Department of English, Gurucharan College, Silchar. For her Ph.D thesis, she has worked on Climate Fiction. Apart from environmental humanities, her research interests include the intersections of climate change, migration, partition in cultural studies.

Climate, Epidemiological Insecurities and the City

Abstract

Draft Paper

Shatabdi Das is currently Assistant Director and Research Coordinator at Calcutta Research Group. She has a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Calcutta. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, in Austria, in 2022, under the ‘Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration’. Her research interests lie in climate change, city planning, sustainable development, coal hazards, and urban and environmental issues.

Climate, Epidemiological Insecurities and the City

Abstract

Draft Paper

Amit Prakash is Professor of Law and Governance at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Earlier, he served as Associate Professor at the same Centre; and, Assistant Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Amit Prakash holds a PhD from the SOAS, University of London. He is recipient of many academic honours and scholarships, including prestigious visiting professorships at the Maison des Sciences de l’Hommme, Paris, among others. His areas of research and publications include politics of development and identity; critical governance studies (including governance indicators); conflict, governance and the state; democratic political process in India; policing in India; and, global governance. Among his recent publications are Re-interrogating Civil Society in South Asia: Critical Perspectives from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Abingdon, Oxon & New York: Routledge, 2021 (with Peter B. Andersen & Rubya Mehdi); and, Interrogating Marginalities Across Disciplinary Boundaries Colonial and Post-Colonial India (with Anna Bochkovskaya & Sanjukta DasGupta), London: Routledge, 2025.

On Urban Security and its Inversions in Delhi

Abstract

Draft Paper

Mouleshri Vyas is Vice-President of Calcutta Research Group. She is currently Professor at the Centre for Community Organisation and Development Practice, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She has a PhD in Sociology from Mumbai University. Her teaching, research, field action and training experience is in the areas of urban and rural community development, community organisation, informal labour, post-disaster interventions, social impact assessments and monitoring and evaluation of development projects, social accountability and social audit of government programmes, and capacity building for corporate social responsibility initiatives. She has worked closely with grassroots organisations, government departments, corporates and trade unions. For some years I was associated with the International Centre for Development and Decent Work (ICDD), a global consortium of universities.

Gender and Insecurity

Abstract

Draft Paper

Gopal Krishna is a resident of Ganga river basin. He is a law and philosophy researcher, advocate, and a bilingual writer on the subject of science, river basin, environmental and occupational health, ecocide, disarmament, consciousness of big data, citizenship, agriculture and justice. He has formally studied law, philosophy, mass communication and public health. Holding a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, on the subject of corporate crimes with specific reference to industrial disaster of Bhopal, Gopal’s Post-Doctoral work was on relationship between dataveillance, inequality and totalitarianism. His work on inter-state migrants in the hazardous industries like shipbreaking industry and asbestos industry captures the movement of waste from richer areas to poorer areas and the precarious condition of migrants. He is the editor of ToxicsWatch and has delivered expert testimonies before the Indian, European and German Parliamentary Committees in the matter of national and international legislations.

Diverse Notions of Water Security: A Preliminary Inquiry into Notions of Justice in Himalayan River Basin’s Nuclear Ecosystem

Abstract

Draft Paper

Niloy Ranjan Biswas is Professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka. He earned his Ph.D. in International Politics from City, University of London, and an M.A. in Security Policy Studies from George Washington University as a Fulbright Fellow (2010–12). He was a USIP-Resolve Post-Doctoral Fellow in 2017 and a Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group Fellow in 2021. His research spans forced migration, peace operations, preventing violent extremism, law enforcement reform, and Women, Peace and Security (WPS). Author and editor of multiple books and over forty academic works, he has published in leading journals including International Affairs and International Peacekeeping. He frequently lectures at Bangladesh’s defense, police, and diplomatic training institutions.

Understanding ‘Agency’ of Stateless Persons in Framing Their Resilience: States vs. the Global Protection Mechanism for Stateless Rohingyas

Abstract

Draft Paper

Priya Singh is an IDRC (International Development Research Centre, Canada) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre on Gender and Forced Displacement under the Gender and Development Studies program at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. She also serves as Associate Director at Asia in Global Affairs, Kolkata, and is a member of the Calcutta Research Group, with which she has also been affiliated as a researcher.

India’s Neighbourhood Policy and Non-Traditional Security Reframing Regional Priorities through Justice and Resilience

Abstract

Draft Paper