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Inaugural Debate: Cross-disciplinary Conversations: Sites for Decolonising Conceptual Frames and Methodologies
16 June 2022
Professor Vineeta Sinha, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore.
An eclectic mix of disciplines and research methodologies is crucial for theorising socio-economic, political, cultural, and religious domains. However, in a refreshed take on an old problematic, in a commitment to ‘post-colonial’ and ‘de-colonial’ frames, this lecture proposed that these border crossings create opportunities for focusing a critical lens on existing disciplinary conceptual frameworks and methodologies.
Disciplinary boundaries and convergence
Neither the idea of dialogue, nor interactions across disciplinary boundaries, are new or recent. Anthropology and Sociology have long been approached as associated disciplines, even though their historical trajectories are distinct. While they share similarities, they also embody distinct disciplinary logics and practices. Attempts have also been made to see points of convergence between History and Anthropology.. Fields of study denoted as ‘Anthro-history’ and ‘Ethno-history’, were already curated in the 1960s. These approaches foresaw value in the ethnographer's method of immersive fieldwork, and the historian's concern with time-frames, providing valuable perspectives for theorising the ongoing dialectic of past and present.
Eurocentric assumptions
With a view to identifying blind spots within disciplines, rooted in deep-stated Eurocentric and Androcentric assumptions, and drawing on research on Diaspora Hinduism and Trans-Asian mobilities, this lecture suggests concrete strategies for pushing conceptual and methodological boundaries, to reconfigure and decolonise disciplines in the process.
Welcome & introduction
Dr. Ned Barker, Research Fellow, Learning & Leadership, IOE, UCL / Co-Chair, CSSD ECR Coordinating Group
Q&A session
Chair, Dr Meghna Chowdhuri, Research Fellow, Education, Practice and Society, IOE, UCL / Member, CSSD ECR Coordinating Group
About Professor Vineeta Sinha
Professor Vineeta Sinha (Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore) obtained her MSocSci from NUS and her MA and PhD in Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. Her research and teaching interests include the following areas: Hindu religiosity in the Diaspora; religion-state encounters; religion, commodification and consumption practices; history and practice of sociology; critique of concepts and categories in the social sciences; rethinking the teaching of classical sociological theory. She has published articles in a range of peer-reviewed journals and the following monographs: A New God in the Diaspora? Muneeswaran Worship in Contemporary Singapore (Singapore University Press & Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2005); Religion and Commodification: Merchandising Diasporic Hinduism (Routledge, 2010); Religion-State Encounters in Hindu Domains: From the Straits Settlements to Singapore (Springer, 2011). She is Vice-President (Publications) of the International Sociological Association (from 2014-2018) and co-editor of the Asian Journal of Social Science (Brill), the Monograph Series, Social Sciences in Asia (Brill) and the Routledge International Library of Sociology.
More about Professor Vineeta Sinha