The Ph.D. Program in the Social Sciences at Birzeit University, in collaboration with Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi coordinated an intensive academic program this summer in New Delhi entitled “Critical Thought in the Global South.”
The program, funded by the Indian Government, is an outcome of the cooperation agreement signed between the two universities, and targets both students and academics from Birzeit and Jawaharlal Nehru.
The delegation included six Birzeit University students: Qasam AlHaj and Fairouz Salem from the Ph.D. Program in the Social Sciences; Ahmad Aghawani and Shadi Alkhawaja from the Israeli Studies MA Program; Sofia Hasan from the Democracy and Human Rights MA program; and Natalie Hanouneh from the Gender and Development Studies MA program.
The students attended lectures on a variety of topics, including: gender policies in contemporary India; work, law and class order; political and social economics; economic and social development policies in India; India's relations with the Arab world; colonialism studies; the formation of national capitalist and bourgeois classes in India; and other related cultural studies issues.
The academic visit was coordinated by two professors at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dr. Chirashree Das Gupta, Assistant Professor at the Center of Law and Governance (CSLG), and Professor Nivedita Menon, Professor of Comparative Politics and Political Theory in International Studies.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University arranged two heritage and cultural tours led by the Indian historian and archeologist Suhail al-Hashimi. The tours widened the students’ knowledge and raised their awareness of the richness of India’s civilization, and the Mughals’ influence in architecture.
The student delegation discussed ways of developing the joint coordination between both universities for the upcoming years, based on their experiences with the educational visit coordinators in India. The discussion aimed to fulfill the educational partnership objectives, and develop future educational horizons for Birzeit University students.
