![]() | This biographical article is written like a résumé .(June 2022) |
Sanjay Barbora | |
---|---|
(Xonzoi) | |
Born | 11 February 1973 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | North-Eastern Hill University, Delhi School of Economics, Elphinstone College, Mumbai, St. Edmund's School, Shillong |
Thesis | Land, Class and Ethnicity: Permutations of Environmental Conflicts in Two Districts of Assam |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Sociology |
Sub-discipline | Anthropocene,social movements |
Institutions | University of California,Santa Cruz Tata Institute of Social Sciences,Guwahati |
Sanjay (Xonzoi) Barbora is an associate professor at University of California,Santa Cruz. Earlier,he worked as professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Guwahati and was the dean of School of Social Sciences. He is the co-founder of North Eastern Social Research Centre.
On 11 February 1973,Sanjay was born in Christian Mission Hospital in Jorhat. [1] His father,Bijoy Chandra Barbora,retired as the director of the Tocklai Tea Research Institute in 1997. [2]
Barbora completed his BA in Sociology from Elphinstone College under Mumbai University. He then received his MA and MPhil from the Department of Sociology at Delhi School of Economics. His MPhil thesis title was Plantation Systems and Labour Movements in Assam,1826-1947. He was awarded PhD from North-Eastern Hill University in 2007 for his thesis,Land,class,ethnicity:Permutation of environmental conflicts in two districts of Assam. [3]
In 2000,Barbora helped start the North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC) in Guwahati with Walter Fernandes. Later,he joined the Board of Trustees for NESRC. From 2005-2011,Barbora worked in various capacities with Panos South Asia.
Barbora joined Tata Institute of Social Sciences' Guwahati campus in 2012 as an associate professor. He was instrumental in designing three courses offered on campus:MA in Peace and Conflict Studies (discontinued since 2024),MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology,and the integrated MPhil-PhD programme. He was promoted as a professor in 2019. [4] Since 2013,Barbora has been on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Refugee Watch. He joined the peer-reviewed journal Conservation and Society as an associate editor in 2017. [5]
In September 2023 Barbora joined University of California,Santa Cruz's Sociology department in the Social Sciences Division. [6] [7] [8] In the department,he is part of two research focus:Political Economies and Ecologies,and World Building,Political Imaginaries,and Alternative Futures. [9] Barbora is an Honorary Research Fellow at the NESRC. [10] He is a research affiliate at The Initiative for Peacebuilding,University of Melbourne. [11] Previously,he was on the board of trustees of The Kohima Institute (now,The Highland Institute).
Barbora's research focuses on agrarian change,human rights,conservation,media,peace building, [12] and citizenship.
Barbora's book,Homeland Insecurities, explores Assam's political and social issues that have shaped life in the past two decades. Based in Northeast India,he engages with citizenship,autonomy,conservation,and reconciliation. These are overdetermined by militarisation of crucial spaces of debate and dialogue within civil society. [23]
Manta Wangsu reviews the book as "an honest scholarly intervention at a time when Assam is yet to overcome the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) anxieties that are set to exclude millions of people." Wangsu adds,"he brings out the complex realities and voices from the margins and also captures the intimate linkages of micro and macro processes." [24] Sociologist Nazimuddin Siddique calls the book,"a significant contribution towards understanding contemporary Assam." [25] Derhasat Narzary reviews,"the book provides a profound and thorough exploration,offering valuable insights into the intricate issues that have persistently affected Assam over the decades.... comprehending the multifaceted dynamics of autonomy,conflict,and migration in the region." [26] In another review essay,Narzary writes,"[Barbora's] interdisciplinary approach,drawing on sociology,anthropology,and political science,allows for a nuanced examination of the complexities of belonging in a region marked by ethnic,cultural,and historical diversity." [27]
Barbora is married to Dolly Kikon, [30] director of the Center for South Asian Studies at University of California,Santa Cruz.