Webinar invited talks
Invited talk on ‘Disability and mental health: Towards critical, interdisciplinary perspectives’ delivered at the workshop on Disability Studies organized by Banaras Hindu University on October 9, 2024.
Invited talk on ‘Vocabularies of inclusion: How Autistic voices in India are reframing personhood’ at the Neurodiversity in the Majority World Seminars organized by the Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Forum on July 23, 2024.
Link to the recording:
https://youtu.be/yiVyv1gGsfQ
Invited lecture on ‘Anthropology and mental health’ delivered at LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health, Assam on March 23, 2024.
Invited to deliver a lecture on 'Disability and mental health: Critical perspectives' on Saturday, 12th July, 2023 as part of a Faculty Development Workshop organized by Amity School of Languages, Amity University Chhattisgarh.
Invited to deliver a lecture on Saturday, 8th July, 2023 as part of a Faculty Development Workshop on “Understanding Disability” from 3rd July to 10th July, 2023 organized by The Centre for Disability Research and Training (CDRT), SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi in association with CDRT, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi.
Keynote speaker at the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology Biennial Conference Pluralizing Global Mental Health: Care, crisis, and critique, 9-10 June, 2022. Link to recording: https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/rec/play/jIKigaql3ZJZDLWsb26O09zqqMRqPY_IGUUUg3J6HmgLHOnYPX57e2QbN0dtlDtzHQEyX3SYVhVSNVFu.LSKubpssdCvM90BY?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=T7X_okKMSqOU75MaGvjo0A.1657276752293.ffcc1446327eabc29e48744ed844ab9c&_x_zm_rhtaid=587
Invited roundtable panelist at the annual conference of the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology, June 16-18, 2022. Link to short video of talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7oP-ShP-k
Invited panelist for panel discussion on ‘Disability and the body: Conversations across intersections’ organized by Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai on April 13, 2021
Invited talk on ‘Task-shifting in community mental health in India: Some questions and challenges’ at a course on ‘Community-based mental health interventions: Critical perspectives and innovative approaches’ organized by McGill University, Canada from April 6-9, 2021
Invited resource faculty for Faculty Development Program on ‘Reigniting the Research-Spark: Exploring new methodologies and perspectives’ organized by St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai from the 15th to 20th March 2021. Talk delivered on ‘Ethnography’
Invited guest for International Women’s Day in St. Josephs College, Devagiri, Kerala on March 8, 2021. Talk delivered on ‘Gender sensitivity in clinical practice’
Invited talk on ‘From ‘care’ to ‘mental health care’: Critical questions from local healing shrines in India’ at the School of Arts and Sciences, Azim Premji University, November 19th 2020
Invited talk on 'Reviving slow research: Mental health and social science research in a post COVID world' delivered at the Webinar on 'Mental health and wellbeing in a post COVID world' organized by the Department of Anthropology in association with the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi on July 20, 2020.
Conference presentations
“The differences within: Autism, the media, and self-advocacy in India” paper presented at the Disability Studies conference from 3rd to 5th September 2024 in the University of Leeds, UK
“Thinking beyond institutions: Parental journeys in navigating towards inclusive living in the context of autism” presented as part of the symposium titled “South Asian Disability Futures” presented at the 51st Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, US, 18-21 October 2023.
Paper ‘Fishing for patients to medicate: Diagnostic practices in contemporary psychiatry in India’ presented at the Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago on October 13, 2023.
"Care Relations in Indian Academia: Reimagining Reasonable Accommodations” presented at the international interdisciplinary conference on “Disability at the Intersection of History, Culture, Religion, Gender, and Health” at Marquette University, 3-4 March, 2022.
“Does community psychiatry really engage the community? Critical questions on ‘engagement’ and ‘empowerment’ from local healing shrines in India” presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, April 25‐27, 2019.
"Global pharmaceuticals in a religious shrine: Questions about community psychiatry in India" presented at the INTAR international conference Trans-cultural dialogues about mental health, extreme states and alternatives for recovery in Lavasa, Pune, 26th - 28th November 2016.
“Queering psychology in India: The need for critical perspectives” presented at the 31st International Congress of Psychology in Yokohama, Japan, 24th – 29th July 2016.
“A space to ‘eat, trance, and sleep’: Everyday Healing in Mahanubhav temples in Maharashtra” presented at the 16th International Conference on Maharashtra: Culture and Society in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, India, 8th to 10th January, 2016
Convener of panel “Margins and thresholds of the medical in contemporary India” and paper “Ritual medicine: Mental health encounters at a religious shrine” presented at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), March 27 – March 30, 2014
‘“God’s Hospitals” with “no Superstitions!” On the place of healing shrines in India’ presented at the Seminar on Health Cultures and Tribal Communities: Emerging research agenda and Policy Shifts organized by Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad (January 2-4, 2013)
Convener of symposium on “Critical Perspectives in Psychology” at the 22nd Annual Convention of the National Academy of Psychology hosted by Christ University, Bangalore (December 2012)
Convener of symposium on “Illness, Suffering, and Healing: New Paradigms in Research” at the 22nd Annual Convention of the National Academy of Psychology hosted by Christ University, Bangalore (December 2012)
“Beyond ‘cure’ and ‘efficacy’: Ritual healing and possession in the Mahanubhav sect in Maharashtra, India” presented at the 22nd European Conference on South Asian Studies in Lisbon, Portugal (25th to 28th July 2012)
“Re-thinking illness and suffering: The narrative of spirit possession” presented in the 20th National Academy of Psychology Conference hosted by Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (December 2010)
“‘God’s hospital’: The ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’ within healing spaces” presented in the Cultural Studies Workshop on ‘The Sacred in Contemporary Culture’ organized by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta in Santiniketan (January 2010)
“Making sense of suffering: A study of spirit possession in healing centers” presented at the 19th International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Bremen, Germany (July 2008)
“Spirit possession: Professional perceptions and lay experiences” presented at the XXIX International Congress of Psychology, Berlin, Germany (July 2008)
“Making Sense of Suffering: A Study of Possession in a Healing Centre” presented at the National Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists hosted by University of Calcutta (January 2008)
“Spirit Possession in a Healing Temple: Suffering, Healing, and Meaning-Making” presented at the 17th National Academy of Psychology Conference hosted by Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (December 2007)
“Spirit Possession in a Healing Centre: The View from Within” presented at the 16th National Academy of Psychology Conference hosted by Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (December 2006)
“Self-efficacy: A key factor in youth health behaviour” presented at the 10th International & 41st National Conference of Indian Academy of Applied Psychology on Innovative Dimensions of Applied Psychology: Counselling for Development in Chennai (February 2006)
“Mental Health Care at the End of Life: A Culture-Sensitive Approach” presented at the National Conference on Aging and Dying hosted by Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (November 2005)
“Mental Illness from a Cultural Perspective: A Case of Spirit Possession” presented at the 80th Session of the Indian Philosophical Congress (October 2005)
“Psychological Correlates of Depression” presented in the Annual Convention of the Bombay Psychological Association and awarded first prize for the same (January 2001)
Invited talks
Invited keynote address on ‘From ‘institutional care’ to ‘assisted living’? Parental journeys in navigating towards ‘inclusion’ in the context of autism in India’ delivered at a conference on ‘Disability Justice: Looking Beyond Ableist Frames’ organized in the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK), 12-13 November, 2024
Invited talk on ‘Disability futurity and reproductive futures: Exploring linkages’ in an international seminar on ‘Demographic Shifts and Reproductive Futures: Entanglements of Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society’ organized by School of Science in Society, Wellington Faculty of Science and Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad on July 11, 2024.
Invited panelist in a session titled ‘Health, Body and Social Inequalities’ as part of a Three Day International Conference “Celebrating 100 years of Sociology in India”
Organized by the Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, 1st-3rd April, 2024
Invited talk titled ‘Abandonment and care in healing shrines: Women’s agency in the context of psychosocial disabilities’ delivered at a One-Day National Seminar funded by the National Commission for Women the Rights of Women with Disabilities: A Status Update in BITS on November 15, 2022
Invited panelist speaking on 'Innovations in community mental health in religious shrines: Critical questions and challenges' in conference Innovations in Health Interventions: Traditional Complementary and Alternative Methods (TCAM) in Holistic Healthcare, 10th and 11th November 2022, University of Hyderabad
Invited resource person for a Faculty Development Workshop on Qualitative Research Methodology organized by Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, SGT university, Gurugram (Haryana), 26th – 30th September, 2022.
Invited talk on 'Questions of voice and representation in mental health' delivered at the 'Fostering Research in Disability' Winter School held from 16th to 21st December 2019 in NALSAR, Hyderabad.
Invited talk on Qualitative Research Methods delivered in St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad on March 1, 2019.
Invited to be discussant for a panel at a symposium on Law and Public Health at the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad on February 16-17, 2019.
Invited talk on Qualitative data analysis-Case study method and Methodological challenges and ethical issues with qualitative research delivered at Jnana Prabodhini's Institute of Psychology, Pune on July 28, 2018.
Invited talk on 'Gender in Academia' delivered at the TEQIP 'Teacher effectiveness workshop for Women Teachers' held in IIT Hyderabad on March 3, 2017.
Invited talk on Ethnography delivered at the national workshop on ‘Thinking Qualitative: Approaches, Methods and Data Analysis of Qualitative Research in Social Sciences’ in St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad on September 19, 2016.
Invited talk on Coding and Analysis in Qualitative Research delivered in Department of Psychology, St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad on March 17, 2016.
Invited talk on Credibility discourses in temple healing: Some questions from Mahanubhav shrines in Maharashtra, India delivered in the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi on March 6, 2014.
Invited talk on Encounters between ritual and medicine delivered as part of the SISTEM-SPHERE (Studies on Indian Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine : Socio-Philosophical, Historico-Economic Research Explorations) seminar series organized by the Wellcome Trust – IIT Madras Project on Medical Ideas, Tools, Ethics and Pluralism in South India on January 21, 2014.
Invited as resource person for panel discussion in the National Seminar on "Cinema, Psyche and Society: Dialogues and Engagements" organized by Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta (7-8 October 2013)
The politics of ‘indigenous healing’: A study of the Mira Datar dargah in Gujarat at the International Conference on 'Rural South Asia: Imaging Heritage and Progress' organized by Department of History and Ancient Indian Culture, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad (4-7 January 2013)
The Possessed Body: Understanding the Language of Distress at the 7th UCL - BALM Short Course on ‘Distress and the Body: Anthropological and Clinical Dimensions’ held in Chennai, India (3-5 September 2012)
Using Narrative Approaches in Research and Therapy in National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC), Chennai
Qualitative Research Methods for UGC Refresher Course in Academic Staff College, Pondicherry University