Kaushal Vidyarthee DPhil Social Policy
Green Templeton DPhil Scholarship Annual Report 2011
My year started off very well with a paper presentation at the International conference 'Mobility or Marginalisation? Dalits in Neoliberal India' organised by the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.
This helped me greatly in broadening my research competences and in gaining a deeper understanding of my adopted subject area. My paper has been selected as a chapter in the conference volume to be published by Routledge, London.
After gaining transfer of status in Hilary term, I spent most of my time compiling a big database, creating a new set of maps of dalits in India's business economy, and using newly-acquired skills in spatial econometrics to start the task of explaining them.
I also made the practical arrangements for my fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh, India. Further, throughout the year I participated actively as a presenter or discussant at departmental Poverty Research Group meetings on multiple occasions.
I am happy to report that the my earlier research which made me interested in my topic for a doctoral project has been sent to an Indian publisher - Three Essays Press - in the form of an Atlas of Dalits and Adivasis in India's Business Economy. I have co-written this with one of my supervisor, Professor Barbara Harriss-White. For this, towards the end of Hilary Term, I did extra work on the maps, bringing these up to the resolution required by the publisher. I also drafted the descriptive contents of the Atlas.
In Trinity Term, with the help of two other GTC DPhil students - Annie McEwen and Gisela Robles Aguilar, I organised the Public Policy in Practice: A GTC Skills Workshop.
The workshop was a half-day interactive introduction to public policy with sessions to develop the practical skills used in the policy-making process. The event included a keynote speech, three concurrent skill-building workshops led by subject experts, and a panel discussion on public policy involving experts from the government, civil society and the private sector. It was the first such event on public policy organised by the students and for the students at GTC.
Besides this, I participated actively in the GTC Symposium on Research Methods, the Human Welfare Conference, DPhil South Asia Colloquium and the GRS Conference at the department. I also presented a poster at the Bodleian Social Science Showcase at the end of Trinity Term.
Even though I have been busy academically this year with conferences and workshops, I have remained active in College through the GTC cricket team, participation in bops, brunches and international events.
I contributed actively in the Oxford India Day event organised by the University. With a motivation to contribute to the process of development of rural communities, I continued to support professionally the women's empowerment and poverty reduction initiative of the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in backward regions of rural Uttar Pradesh, India.
I feel that the year provided a great opportunity to make academic progress, to contribute to College life and to give back to society.