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Faculty

Updated on 18 Dec, 2019

Dr. Rukshana Zaman

Assistant Professor

Within the ambit of Social Anthropology, Dr. Zaman’s research interests are ethnicity, identity, ethnic conflicts, anthropology of performance mainly dance, visual anthropology, gender studies and social institutions.

Her quest with the study of identity and ethnicity began while she was working on her doctoral thesis on “Odissi Dance and The Construction of Oriya* Identity”. In her doctoral work she had looked at identity as perceived and constructed by the Odia community. The struggle to enlist Odissi dance as a classical dance form of India brought together the intelligentsia and the dance gurus of Odisha. The creation of ethnic identity was seen in the reconstruction of the dance form. The gestures and postures from the walls of the Konark temple, the dances of the Maharis (temple dancers known as Devadasi in other parts of India) of Jagannath, Puri and the Gotipua (male dancers dressed in female attires) were reconstructed to give shape to the dance repertoire. In the years to follow she had taken forward the study of ethnicity and identity in her research works on autoethnography. Her auto-ethnographical accounts extensively dealt with the idea of ethnicity and identity, how it has been constructed within the Muslim communities living in Assam.

A President’s Awardee for service as a girl guide, she also holds a bachelor’s degree in Odissi Dance.

*Dr. Zaman’s PhD work was completed in the year 2007, while the nomenclatures Orissa was changed to Odisha, and Oriya language to Odia in the year 2011 with Parliament giving approval to the amendment of the Constitution. Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/7780712.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

EDUCATION:
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)	University of Delhi, 2007 Discipline: Anthropology Doctoral Research Topic: Odissi Dance and the Construction of Oriya Identity
Master of Science (MSc)	University of Delhi, 2002 (Miranda House) Discipline: Anthropology Academic Achievement: 1^st Division, 3^rd Position in the University
Bachelor of Arts (BA)	Gauhati University, 1998 (Cotton College) Discipline: Anthropology Academic Achievement: 1^st Division with Distinction, 2^nd Position in the University

WORK EXPERIENCE:

FELLOWSHIP/ AWARDS

Sl. No.	Name of the Fellowship/Awards	Granting/ Awarding Institution	Year
1.	Charles Wallace Fellow Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK	Charles Wallace India Trust, British Council	2018-2019
2.	Short Term Doctoral Fellowship	Indian Council of Social Science Research	2005-2006
3.	President’s Award for Girl Guide	President of India	1993
4.	Governor’s Award for Girl Guide	Governor of Assam	1992

PUBLICATIONS

RESEARCH PAPERS PUBLISHED: 15

Research Papers in Peer Reviewed Journals: 3
Chapters in Books: 5
Units for IGNOU Courses: 7
Papers presented at International/ National Conferences: 20

MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BODY/ STATUTORY BODY (INTERNAL/ EXTERNAL)

Membership of Professional body/ Statutory body	Name of statutory body/ institution/	Period
Nominated member of Examination Monitoring Committee/Task Force	VC nomination, IGNOU	June, 2017 Term-End-Examination, IGNOU.
Nominated Member of School Board for School of Social Sciences, IGNOU	VC nomination, IGNOU	August, 2014 –August, 2016
Nominated Member of Academic Council, IGNOU, New Delhi, India	VC nomination, IGNOU	21^st July, 2012- 20^th July, 2014