Meet our 2021-22 South Asia Working Group (SAWG) at Stanford Fellow, Shantanu Nevrekar!
What do you want people to know about you?
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at Stanford. My research examines how ideas, emotions, and practices of caste and community shape ordinary economic and political life. I focus on cooperative banks in Ahmednagar, a small-town in the state of Maharashtra in India. These banks are parts of larger complexes of cooperative institutions tied to caste-community networks, political parties, and state bureaucracies, offering a fascinating site to study the intersections of caste, politics, and markets in India. Prior to Stanford, I have stayed in Mumbai and Delhi for post-high school education and work. While I find myself most at home in Mumbai and Pune, I also increasingly find myself feeling some love for the Bay Area as well.
What were the origins of SAWG? What were you interested in accomplishing with SAWG?
Shubhangni and I conceptualized the SAWG as a space for community and dialogue amongst students and scholars working on South Asia in any capacity. In the Academic Year 2020-21, while the CSA was organizing some stellar events and discussions through a difficult time while we were online, there was little to no student-led or student-centered collective engagement focused on South Asian studies at Stanford. We imagined the SAWG as a space that will allow for this through group discussions, discussion-focused and often-moderated talks, paper presentations, and film screenings. By focusing on these formats, we have attracted students and other scholars and offered a space that is intellectually-stimulating and yet not too demanding of their time and effort (because everyone is already overworked!).
The highlight of SAWG have surely been the posters made by Bhavya Kumar, whom you can find at @becomingbhavya on Instagram, and whose aesthetic and evocative designs really offered us top-notch visibility! Going forward, I hope that the SAWG continues to cultivate a space for productive discussions among South Asianist scholars, particularly students, at Stanford. I am happy with what Shubhangni and I have accomplished. But I am also quite sure that there is so much more that can be imagined and improved further, and I am eager to see what the future holds for SAWG.
Are you a Stanford student and are interested in becoming a SAWG fellow? Email Lalita du Perron, lalita [at] stanford.edu (lalita[at]stanford[dot]edu), to express interest and learn more about the role.