Dahrendorf Room, St Antony's College and online

Africa: Shaeera Kalla (C19 Peoples’ Coalition, South Africa),
South Asia: Tarangini Sriraman (Goldsmiths), Jeevan Baniya (Social Science Baha, Nepal)

Teams link to join: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YzA3ZDU1NGMtM2QxMS00Y2Q0LTlhMGUtMzI3NDAwOGU0MTcw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a 

Shaeera is an activist and scholar. She holds a Masters degree in African Studies from Oxford University, a Bachelor of Commerce in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Wits University as well as a BA Honours in Political Science. She was the President of the Wits Student Representative Council and was one of the organisers at the forefront of the #FeesMustFall (FMF) protests in 2015/16 at Wits University in Johannesburg. Alongside the #RhodesMustFall movement which preceded FMF, these were the largest protests in post-democratic South Africa, as young people mobilised around the decommodification and decolonisation of education. Shaeera is currently dabbling in filmmaking and has been involved in the #PayTheGrants campaign which started through the Covid-19 Peoples Coalition, a civil society collective for a just response to the pandemic. She was involved in research and advocacy work on the implementation of social grants and a Universal Basic Income Guarantee (UBIG). The group sees a UBIG as a bridge towards radical redistributive justice and not an end in itself. In an era of crony capitalism which has led to mass unemployment, structural inequality, and ecological despair, this bridge can allow stability and, critically, time, as we organise and build towards a better world.

Tarangini is a Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has previously taught Politics and History at the School of Liberal Studies in Azim Premji University, Bangalore. She has also been a South Asia Program Fellow, Cornell University, Postdoctoral Fellow at Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi and Visiting Associate Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. She has also received the Charles Wallace Research Grant, London.
Her recently published book In Pursuit of Proof: A History of Identification Documents in India weaves together a hitherto unattempted history of making and verifying identification documents in the urban margins of India. Her articles have featured in journals such Contributions to Indian Sociology, Indian Economic and Social History Review, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (SAMAJ) and Economic and Political Weekly. She has also written for various popular publications such as The Hindu, The Newsminute, The New Indian Express, The Print and The Wire.

Jeevan Baniya is the assistant director of Social Science Baha, a Kathmandu based think tank. He is also a member of teaching faculty at Department of International Relations and Diplomacy (DIRD), Tribhuvan University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Faculty of Social Science, University of Oslo, Norway, an MA in NGO Studies from GSIS, Ajou University, South Korea. He has published several articles and research papers on labour migration, public policy, disasters, state-society relations, GESI, development, governance etc.