Archives at NCBS: Research Fellowship and Scholar-in-Residence Program
The Archives at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) is delighted to run a Research Fellowship and Scholar-in-Residence Program, toward developing scholarship based on the historical collections at the Archives at NCBS. This Program is generously supported by TNQ Foundation.
About the Archives at NCBS:
The Archives at NCBS (https://archives.ncbs.res.in) is a public collecting centre for the history of science in contemporary India. It has over 350,000 processed objects across over 55 collections in various forms, ranging from paper-based manuscripts to negatives to photographs, books, fine art, audio recordings, scientific equipment, letters, and field and lab notes. The 2000-square-feet state-of-the-art physical centre at NCBS includes space for research, processing, exhibitions, recording, and a leading-edge storage facility with monitors for temperature, light, humidity, air quality, water, fire, pests, and noise. Most of the archival catalog is available online (as are many of the digital objects from the collections).
For a full list of collections, access guidelines and vision of the Archives at NCBS, please visit our website: https://archives.ncbs.res.in/.
For queries about the program, email us at archives-scholars@ncbs.res.in.
About the Research Fellowship and Scholar-in-Residence Program:
Research fellows and scholars-in-residence engage with the collections at the Archives at NCBS over a period of 3-6 months.
Research fellows and scholars-in-residence will identify collection(s) that they wish to work on, and outline their area of research or inquiry. They will be expected to be resident in Bangalore and will have access to all campus facilities that is typically provided to research scholars, including library and archival facilities. During their stay, they would be expected to engage with the campus and archives, and also the public through informal talks, and at least one presentation at the end of their residency, culminating in research that is geared toward publication (like a research paper), science-history-art installation, or other modes. They are free to choose the mode of their presentation.
Research Fellowships will be awarded to scholars who can illustrate a keen area of inquiry, a demonstrated interest in the archival collections at the Archives at NCBS, and a plan for how the use of these collections would further understanding of the history and culture of science. Fellows are expected to work closely with the archivists and other researchers at the Archives at NCBS.
Scholars-in-residence are senior scholars who will typically bring with them a substantial body of work that deepens our collective understanding of the history and culture of science. They would also be known for working across disciplinary boundaries, including engagement with the public. They would bring with them a proposal and vision for how the use of these collections along with other archives would further understanding of the history and culture of science.
Our previous Research Fellows and Scholars-in-Residence (in alphabetical order)
Achintya Anita Gurumurthy
Achintya Anita Gurumurthy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Laws Degree from Jindal Global Law School. Their research deals with questions of caste, class and gender marginality in the history of the modern Indian judiciary, and the social and political pasts of people's movements.
Between the Devil and the Deep Lake: Courts and Environmentalists on Evictions in Bengaluru's Keres
My work is a study of the history of slum evictions and demolitions which have taken place on lake and tank beds in Bengaluru. It seeks to bring out the peculiar relationship of Bengaluru's lakes with its dwellers, and analyse how judicially mandated evictions have deployed environmental concerns to legitimise dispossession. Examining legal history, I look at how the rhetoric of nuisance within the law has reproduced imageries of slums as harmful to the environment. Placing these discourses beside the understanding that ecologists have of urban relations, I rely on the rich repository of environmentalists' interventions in the Archives at NCBS. In doing so, I trace how ecologists have conceptualised questions of housing and ecological conservation in the context of Bengaluru's lakes, in an attempt to imagine alternatives to the judicial narrative. Through this, I aim to bring out the varied voices within the environmental movement in Bengaluru by looking at state ecologists like A N Yellappa Reddy, as well as people's movements – including forums like the Environment Support Group. Thus, I hope to highlight how the history surrounding Bengaluru's lakes and its dwellers can offer rich perspectives in understanding questions surrounding commons, environment and housing within the Indian urban question.
Work links:
https://youtu.be/H0tRsECEqKQ
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cPGcTpeJXwrShhVdntsgUhSWMBc5GWls/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=112012364833194686409&rtpof=true&sd=true
