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AJEI Workshop – Call for applications – States, Religions, and Bodies : Current issue in South Asian Medical Social Sciences

The Association Jeunes Études Indiennes (AJEI), in collaboration with the Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH), is organizing a doctoral workshop in South Asian Studies on the theme “States, Religion, and Bodies : Current issue in South Asian Medical Social Sciences.” The event will take place on January 20–21, 2026, at Campus Condorcet (Paris–Aubervilliers).

Organiser : Marwan Attalah (UCLouvain/UQAM) and Daphné Reguiessé.

While we can rely on a substantial body of classical works—such as the volume edited by Charles Leslie, Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study (1977), Francis Zimmermann’s work on Ayurvedic knowledge and bone-setters (1978), David Hardiman’s work on the role of Christian missions in healthcare (2006), Lawrence Cohen study on how Alzheimer has been perceived and managed in India (1998), Sarah Hodges work on the way colonial agendas, markets and local social dynamics shaped the circulation of birth control in South India (2017) and Veena Das’s writings on suffering and health (2015)— it is clear that social science research on health and medicine in South Asia has grown considerably in recent years.

This growing body of scholarship draws on a wide range of approaches and perspectives, including ethnographic, economic, sociological, and historical. This field includes detailed ethnographies conducted in hospitals (Jullien et al., 2019), morgues and maternal care centres (Jullien, 2019 ; Provost, 2018), as well as studies on issues such as mental health care (Bayetti et al., 2019), public health governance, hospital accreditation procedures (Lefebvre, 2019), religious exorcisms (Bindi et Giménez Béliveau, 2022) and the fight against rabies (Nadal, 2020). Researchers have approached these themes through various disciplines and theoretical perspectives, including feminist and decolonial analyses. At the same time, critical attention has been paid to the political, historical, and institutional processes through which local medical systems, such as Ayurveda (Berger, 2013 ; Khalikova, 2017), have been reconstituted, standardised, and legitimised within state-funded structures, while others, such as indigenous systems, remain marginalised or continue to struggle for official recognition (Albert, 2014 ; Županov et Guenzi, 2021). In these complex and pluralistic therapeutic landscapes, a multitude of actors, including healers, shamans, priests, gurus and herbalists, yogi actively participate, shaping the dynamic interaction between diverse epistemologies, cosmologies and healing practices (Joshi, 2012 ; Naraindas et al., 2014 ; Voix, 2020). Building on these issues—as well as on your own research interests and analytical perspectives—this workshop will provide a space to deepen collective reflection on the social, political, and cultural dimensions of health and medicine in South Asia.

This workshop is open to Master and PhD students from all disciplines within the social sciences who are engaged in South Asian studies. It aims to offer participants a valuable opportunity to engage with fellow researchers in a collegial setting and also meet seniors scholars.

This two-day workshop will begin with participants’ presentations and collective discussions, offering a space to share ongoing research, receive feedback, and engage in comparative reflection across disciplines and field sites. The second day will take the form of roundtable discussions focusing on the practical and theoretical dimensions of fieldwork, including challenges related to data collection, interpretation, and ethical considerations in medical and social research

Application process: To apply, students must send a document that includes their institutional affiliation, the title of their thesis and the name of their supervisor, the title of their paper, and a 250-word abstract. Applications should be e-mailed to ajei.office@gmail.com by January 2, 2026.

Participants must be available to attend in person.

Organizers will notify all applicants by January 5. Successful applicants are expected to become members of the AJEI.

Selected bibliography :

Albert, S. (2014). Medical Pluralism among the Indigenous Peoples of Meghalaya, Northeast India – Implications for Health Policy [Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), University of London]. https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1856013/.

Bayetti, C., Jadhav, S. et Jain, S. (2019). Mapping Mental Well-Being in India. Initial Reflections on the Role of Psychiatric Spaces. Dans C. Jullien, B. Lefebvre et F. Provost (dir.), L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin (p. 133‑177). Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionsehess.23476

Berger, R. (2013). Ayurveda Made Modern: Political Histories of Indigenous Medicine in North India, 1900-1955 (2013e édition). Palgrave Macmillan.

Bindi, S. et Giménez Béliveau, V. (2022). Exorcisms, extraction of unwanted entities, and other spiritual struggles around the body: A comparative perspective Exorcismes, extractions d’entités indésirées et autres combats spirituels autour du corps: une perspective comparative. Social Compass, 69(4), 443‑480. https://doi.org/10.1177/00377686221147797

Cohen, L. (1998). No aging in India: Alzheimer’s, the bad family, and other modern things. Univ of California Press.

Das, V. (2015). Affliction: Health, Disease, Poverty. Fordham University Press.
Hardiman, D. (2006). Christian therapy : medical missionaries and the adivasis of western India, 1880-1930 (p. 137‑167). Rodopi. http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2102140~S15

Hodges, S. (2017). Contraception, colonialism and commerce: birth control in South India, 1920–1940. Routledge.
Joshi, V. (2012). A Matter of Belief: Christian Conversion and Healing in North-East India (1er édition). Berghahn Books.

Jullien, C. (2019). Du bidonville à l’hôpital : Nouveaux enjeux de la maternité au Rajasthan. Du bidonville à l’hôpital : Nouveaux enjeux de la maternité au Rajasthan. Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme. https://books.openedition.org/editionsmsh/18401

Jullien, C., Lefebvre, B. et Provost, F. (dir.). (2019). L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin. L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin. Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

Khalikova, V. R. (2017). The Ayurveda of Baba Ramdev: Biomoral Consumerism, National Duty and the Biopolitics of ‘Homegrown’ Medicine in India. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 40(1), 105‑122. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2017.1266987

Lefebvre, B. (2019). L’accréditation hospitalière et la qualité des soins en Inde : Entre logiques commerciales et objectifs de santé publique. Dans C. Jullien et F. Provost (dir.), L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin (p. 31‑56). Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionsehess.23446

Leslie, C. M. (1977). Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study. University of California Press.

Nadal, D. (2020). Rabies in the Streets: Interspecies Camaraderie in Urban India. Penn State University Press.

Naraindas, H., Quack, J. et Sax, W. S. (2014). Asymmetrical Conversations: Contestations, Circumventions, and the Blurring of Therapeutic Boundaries (1er édition). Berghahn Books.

Provost, F. (2018). Écrire « la cause sans la manière » de la mort ? Un regard anthropologique sur la rédaction des rapports d’expertise médico-légale en Inde. Sciences sociales et santé, 36(4), 15‑39. https://doi.org/10.1684/sss.2018.0123

Voix, R. (2020). Hindu ascetics and the political in contemporary India. Dans Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies (p. 146‑155). Routledge.

Zimmermann, F. (1978). From classic texts to learned practice: Methodological remarks on the study of Indian medicine. Social Science & Medicine. Part B: Medical Anthropology, 12, 97‑103. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7987(78)90016-9

Županov, I. G. et Guenzi, C. (dir.). (2021). Divins remèdes: Médecine et religion en Asie du Sud. Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

India Matters in Comparative Perspective: Politicization of Space

Organiser : Johan Krieg (LESC) and Daphné Reguiessé.

Since 2022, the seminar “India Matters in Comparative Perspective: Politicization of Space” has been organized by Johan Krieg and Daphné Reguiessé. It takes place both remotely and at the IrAsia laboratory at Aix-Marseille University. By combining historical, anthropological, geographical, and political approaches, the seminar examines the dialectical relationships between space (places and geographical environments), society (individuals and groups), and politics in India. Through monthly sessions, the subject is explored from various perspectives, including the spatial dimension of political and social movements, practices of public space in India (urban policies, appropriation of public space as a venue for political expressions), the fight against socio-spatial inequalities, the claim for territorial rights (challenging the appropriation of space), and the examination of the articulation and coordination of different scales of mobilization: local, national, and international. This seminar serves as a discussion space bringing together specialists in Asian studies from various disciplines.

12 January 2022

Julien Levesque (Ashoka University)
Title: Understanding Caste among Muslims: Classic Debates and New Scholarly Developments

Summary:
From colonial census administrators to social scientists, scholars have long debated whether Muslims in South Asia can be said to have castes. In recent decades, the issue also entered the political arena through the debate over reservations. This talk retraced key moments of these debates and highlighted contemporary scholarship that opens new avenues for research.


8 February 2022

Daphné Reguiessé (PhD, Iuav University of Venice)
Discussant: Andrea Drocco (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Title: Trails of an Indian Community in Padova: Chasing the Invisible Migration of Indian Students (Re)Shaping Spaces in This Italian Medium City

Summary:
This presentation examined the link between migration and urban transformation in Padova, Italy, through the case of Indian student-migrants. Combining sociological and spatial approaches, it explored how student mobility reshapes the city’s policies and everyday practices, revealing invisible dynamics of urban multiculturalism.


8 March 2022

Vibhushan Subba (Independent Researcher)
Discussant: Wafa Amid (Lady Shri Ram College for Women – Delhi University)
Title: Mediated Ecologies of Feeling

Summary:
Media technologies have become the connective tissue of everyday life, shaping emotions, memory, and belonging. This talk explored the digital micro-archives and online communities of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, tracing how local digital practices produce emotional and historical narratives amid legacies of colonialism and contested belonging.


12 April 2022

Damien Carrière (École Supérieure des Professions Immobilières – ESPI)
Discussant: Edna Peza (CESSMA – Université Paris Cité)
Title: Environment and Security in India

Summary:
Security is analysed as an infra-structuring process composed of material, discursive, and normative elements regulating urban rhythms. Drawing on Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, the presentation showed how surveillance infrastructures in Indian cities filter, synchronize, and shape the metabolic functioning of urban life.


7 June 2022

Cécile Mouchel (CEMAAA – Université Paris Cité)
Discussant: Frédéric Landy (Université Paris Nanterre – UMR LAVUE-Mosaïques)
Title: The Use of Social Networks in Rural South India

Summary:
Based on research in Tamil Nadu combining Social Network Analysis, statistics, and interviews before and after the COVID-19 lockdown, this study examined how kinship and caste ties continued to serve as vital economic resources. It revealed both the resilience and the re-emergence of hierarchical dependencies in times of crisis.


21 October 2022

Nolwen Vouillier (EHESS – Université de Liège)
Discussant: Philippe Ramirez (Centre d’Études Himalayennes – IrAsia)
Title: From the “Attila of the Jungle” to the “Big Cat” of the Zoo: A Century of Representations and Reactions around Bengal Tigers (North India and South-West Nepal)

Summary:
Tracing a century of human-tiger relations, this talk explored changing representations of the Bengal tiger—from feared predator to protected heritage and, more recently, to a contested problem. Drawing on long-term fieldwork around Bardiya National Park, it highlighted ambivalent perceptions and adaptive strategies among local communities confronting conservation policies.


18 November 2022

Pauline Baudens (LAM – UMR 5115)
Title: Women’s Commuting Strategies and Digital Adoption: Desk Workers in Pune’s IT Sector

Summary:
Through qualitative interviews with fifteen female IT employees in Pune, this research examined how digital tools and teleworking transformed mobility practices after COVID-19. It revealed diverse (im)mobility strategies shaped by comfort, gender, and class privilege, showing how telework redefines women’s spatial and temporal experiences of urban life.


27 January 2023

Raffaello de Leon-Jones Diani (EHESS)
Title: There Be Sufis: Fatehpur Sikri and the Building of Hindustan

Summary:
Revisiting Akbar’s capital Fatehpur Sikri, this talk analysed its architectural hybridity—often described as a fusion of Hindu, Muslim, and Jain traditions—through a Sanskrit text, Padmasāgara’s Jagadgurukāvya. It argued that the city served as a material and symbolic locus for Akbar’s project of imperial synthesis and religious pluralism.


3 March 2023

Julie Ucendo (ED 395 – LAVUE)
Discussant: Jean-Marc de Grave (IrAsia)
Title: Ecofeminism and Ecological Nationalism in Contemporary India

Summary:
Focusing on gender equality and environmental justice (SDG-5), this presentation examined how ecofeminist discourses in India intersect with nationalist ideologies. It analysed the risk of ecological nationalism—where gender and environment become tools of cultural politics—while reflecting on ecofeminism’s potential for redefining sustainable development through inclusivity and equality.


20 September 2023

Pinar Temocin (Independent Researcher)
Discussant: Rémi de Bercegol (CNRS – UMR 8586)**
Title: Environment by, with and for the Citizens: Collective Identity in Community-Driven Solid Waste Management in Kerala

Summary:
Focusing on Kozhikode, this talk explored how community engagement in waste management in Kerala transformed an environmental issue into a social value. Through participatory approaches and collective identity, local actors have developed decentralized and sustainable models of waste autonomy rooted in cooperation, literacy, and environmental ethics.


22 January 2024

Aastha Mishra (Independent Researcher)
Title: No More Injured and Wounded? Positioning Belongingness within the Contours of Sex Work

Summary:
This presentation re-examined the lived experiences of female sex workers in India, moving beyond narratives of injury and marginalization toward notions of belonging and collective identity. Drawing on feminist philosophy, it analysed how sex-workers’ collectives re-appropriate stigmatized identities to construct new, emancipatory forms of social selfhood.

Uses and Representations of the Environment in Contemporary India.

The Association des Jeunes Études Indiennes (AJEI) will be organizing its annual autumn workshop on October 9th in Pondichéry. This year, we have chosen to center our discussions around the theme: « Uses and Representations of the Environment in Contemporary India ». Johan Krieg, Daphné Reguiessé, Marwan Attalah, Lalitha Muthu, Julie Rocton, and Delia Visan are particularly pleased to be collaborating with the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) for this edition. As a result, the workshop will be integrated into their Social Sciences Winter School (SSWSP),offering an enriching interdisciplinary platform for discussions and exchanges.The event is generously funded by GIS Asie and the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) in Delhi.

From the ‘Attila of the jungle’ to the ‘big cat’ of the Zoo: a study of a century of representations and reactions around Bengal tigers (North India and South-West Nepal)

Nolwen Vouiller (EHESS – ULiège) gave lectures on “From the ‘Attila of the jungle’ to the ‘big cat’ of the Zoo: a study of a century of representations and reactions around Bengal tigers (North India and South-West Nepal).
Abstract :
“If we had no tiger, what could you wrote?”, said Jagat on the 31st of July 2019, during my first three-month field trip to Nepal, during the monsoon season, on the border of Bardiya National Park, in the southwest of the country. This guide, like so many others, is passionate about the famous Panthera tigris tigris and does not hide it. However, seeing the tiger as a force of nature, as a king or as a big brother, is not unanimous. Over the decades and in different places, the Bengal tiger has been subjected to various human representations and has undergone direct (elimination, confinement, rescue, etc.) or indirect (actions on the environment, on its prey, etc.) treatments. I propose to focus this presentation on a part of my research, on this species specifically in its encounters with humans, by going through a century of history and politics where the tiger has gone from being a sought-after prey to a precious heritage to be saved and now, more and more, to a dangerous problem. The surroundings of Bardiya National Park, which have been my field for the past three years, will be my main focus, but I will not omit to base my presentation on the available literature concerning the tiger in the Tarai of Nepal more generally and in Northern India. I will do my best to highlight the ambivalence and opposing points of view among the populations during the major hypothetical phases mentioned above. The challenge is to understand how humans have organized and adapted, individually and collectively, until today, in the face of this impressive “cute killer”.
Philippe Ramirez (Centre d’études himalayennes – IrAsia) was the discussant for this session. The seminar was held on 21st October at 1:00 pm CET/ 5:30 pm IST at Aix-Marseille University in the Maison de la Recherche (room 2.44).

Workshop “Knowledge production, ethics and reflexivity”

Organiser : Johan Krieg, Daphné Reguiessé, Spoorthi Gangadikar, Shajeem Muhammed Fazal and Pratiti Roy.

The AJEI is happy to announce that the 23nd edition of the AJEI International Workshop took place from Tuesday, March 5, 2024, to Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Bhopal.The Association of Young Indian Studies (AJEI) is pleased to have co-organized a three-day workshop on Humanities and Social Sciences in collaboration with the Alliancehttps://bhopal.afindia.org/events/workshop-knowledge-production-ethics-and-reflexivity/ Française de Bhopal and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IISER Bhopal, with support from the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH Delhi) and GIS Asie. As suggested by the title Knowledge Production, Ethics, and Reflexivity in South Asia, the workshop investigated methodological aspects applied in social sciences research, which included (but were not limited to) knowledge production, ethical concerns, fieldwork, and the researcher’s reflexive approach to dealing with fieldwork, writing, and the crises that emerged from fieldwork and writing.
The workshop was chaired by Drs. Renny Thomas and Anuparna Mukherjee (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Bhopal) in collaboration with Dr. Ingrid Le Gargasson (Director, AF Bhopal). It was organized by AJEI (Johan Krieg, Daphné Reguiessé & & Spoorthi Gangadikar)and IISER Ph.D. scholars (Shajeem Muhammed Fazal & Pratiti Roy).

Programme en ligne : https://bhopal.afindia.org/events/workshop-knowledge-production-ethics-and-reflexivity/