

Dr. Dyotana Banerjee
Dr.Dyotana Banerjee is Assistant Professor of Political Science in the School of Science and Humanities at Shiv Nadar University, Chennai. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. Her research interests include: a) politics of urban transformations and remaking of city spaces in India; b) caste, land struggles and urban migration; c) Identity politics, urban museums and practices of democracy. She uses ethnographic and interpretive methods in her research. Dr. Banerjee’s designed and taught courses are Political Economy of India, Contemporary Indian Politics, Political Thought, Political Theory, and Politics of Urbanization.
Academic Background:
Ph.D., Political Science, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, 2020
M.SC.,International Development, The University of Edinburgh, 2011
M.A., International Relations, Jadavpur University, 2010
B.A., Political Science, Jadavpur University, 2008
Select Academic Publications:
Banerjee, Dyotana, “Pandemic rituals and compliant urban neighbours: Middle-class politics in Bangalore’’, Urban Now, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Aug 2020
https://www.ijurr.org/the-urban-now/pandemic-rituals-and-compliant-urban-neighbours/
Banerjee, Dyotana, “Reading a Dalit movement through social media; limits and possibilities”, Critical Asian Studies, Aug 2019, Taylor & Francis
Banerjee, Dyotana, and Mehta, Mona G. “Caste and capital in the remaking of Ahmedabad.”
Contemporary South Asia, 25, no. 2, 2017: 182-195, Taylor & Francis
https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2017.1329278
Banerjee, Dyotana, and Das Noyonika, “Moralizing middle class and the Choked response to Demonetization”, in South Asia Journal, Commentary, June 6, 2020.
http://southasiajournal.net/moralizing-middle-class-and-the-choked-response-to-demonetization/
Media Publications:
Banerjee, Dyotana, “Caste, class and populist political anxieties in ‘Paatal Lok'”, The Wire, May 23, 2020. Thewire.in
Banerjee, Dyotana, “Thappad: defying patriarchy without dismantling families?”, Countercurrents.org, May 12, 2020.
Ingole, Prashant and Banerjee, Dyotana, “Coronavirus and caste: is our response to the pandemic casteist?”, The Quint, Mar. 21, 2020.
Banerjee, Dyotana, “Savarna middle class and Article 15: Puncturing the ‘politics’ in the political”, in Countercurrents.org, Jul. 9, 2019.
Select Conference Presentations:
‘A ‘Casteless’ Collective: Marginality and Aspirations in the New Dalit Politics in Ahmedabad’ presented in the panel Ambition, Naked, Muted, and Mediated: Exploring Young Adult Aspirations in the Fast-changing Global South, at Association for Asian Studies in Asia 2020 (AAS-in-Asia 2020), Asia at the Crossroads: Solidarity through Scholarship conference online from Kobe, Japan, Sept 2020
‘Contradictions of space and aspirations in new Dalit politics of Ahmedabad’ presented at Research Committee 21 – Sociology of Urban and Regional Development of the International Sociological Association conference “In and Beyond the City: Emerging Ontologies, Persistent Challenges and Hopeful Futures” in India Habitat Centre, Delhi, India in Sept 2019.
‘Indigenous’ capital and the politics assimilation in the shaping of early 20th century urban spaces in Ahmedabad’ presented at the International Conference & Workshop on Indian Business and Economic History in Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Aug 2019.
‘Dalit street-theatre and caste cohered locales in the space politics of Ahmedabad’’ presented at the 25th European Conference on South Asian Studies in École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France in Jul 2018.
‘A Ghettoized ‘Smart City’: Caste and Capital in the remaking of Ahmedabad’ presented at the 24th European Conference on South Asian Studies in the University of Warsaw, Poland in Jul 2016.
‘Caste and Capital in the remaking of Ahmedabad’ presented at the British Association of South Asian Studies Annual Conference in University of Cambridge, UK in Apr 2016.
Grants and Awards:
International Exchange Grant program AAS (2020) travel related grant awarded by Association for Asian Studies to present a paper at the AAS-in-Asia conference held in Kobe, Japan, Aug 31Sept. 2, 2020 (held online)
ECSAS 2018 Travel Grant (2018) awarded by European Association of South Asian Studies for presenting a paper at the 25th European Conference on South Asian Studies in École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France in July 2018.
Grant for Outstanding Delegates (2016) awarded by Commonwealth Studies Centre, Malaysia for presenting a paper at the British Association of South Asian Studies Annual Conference in University of Cambridge in April 2016