Research Colloquia
Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (SSLA)
About the Colloquia
The Research Colloquia at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts are structured academic forums designed to cultivate a vibrant research culture among faculty and enrich the intellectual environment of the institution. These colloquia provide a formal platform for faculty members to present ongoing research, share scholarly insights, and engage in critical interdisciplinary dialogue with peers and students.
They contribute to SSLA’s broader objective of fostering a culture of inquiry, knowledge exchange, and academic excellence that aligns with liberal arts ideals of critical thinking and interdisciplinarity. The primary aims of the Research Colloquia are to.
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Showcase Faculty Research
Enable faculty to present completed work or work-in- progress across diverse disciplines, ranging from philosophy and political science to anthropology and interdisciplinary studies.
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Stimulate Scholarly Dialogue
Facilitate critical engagement through discussion, feedback, and the exchange of scholarly ideas.
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Bridge Disciplinary Silos
Encourage cross-disciplinary interaction that promotes integrative and contemporary perspectives.
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Inspire Student Insight
By opening the forum to advanced students and research- oriented learners, the colloquia provide role models of scholarly practice and expose students to expert research methodologies and themes.
Colloquia Series Format
Conducted as seasonal series including Monsoon Research Colloquia (July–November) and Spring Research Colloquia (January–May). Each session features a faculty presentation followed by discussion.
Objective of the Colloquium
SSLA is a space that encourages research and aims to equip its students with valuable knowledge and insights into various aspects of research, including methodology. The colloquium provided an opportunity for students and faculty to gain new perspectives on research undertaken by SSLA faculty. The session was open to the entire SSLA community, fostering dialogue, learning, and collaborative academic engagement.
Colloquium’s Proceedings
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The colloquium commenced with the serving of refreshing hot tea, setting a warm and engaging tone for the session. Prof. Uday Sinha formally welcomed the gathering and introduced Dr. Manjari Jonnalagadda, who outlined her research focus and key findings.
Her research examined the hypothesis of MC1R as a candidate gene contributing to skin pigmentation in Indian populations. Over 100 samples were collected and analysed, with population selection informed by UV exposure, cultural practices, and regional diversity.
Findings indicated that MC1R did not significantly contribute to observed phenotypes, reinforcing that skin pigmentation is polygenic and population-specific.
The Colloquium’s Speaker
Dr. Manjari Jonnalagadda is a molecular anthropologist teaching biological anthropology and biology at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts. Her research focuses on the evolution of complex traits such as skin pigmentation in Indian populations.
Motivated by limited research in this area, she designed a quantitative genetic study among populations in Western Maharashtra, integrating phenotypic and genetic data.
She also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Confluence: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (CJIDS).
The discussion that followed was intellectually stimulating, with faculty and students engaging on methodological concerns and comparative approaches. Dr. Jonnalagadda concluded by introducing her forthcoming project on vitamin D and skin colour.
Overall, the colloquium offered students a rich academic experience, fostering scholarly dialogue beyond the conventional classroom.
Objective of the Colloquium
SSLA is a space which encourages research and aims to equip its students with valuable knowledge and insight into the various aspects of research including methodology. The colloquium creates an opportunity for students and faculty to gain new perspectives on research done by faculty at SSLA. The floor was open to the entire SSLA community to participate in the colloquium.
Colloquium’s Proceedings
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The morning started with the participants being treated to hot tea and an array of biscuits. Dr. Sumithra Surendralal welcomed the day’s speaker, Prof. Uday Sinha, and introduced the topic to the audience: titled, aptly, as The Investor’s Tale - How Narratives Influence Financial Choices.
Prof. Sinha started that talk by explaining that traditionally, economics as a discipline assumes that humans are not prone to any biases while making investment decisions. However, in the real world, this is not true - and introduces a new, rapidly expanding branch of economics referred to as Behavioural Economics, which is mainly an intersection of psychology and economics. Prof. Sinha’s research interest is in the fact that people’s investment decisions can be swayed by outside influences, particularly by narratives they are exposed to through different media and popculture. Financial decision analysis is traditionally based on “fundamental analysis,” looking purely at quantitative data surrounding financial choices. If we do not consider these influences and consider merely the quantitative data, we cannot claim to fully understand the decision-making process.
Prof. Sinha talked about his extensive literature review. For the purposes of his research, he defines “narratives” to be coming from newspaper articles and television news coverage. Narratives influence the formation of “bubbles” of like-minded individuals, in terms of investment. The cultural context, as well as effects of these bubbles need to be studied in different systems / different economies. Prof. Sinha explains this by giving the example of how Gamestop’s share values were affected by people coming together on the social platform Reddit. This incident is a prime example of how while people largely get influenced by social media narratives, the decisions taken under this influence are not necessarily rational - and so, narratives can have both, a positive or negative impact, on investment decisions. Prof. Sinha’s literature review suggests that people are susceptible to influence of narratives because of the uncertainty and lack of transparency about stakeholder information in the financial market. Thus, a decision informed by narratives may not necessarily be well-informed, even if the outcome is desirable. Narratives can also, thus, be used as marketing tools.
Prof. Sinha plans to investigate the effects of narratives by demographic data collection through questionnaires, trying to understand a participant’s background and experience with investments. This information can be used to craft a financial literacy index of participants in the form of a Likert scale. This scale can have three primary scenarios - the overconfidence bias, a loss aversion score, and a herding score. However, questionnaires have a lot of limitations, and may result in collection of flawed data. Therefore, Prof. Sinha proposes setting up experimental scenarios for respondents to actually participate in a decision-making simulation using the platform Otree. This experiment looks at the choices oriented around three investment narratives - positive, neutral, or negative - and three investment options. The investment options are: High risk, high reward Moderate risk, moderate reward Low risk, low reward This experiment has two hypotheses: Positive narratives lead people to take higher risks, and negative narratives lead to lower risk-taking. People with a predisposition towards cognitive biases are more influenced by narratives. This experiment design spurred a lot of discussion and debate among the participants of the Colloquium. These conversations starkly highlighted the difference between qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. This kind of research question cannot be studied from only an economics perspective - it requires to be viewed from psychology and media lenses as well. This debate was very insightful for the students who attended the Colloquium, acting as a glimpse into how research is conducted among professional academics.
The Colloquium’s Speaker
Prof. Uday Sinha is primarily an economist, and teaches courses in Economics, Quantitative Reasoning, and Research Methodology at Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts. His research is based on macroeconomics, with a strong emphasis on quantitative methodologies - particularly focusing on international investments. Prof. Sinha is also the Faculty-in-Charge of the Research Cell at SSLA.
Objective of the Colloquium
SSLA opens the floor of knowledge exchange in a level where Professors can share their work and research with students and peers who may not be engaging with the same subject matter, by providing an interdisciplinary lens which helps the participants engage with the subject matter more holistically and also learn more about other disciplines. This colloquium provided an opportunity for the participants to get a peek into what and how the research and fieldwork are conducted by their faculty.
Colloquium’s Proceedings
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Dr. Esha initiated the talk by emphasising on the importance of archaeological findings in learning more about our ancient civilisations, their culture and the spread of the civilisation across vast areas. These cultures are traced through the materials found at these settlements, the oral histories that have been passed down through generations and the use of new technology in the field has further facilitated in learning, understanding and validation of the findings collected. She then showed us the pictures of the site she has been working on. The settlement at the site was a massive fortification unit made out of stones, which had outer and inner walls with a gap between them. The gap was filled with ash and also composed of cow dung, organic matter; which indicated that it could have been used as a waste management system.
The structure had many rooms but were not accompanied by doors, which was common structure formation in Harappan sites. In the stead of doors, ladders were used to climb in or out of the rooms, this was used as a security tactic to guard against intruders.
She then further explained the methodologies and processes applied in the study of the site. She also emphasised that the first step in the study of any site involves mapping the site. The methodologies used included reconnaissance survey and site census, where village to village survey is taken alongside field walking. Ethnography has been an integral part of the methodology of anthropology, documentation of oral histories, folklores and interviews enriches the holistic understanding of the site by adding more depth. The study encountered the oral history imbued with the site, the legend of Jakh. The story revolves around heavenly Gods who came to the area to kill the King and restore the stability. The legend is supported by evidence of stone buildings, temples, horse sculptures found at the site.
The methods used include Site Catchment Analysis, which studies the materials found at the site to restructure the economic and social system of the settlement. Pottery which imitated Chinese pottery were found, glass bangles and steatite beads made of clay were found which can be traced back to the medieval period. Accelerated mass spectrometry was used to date sediments of the site and also the temples. Adding to this, GIS was used to gather Paleo vegetation data and predict a model of the vegetation and landscape of the area during that period. Hence this research shows the importance and benefits of integrating archaeology, oral history and GIS to enhance our knowledge about a particular civilisation by allowing us to visualise a model along with living tales about the place.
Following the lecture, various questions were put forward addressing the accuracy and reliance of the GIS, oral histories; how does geological timescale affect the area; about the legend of the Jakhs etc. The colloquium became a platform where the participants could not only learn about the various methodologies involved in the field work, but also share their knowledge, stories and experiences of archaeological findings.
The Colloquium’s Speaker
Dr. Esha Prasad is part of the Anthropology faculty in SSLA as an Assistant Professor. She is trained as an archaeologist and specializes in ceramic studies of the Chalcolithic period and the Harappan Civilization. Her deep passion for field work and ceramic studies paved the way for her current research in a Harappan site at Northeast Rajasthan. She studies the sites with a main focus on technological advancements, cultural practices and trade networks prevalent in the Chalcolithic period. The current study was conducted by integrating the archeological findings, oral history and the use of GIS (Geographical Information System); hence using technology to validate the findings.
The methods used include Site Catchment Analysis, which studies the materials found at the site to restructure the economic and social system of the settlement. Pottery which imitated Chinese pottery were found, glass bangles and steatite beads made of clay were found which can be traced back to the medieval period.
Accelerated mass spectrometry was used to date sediments of the site and also the temples. Adding to this, GIS was used to gather Paleo vegetation data and predict a model of the vegetation and landscape of the area during that period. Hence this research shows the importance and benefits of integrating archaeology, oral history and GIS to enhance our knowledge about a particular civilisation by allowing us to visualise a model along with living tales about the place..
Following the lecture, various questions were put forward addressing the accuracy and reliance of the GIS, oral histories; how does geological timescale affect the area; about the legend of the Jakhs etc. The colloquium became a platform where the participants could not only learn about the various methodologies involved in the field work, but also share their knowledge, stories and experiences of archaeological findings.
Elections are glorified experiments. In democracies today, they are at the very least, models of public ambitions, goals and desires. Lest we forget, the elected are representative abstractions of the prevailing nature of the larger phenomenon namely, the electorate. Nothing mobilizes and at the same time represents public will more than an election. The race to the White House last year was touted as the ‘Election to Save Science’ and indeed the front runner journal in the discipline, Nature ran an editorial titled ‘On November 3, Vote to End Attacks on Science‘.
Readers were urged – “Instead of thinking about whether to vote Democratic or Republican in the upcoming U.S. election, think about voting to protect science instead of destroying it.” ("Vote, for science!," 2020). Few disagreed that the Trump administration over its tenure had dealt a significant blow to progress in the area via often simultaneous articulations such as substantial funding cuts (J. Mervis, 2020a and 2020b) and a sustained disinformation campaign on media platforms, often involving the President himself (Motta, Stecula, & Farhart, 2020; Tollefson, 2020) and so on. Similar notes of caution had already been sounded in 2018 with the Brazilian (Escobar, 2018; Tollefson, 2018) and Italian (Abbott, 2018) Presidential Elections.
The recent handling of the COVID19 pandemic by countries under right-wing dispensation has starkly brought this troubled relationship between the Sciences and policy makers into glaring focus (Leonhardt, 2020). Suddenly, the very relevance of the enterprise of science within societies appears to be fragile to say the least.
Soft Power, according to Jospeh Nye, Jr, who coined the term, is the ability to achieve desired outcomes in international affairs through attraction rather than coercion. Traditionally, cultural and literary exchanges through various festivals, sports – especially like cricket and table-tennis and grants for higher education, have been used as tools of soft power. However, over the past decade, medicine as a tool or currency for diplomacy has become a game-changer in International Relations.
USA, China and Cuba have already successfully implemented healthcare or medical diplomacy as an integral part of their foreign policy. UK is also looking at using their well-established NHS as the way forward. However, as far as India is concerned, while health/medical tourism is a watchword for India, and India has sent medical support as part of humanitarian aid to different parts of the world, in response to various natural calamities and other situations, including engaging in vaccine diplomacy during the pandemic, we are yet to formalize a strategy or policy on healthcare diplomacy.
Given the absence of any formalised policy for medical or healthcare diplomacy in India, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether India can use medicine/healthcare as a currency to advance its interests in the present international order; and whether healthcare diplomacy can be incorporated as a strategy and an instrument of soft power in India’s foreign policy concerns.
A nation’s security policy is essentially aimed at creating and sustaining the space - regionally and globally - which enables it to pursue its national interests. Devising such a policy requires an assessment of external environment, the nature and intensity of the threat as well as the means, both internal and external, to mitigate such a threat. It is therefore a critical instrument to understand the nature of threats and the avenues and approaches applied by the State to deal with it. India is a diverse democracy with multiplicity of political actors at play. The most visible of those are the political parties, both regional and national, who are prime drivers of the public discourse and also of the public policy. In the initial years after the independence, this diversity was relatively less pronounced at the policy level given the prominence of the Congress party which ruled at the centre as well as in the majority of the states.
The single-party dominance implied a relatively one-dimensional approach to policy making. This was true also in case of making of security policy. The one party-dominance started fading in the mid-seventies, essentially after the emergency, and the phenomenon of coalition of political parties to form government started gaining currency. The coalition inevitably meant a multi-dimensional approach to policy to satisfy the multiple and at time conflicting interests of the coalition partners.
The diversity thus started getting pronounced at the policy level as well. This diversity of political opinions and resulting lack of consensus is reflected also in the making of security policy. There is no unanimity in the political class, for instance, in the approach to deal with the Pakistan or China, arguably the two most significant strategic challenges facing India. Similarly, there are differing approach to deal with terrorism and the insurgencies as well. The advent of coalition governments compounded this effect of the differing opinions. The proposed study intends to study comprehensively the dynamics of Coalition Governments and its impact on the making of Security Policy in India. It bases on the primary assumption that a nuanced study, which incorporates the variables such as ideological inclinations of the coalition partners, political capital, the nature of the leadership along with the contemporary structural environment, is imperative to have a comprehensive study of Security Policy Making in India.
Research Workshops
SSLA Research Cell, Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts
The Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (SSLA) Research Cell conducts comprehensive research workshops designed to equip students with essential academic and research skills across all batches. These workshops serve as pivotal platforms for developing competencies in research methodologies, citation practices, and scholarly writing.
SSLA organizes diverse workshop formats to cater to different research needs. Traditional workshops include intensive training sessions on specialised tools and methodologies. Every year, SSLA organises three compulsory workshops for students, the Reference Management Using Zotero workshop, which equips students with tools to organise citations efficiently.
The Basics of APA Citation Style workshop provides comprehensive guidance on proper citation formatting and academic documentation. The Academic Integrity Ethics workshop fosters a culture of honesty by addressing plagiarism, authorship responsibilities, and proper attribution practices. Facilitated by experienced faculty members and visiting experts, these workshops combine theoretical knowledge with practical application. Sessions typically include interactive discussions, case studies, hands-on training, and question-and-answer segments.
By conducting these programs annually across multiple batches, SSLA demonstrates its commitment to research excellence and ensures all students develop rigorous research capabilities necessary for academic success and professional endeavors.
Workshop
Objective of the Workshop
SSLA is an institute which fosters academic writing, and as such it becomes a matter of great significance to guide the students towards the right direction and instill a value and practice of academic honesty. The workshop aimed to help students of batch 2028 to understand the importance of academic integrity in their future projects and all the future work they take up. This workshop is held for the first year students to know what academic integrity means, and also understand the responsibility of authorship.
Workshop Facilitators
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Dr. Sumitra Surendralal and Prof. Uday Sinha conducted the workshop together. They are also the Faculty-in-Charge of the Research Cell at SSLA. Dr. Sumitra is primarily a physicist and teaches courses in Physics, Mathematics and Explorations of Natural Sciences at SSLA. Prof. Uday is an economist, and teaches courses in Economics, Quantitative Reasoning, and research methodology at SSLA.
Workshop Proceedings
The workshop was initiated with an intriguing activity, the students were shown a slide containing 15 different images of sweets/ desserts. They were asked to make a guess on what connects all of these images together. After various guesses, it was revealed that Android had used these names as their various android versions. Another slide containing two pictures were shown, one in which Deepika Padikone is dancing while the other was a poster of the film : eh Ballet. Students were again asked to make a connection between these two pictures. This exercise was done to make the point that there are consequences to plagiarism. The first picture was from Levi’s Join the Movement which was accused of plagiarism of the set design used in the film. The set was specifically built for the film, which meant the ad built a similar set design without giving any acknowledgement to the original. Addressing this issue, it was brought to the students that Plagiarism of any form is not allowed and is considered a violation of academic integrity and honesty.
Dr. Sumitra and Prof. Uday then further explained what the term academic integrity means and what values it upholds. Then they delved into the various types of academic dishonesty which includes plagiarism, cheating, facilitation, etc. They also shared examples of the consequences of academic dishonesty which included scientific fraud, publishing of fake journals. They also showed the statistics of the number of academic papers retracted from journals due to image duplication, manipulation and plagiarism. The intention behind this was to show the seriousness of upholding academic integrity and honesty.
After discussing all this, they then provided a deeper understanding of what plagiarism in writing means and entails; they showed examples which would guide them to distinguish what a plagiarized text looks like and how changing names, words or phrases does not make the work original. They then further gave an overview of the different types of plagiarism. They also explained the different types of citation styles, primarily APA and MLA.
With the advent of artificial intelligence and its increased usage amongst students made it important to discuss why and how its usage through generative AI, paraphrasing, is considered to be violating academic integrity. The workshop also addressed this issue and its ethical concerns. The workshop was concluded by discussing the positive consequences of upholding academic honesty along with the negative consequences of academic dishonesty.
Workshop
Objective of the Workshop
Dissertation is an integral part of the curriculum for the 3rd and final year students, it also becomes an important aspect of daily life of the students as they emerge themselves in research and writing. The undergraduate dissertation provides the students with a platform to pursue and learn about academic writing in the area of their interests. This workshop’s objective was to provide a direction to the research process and ways of constructing an argument around the research topic.
Workshop Facilitators
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Dr. Damini Kulkarni is an assistant professor in the Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts, and teaches courses in media and film studies. She also consistently engages with the theoretical frameworks and facilitates students to think critically about how theoretical paradigms and ideas have shaped or influenced the construction of reality and fiction alike. The workshop provided an opportunity to share her deliberate and experienced engagement with research methodologies and processes with the students.
Workshop Proceedings
A number of third and fourth year students attended the workshop, and the atmosphere was filled with anticipation and excitement for the session. Dr. Damini opened the floor by asking what is an argument and how do we construct one. Everyone came up with different answers and Dr. Damini led them to arrive at their own answers. After everyone’s discussion, the descriptions were written on the board and the discussion was led forward through that. The root of the word argument was first dissected. It came from the word ‘argumentare’ which meant to make clear, known or prove and gain knowledge. An argument was thus defined to be an assertion that defends or refutes a statement or an idea to fulfil a clear epistemological goal.
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After arriving at the definition, the strategies of approaching a research model was also discussed along with identifying the boundaries of limitations and delimitations. Thereafter, discussions on the appropriateness of a research model were presented, of how to match the epistemology and ontology of the model. Other concepts about novelty, heuristics and knowledge models were also discussed.
The workshop became a field of engagement amongst the students and the facilitator guiding the thought process deliberating on how to arrive at an argument and how to structure a research model. The three hours passed so quickly that the students didn’t even get tired and wanted to engage more. Dr. Damini through her guidance and fun presentation provided engaging and astounding insights into the research process to the students. At the end of the workshop, Dr. Damini asked the students to write about their dissertation’s research topics and construct an argument for their research question, thereafter providing feedback to how the students can approach it.
Workshop
Workshop on Gender Equity and Inclusion: Transformative Pathways in Higher Education with Wiscomp : A unique first-of-its-kind workshop was organised at Pune from 22-24 August, 2019. The workshop was hosted by Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (SSLA) in collaboration with Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), a New Delhi based South Asian initiative that promotes women’s equal participation and leadership in security and peacebuilding. The workshop sought to facilitate and institutionalise gender-just norms, policies and practices at Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs).This workshop seeks to open up spaces within college and university campuses for engaged dialogue to promote and nurture inclusion and equity.
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Wiscomp participate and Team at SSLA MPH on 23rd August 2019
Dr. Damini Kulkarni is an assistant professor in the Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts, and teaches courses in media and film studies. She also consistently engages with the theoretical frameworks and facilitates students to think critically about how theoretical paradigms and ideas have shaped or influenced the construction of reality and fiction alike. The workshop provided an opportunity to share her deliberate and experienced engagement with research methodologies and processes with the students.
Workshop
Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts in partnership with Asia Foundation, Prayas and Centre for Action and Reconducted medical camps in Bopkhel on 11th of September and at the Symbiosis Vimannagar New Campus (SVNC) on 16th September ‘2019. At the camps, blood tests and cervical cancer screenings were conducted. Awareness campaigns about cervical and breast cancer were also held. Cervical cancer screening was conducted for 50 women in Bopkhel and 90 women at SVNC. Blood tests were conducted for 113 women at Bopkhel and 87 women at SVNC. A team of 8 doctor-volunteers was present on both days to collect the sample, perform the screening and note the patient history. The format of the camp was such that first the women were made aware of what is cervical cancer.