Norway tie-up helps SPPU researchers address challenge of identity, social justice

For Sayari Ray Choudhuri, another master’s student who wrote her MA dissertation titled ‘Locating trust in urban centres of Pune and Porsgrunn’ and was part of the team that visited Norway in 2022, learnings from the visit helped her move into new areas of research. They were part of the international research and collaboration project between the Sociology department, SPPU, and USN held in 2022.

According to some of the fellows, the experience of volunteering with the International Red Cross for refugee children was a unique opportunity. “We had to be very careful while interacting with them so that we do not trigger their trauma. The fun-filled approach during our interactions was to provide hope and it was a learning experience for us,” says a student. The international cooperation provided an opportunity to four to five doctoral researchers and four to five MA students to study a course on Social and Cultural Dimensions of Childhood in USN for 90 days.

“This project focuses on tensions created between cultural identity and social justice in times when social welfare schemes are shrinking,” said Professor Shruti Tambe, head of Department of Sociology, SPPU.

Professor Tambe and Dr Kjersti Røsvik – associate professor, Department of Health (Social and Welfare Studies) at USN are principal investigators for the international collaboration.