The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi Sarai is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. CSDS is one of India’s best known research centres, with traditions of dissent and a commitment to the work of the public intellectual going back four decades. The Sarai Programme at CSDS was initiated in 2000 as a platform for discursive and creative collaboration between theorists, researchers and practitioners actively engaged in reflecting on contemporary urban spaces in South Asia—their politics, built form, ecology, culture and history—as well as on the histories, practices and politics of information and communication technologies, the public domain and media forms.
We invite applications for the upcoming cycle of Sarai-CSDS Independent Research Fellowships.
Who Can Apply?
Sarai invites independent researchers, media practitioners, software designers and programmers, urbanists, architects, artists and writers, as well as students (post graduate level and above) and university and college faculty to apply for support to research driven projects. Why Research ? What do we mean by Research? What is a Seed Grant? Sarai is committed to generating public knowledge and creativity through research. Hence the support for research driven projects and processes. The fellowships are in the nature of seed grants in order to emphasize the initiation and founding of projects that would otherwise go unsupported Here by research we mean both archival and field research, and forays into theoretical work as well as any process or activity of an experimental or creative nature – for instance in the audiovisual media, as well as in journalism or the humanities and social sciences, or in computing and architecture.
The Experience of Last Year
This is the second year in which Sarai has called for proposals for such fellowships. We would like to spell out the way in which the process worked during the first year, as an indication of what applicants should expect. The first year saw the selection of twenty proposals, which included work towards projects based on investigative reportage of urban issues, essays on everyday life, a history of urban Dalit performance traditions, a soundscape of an industrial suburb, a graphic novel about Delhi, a documentation of the free software movement in India, research on displacement and rehabilitation in cities, and an interpretative catalogue of wall writings and street signs. Successful applicants included free lance researchers, academics, media practitioners, writers, journalists and activists. The projects were submitted in English, Hindi or a combination of the two languages. We have seen that projects that set important but practical and modest goals were usually successful, whereas those that may have been conceptually sound but lacked sufficient motivation to actually persue a research objective on the field, usually did not take off beyond the interim stage. Sarai interacted closely with the researcher over the period of the fellowship and the grantees made interim and final presentations at Sarai which us to trace the development of work during the grant period and the grantees to obtain structured but informal feedback from us at Sarai in stages during the course of their work. Submissions by grantees included written reports and essays, photographs, tape recordings, pamphlets, maps, drawings and html presentations.
What we are Looking For Like last year, this year too we are looking for proposals that are imaginatively articulated, experimental and methodogically innovative, but which are pragmatic and backed up by a well argued work plan which sets out a time table for the project, as well as suggests how the support will help with specific resources (human and material) that the project needs.
Suggested Themes Sarai’s interests lie in the city, and in media. Broadly speaking any proposal that looks at the urban condition, or at media is eligible. More specifically, themes may be as diverse as habitation, sexuality, labour, social/digital interfaces, urban violence, street life, technologies of urban control, health and the city, the political economy of media forms, histories of particular media practices, migration, transportation, or anything that the applicants feel will resonate with the philosophy and interests that motivate Sarai’s work. Sarai supports innovative and inventive modes of rendering work into the Public Domain. Proposals, which pay attention to this, will be particularly valued.
Conditions Applicants should be resident in India, and should have an account in any bank operating in India. The research fellowship would be available for up to six months and for a maximum amount of Rs. 60,000. The fellowships do not require an every day presence at Sarai. These are support fellowships and fellowship holders will be free to pursue their primary occupations, if any. Last date for submission: October 5, 2002.