Study Groups

Study Groups offer a research focus for members. By covering a vast range of specialisms within South Asian Studies, these provide a space for groups of academics who share a common interest in a particular thematic area to organise meetings and facilitate networking. Such groups also serve as an outlet for research as well as giving BASAS members opportunities to develop academically and professionally. Study Groups are an opportunity to connect with others who share your interests: early career scholars may find these as useful forums for mentorship. Researchers, teachers, students and people working on any aspect of South Asian Studies are all welcome to join.

Each Study Group is co-convened jointly by an early career scholar (classified as anyone within seven years of completing a PhD) together with a more established colleague.

Study Groups organise:

Study Groups aim to meet up at least once a year. For some such meetings can be a panel in our annual conference, while for others it could an external event.  BASAS provides each group with a small budget of up to £1000 to support activities and participation.

Convenors: Annapurna Waughray, Yashashwani Srinivas and Andrea Major

Resistance against caste discrimination, the fight for self-respect, and community building have been important elements of Dalit history, both in India and across the South Asian diaspora. This study group brings together scholars working on anti-caste activism and the fight for social justice (past and present), with a particular focus on Dalit communities, organisations, and sources of Dalit history in UK and across the diaspora. From the limitations of colonial archives, the role of Dalit led heritage sites and organisations (e.g. Ambedkar Memorial Trust), and the importance of community history and activism, this interdisciplinary group welcomes all scholars working on aspects of anti-caste activism and Dalit history, community, and identity in diasporic contexts.

We offer a mix of online and in person events. We also connect with local Ambedkar Societies (e.g. at University of Leeds, Manchester etc) to draw in students, PGRs, and ECR scholars.

Events focus on connecting PGRs and ECRs with established scholars, through works in progress session and networking (online and in person). The group also has emphasises methodology and training, with potential sessions on the opportunities and limitation of colonial archives and existing UK heritage sites for tracing Dalit histories.

Please reach out to the convenors if you want to know more about joining this Study Group:

Annapurna Waughray

Yashashwani Srinivas

Andrea Major

Convenor: Dibyadyuti Roy

South Asia is experiencing rapid transformation as digital, and algorithmic platforms reshape analogue political, social, and cultural landscapes. The DREAMS study group in epitomising the aims of BASAS, of “supporting advanced research in the humanities and social sciences of South Asia,” brings together both early career and established scholars committed to critically examining these shifting configurations through interdisciplinary frameworks that center Global Majority/Global South perspectives. DREAMS investigates how digital technologies and algorithmic systems interface with analogue realities to reconfigure everyday life, labour, and cultural production across South Asia. The group addresses pressing concerns including the gig economy’s impact on workers’ rights, algorithmic bias in automated decision-making systems, questions of algorithmic fairness, and the emergence of distinct data cultures that reflect regional specificities. Our approach recognizes that technological transformation in South Asia cannot be understood solely through Western theoretical frameworks that often marginalize Majority World experiences. By grounding our work in South Asian contexts that requires attention to local histories, languages, and power structures, the group: 1. challenges technopositivist narratives 2. facilitates the examination of how emergent technologies and mediascapes influence identity formation in diverse South Asian communities, and 3. explores the transformation of knowledge production practices within academic and public spheres, which are reshaping cultural institutions navigating the networked age.

Proposed activities include: interdisciplinary workshops on AI ethics and digital cultures; collaborative research projects examining platform economies; guest lectures from South Asian technologists and activists; reading groups on critical algorithm studies; digital humanities methodology training, and policy briefings addressing algorithmic governance in South Asia.

The group is an ideal space for early career scholars to engage with emerging literature and to do so in a context where discussion, debate and cross-seeding of ideas and concepts can take place.

Please reach out to the convenor if you want to know more about joining this Study Group:

Dibyadyuti Roy

Convenor: Thomas Chambers

This group focuses on labour and work in South Asia. It foregrounds interdisciplinary and encourage collaborative engagement across the humanities and social sciences. This might include, but not be limited to, labour histories, labour politics, ethnography and/or more audio-visual engagements with labour and work. The group considers work in a broad sense, not limiting enquiry to paid work but also engaging with reproductive labour and activities which involve ‘labour’ but may be unremunerated or not formally recognised as work.

We plan to hold monthly virtual ’roundtable’ style sessions. A reading list will be provided in advance that will be drawn from one nominated article, a chapter-length text, or a non-written format nominated by each group member. Discussion will be kept open and informal.

The study group creates networking opportunities connecting emerging scholars across institutions, facilitate conference participation, and maintain an online repository of methodological resources, ensuring early career researchers develop both technical skills and critical frameworks essential for scholarship in South Asian Studies.

Please reach out to the convenor if you want to know more about joining this Study Group:

Thomas Chambers

Convenors: Sudhir Selvaraj and Shandana Khan Mohmand

South Asian politics has long been characterised by intense tussles between democracy and authoritarianism. This Study Group examines these tussles in their comparative dimension across the region and within its nation-states. It thus provides a platform the study of how democracy and authoritarianism interact with and undermine each other across South Asia. We propose to hold two in-person events/ meetings per year – one in the north of the UK and one in the south. Such events include thematic workshops that will also serve as networking opportunities. Online activities include 1-2 discussion on newly-released books (linked to those who are shortlisted for the BASAS prize). ECRs benefit from ‘work in progress seminars’ as well as mock PhD vivas. “Drop-in sessions” with the conveners will be scheduled for ECRs twice a term.

See their latest event that took place on 22 June 2026 here.

Please reach out to the convenors if you want to know more about joining this Study Group:

Sudhir Selvaraj

Shandana Khan Mohmand