Our research
In an increasingly interconnected, frenetic and complex world, too often our knowledge of what's going on outside our immediate environment is informed by soundbites and populist media reports. Our research, which offers more nuanced perspectives, based on long-term, in-depth study, serves as a corrective to that, across a whole range of areas.
Our South Asia Studies Research Group aims to put regionally relevant research by Brunel anthropologists, development studies scholars, sociologists, historians, political scientists and others firmly on the map, through public roundtable events, seminars, writing workshops and other events. We tackle issues such as:
- Ethnographic research of South Asia and its diasporas
- Regional development studies
- Infrastructure and mobility
- Education, learning and schooling
- Childhood and Youth
- Medical anthropology and Disability Studies
- The anthropology and politics of food
- Race and identity
- The State and social welfare
- South Asian history
- Performance, drama, and South Asian dance
- Conservation
The group also provides a research base for the development of cutting-edge South Asia specific programmes and teaching.
Regional focus on South Asia and its diasporas
From helping to improve the school curriculum in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh to understanding the experiences of British South Asians in the UK schooling system, to shaping NGO policies in India and Sri Lanka, our research has a wide range of applications across multiple sectors.
Around a third of residents in our local area, Hillingdon, identify as Asian, and one of our key aims is to engage with the group - as well as with other local people - to make our research findings more accessible to them through public engagement events, such as roundtables and documentary film screenings.
By making our findings more accessible to the local community of which Brunel is a part, our activities also strive to help foster good relations and to spread knowledge of the region beyond the boundaries of the University.