ICG Scholars-In-Residence Programme 2024
Sanjoy Hazarika, Gautam Pemmaraju and Bastian Steuwer were selected for the 2024 Scholars-in-Residence award
Sanjoy Hazarika combines the roles of a researcher, columnist, mentor and practitioner. An author, journalist, filmmaker, policy analyst and human rights advocate, he founded the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (CNESPR) in 2000 whose flagship programme is the innovative fleet of boat clinics on the Brahmaputra valley (www.c-nes.org) which, with support from the National Health Mission, reach nearly three lakh people every year with health care since 2005. Between 2016-2022 he was international director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). Regarded as an authority on the region and its neighbourhood, Hazarika founded CNESPR at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, the first such Centre for the study of the NER in a Central University. He is engaged with river-related including climate uncertainty and its impacts on governance and livelihoods. A veteran journalist, Hazarika has written extensively in Indian and international newspapers and journals in a career spanning over 40 years when he reported for The New York Times for over 16 years. He is author of several books including Bhopal, the lessons of a Tragedy, the acclaimed Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace from India’s Northeast (Penguin, 2000) on conflict in the North East of India and its neighbourhood and its successor, 25 years later, Strangers No More: New Narratives from India’s Northeast (Aleph, 2018). His essays have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, collections and anthologies including the Routledge Companion to the North East. Sanjoy has scripted and produced over a dozen documentaries including on the Brahmaputra River and on governance and conflict.
Book project: Lalthanhawla and the shaping of a Mizo identity
Gautam Pemmaraju is a Mumbai based writer, researcher, independent filmmaker and creative consultant with nearly three decades of experience in non-fiction projects, including broadcast television shows, documentaries, advertisements, and impact filmmaking/storytelling. With credits for documentary and non-fiction consulting on projects with BBC Storyville and PBS Frontline, he has also done non-fiction development with BBC Worldwide, Discovery Networks and other entities. He has worked extensively with global non-profits creating TV/Radio/Digital campaigns including the award-winning short film Dignity With Flowers (2019). On the independent front his art history documentation project and film A Tongue Untied: The Story of Dakhani (2017), on the vernacular satire & humour poetry of the Deccan and the history of the Dakhani language, was nominated for Best Documentary at NYIFF (2017), and continues to screen periodically. As a writer working in the areas of history, literature and art, he has been published in numerous print and online platforms. He has wide experience in archival research with both physical and digital holdings, and specialises in colonial-era intelligence documentation. This includes the acclaimed biography of the Berlin based anti-colonial activist A.C.N Nambiar, peer reviewed journal articles and magazine long essays. He has also co-written an official biography of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. In the edited volume Bombay Brokers, he has a paper on Urdu vernaculars of Bombay. He has also written extensively on sound and music production, sonic culture and aesthetics and has curated a talk series featuring a diverse range of sonic practitioners and researchers. His forthcoming book on the charismatic anti-colonial activist and political philosopher M.N.Roy will be published by Hurst Publishers (UK) in early 2026. He is also a fellow at the Nipkow Programm 2025 (Berlin) where he will be developing a non-fiction film on Indian anticolonialism in wartime Germany.
Book project: One Man Versus Empire: The Hunt for MN Roy
Bastian Steuwer is Assistant Professor of Politics at Ashoka University. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and master’s degrees in philosophy and law from the LSE and University College London respectively. His work focuses on political and legal philosophy. Presently, he is working on projects related to equality, discrimination and distributive justice. This includes projects which apply the tools and arguments of political philosophy to questions of caste. Bastian’s work has been published in some of the most selective and prestigious philosophy journals globally such as Noûs, Philosophical Quarterly, or Utilitas. He frequently writes on political and legal issues in India and his popular writing has appeared in venues like the Hindu, Indian Express, the Caravan, Frontline and Mathrubhumi. With respect to his work on equality and caste, Bastian has been a visitor at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London in the Summer of 2023 and will be a visitor at the Centre for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination, Aarhus University in the Summer of 2024.
Book project: Confronting caste: Ideals of equality in a land of inequality
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The International Centre Goa (ICG) invites academics, journalists, writers and others to apply for the ICG Scholars-in-Residence Programme 2024. ICG will select one or more applicants to spend 30 days at ICG to work on her book project.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be residents of India;
- Applicants must be currently writing/completing a book manuscript or any other scholarly/literary work; and
- Applicants must be able to convincingly show in their application their progress in the ongoing project (1-2 book chapters or some other documentation).
NOTE: The programme is not open to those who are yet to begin work on a project.
How To Apply?
Please submit the following as part of your application:
- 1. A short bio (1-2 pages);
- Description of book project (max. 2 pages); and
- Sample writing (one or two chapters from the ongoing book project).
All applications – clearly marked as “ICG Scholars-in-Residence Programme 2024” – must be sent by email on or before 29th February 2024 to: director@incentgoa.com.
Terms and conditions
- The selected applicant will be required to make a public presentation (typically a lecture) during the period of her stay at ICG.
- The ICG Scholars-in-Residence programme will cover the following expenses:
- Return air travel (economy);
- Complimentary accommodation for self (and spouse/partner) at ICG for 30 days; and
- A stipend of Rs. 4,000 per day for the 30-day period.
Note: ICG reserves the right to amend the rules and terms and conditions of the Scholars-in-Residence Programme.