Research Methodology Workshop (Online) Concludes at Kashmir University
Shaikh-ul Aalam Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies (SACMS), University of Kashmir, Srinagar in collaboration with Ibn Arabi Society, Kashmir organised a five-day Research Methodology Workshop focusing on Humanities and the Social Sciences from 18-22 January, 2022. The idea of the workshop was to help young scholars enhance their research skills and broaden their perspectives on research. The research workshop was inaugurated by Prof. G. N. Khaki, Chairman SACMS, who welcomed the speakers and other guests and participants, while spelling out the aims and objectives of the workshop.
The workshop had two components to it: a series of online lectures delivered by eminent academicians, and an in-house mentoring session in which scholars were expected to receive critical feedback and suggestions on their on-going research projects. However, the second component had to be postponed for a while in view of the circumstances brought about by a rapid surge in COVID cases. Nevertheless, the online lectures were successfully conducted and were attended in large numbers by an eclectic mix of scholars, students, teachers and faculty members from across Kashmir and outside as well.
The speakers who delivered these online lectures included: Professor Farida Khan (Formerly Professor and Dean, Faculty of Education, Jamia Milia Islamia); Professor Satish Deshpande (Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics); Professor Uma Chakravarti (Formerly Professor of History, Delhi University) and Professor Ayesha Kidwai (Professor School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU). Each of these speakers spoke from the vantage point of their particular areas of specialization while addressing broader questions on ‘research methods’ in Social Sciences and Humanities.
Professor Khan offered a historical genealogy of how modern knowledge systems have emerged and became professionalised in the 20th Century, while focusing on the academic disciplines of Psychology and Education, reminding the participants that disciplines have never been value neutral. Professor Deshpande focused on the question of methodology especially in the context of Social Sciences. Social Science research methodology, as he told the audience, is a form of persuasion, a particular style or a manner of persuasion. And what sets it apart from other styles of persuasion is its ability to be critical and self-reflexive. Professor Uma Chakravarti advised students to be invested in their research, or otherwise it can turn out, as she said, a mechanical exercise. Quoting from her own professional experience, she spoke of enhancing the idea of the Archive to be able to write informed histories and histories that otherwise remain marginalised. Professor Kidwai, an Infosys Prize winner in Humanities, spoke of how language is embedded in society and its complex relationship to society. Again invoking her own example she illustrated the life of an academic and the idea of research. As she emphasised, an academic must learn to question and be puzzled. And that it is the responsibility of a researcher to question self-evident and established truths. Dr. Mufti Mudasir, Associate faculty at Department of English, University of Kashmir delivered the final lecture of the Workshop, addressing, much like Professor Farida Khan the history of disciplines and the function of the modern University.
Prof Khaki provided the concluding remarks of the workshop emphasising the essence of research while asking students and scholars to seek inspiration from Qur’an, hadith and such luminaries of Islamic history like Ibn Khaldun. He strongly enjoined students to take their research activity seriously and produce scholarship that is worthwhile. Towards the end, participants shared their feedback with the organisers. SACMS hopes to conduct more such workshops in the future.
Prof. G. N. Khaki
Chairman
Shaikh-ul Aalam Centre for
Multidisciplinary Studies
Shaikh-Ul-Aalam Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies