#TOOPP

#TOOPP (The Out Of Place People, November 04, 2023):

Are your attachments secure? Are you disabled? Have you ever lost your mind? Is there a link between Being, becoming, experience, & location? Are all spaces places? Could one be at ‘home’, & yet ‘out of place’? Does your place give you too much identity? Must actors be models? Is your help a part of your family? Are you able to put yourself in another’s shoes? How do actors / writers / psychotherapists do this? Are you comfortable as yourself in an artificial situation – i.e., can you play yourself? Is lived experience the only vantage point? Are experiences ever pre-discursive? Is there an intactness within you? How do constructivists think of psychopaths? How can an actor prepare to play a dictator? Can entire societies get authoritarian? Have you experienced evil parts of yourself? Is a person on a mechanized wheelchair (necessarily) looking for empathy? Could migrant domestic workers seek privacy in public spaces? Why might imagining another on our own terms be dangerous? Does cattle grid also keep certain humans out? &, might the conception of the human itself (from only able-bodied, & in-reason) change in the future? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from psychology (Prof. Rachana Johri, ex-Ambedkar University, New Delhi), film-making (Prof. Mazhar Kamran, IIT Bombay, Bombay), & disability studies (Dr. Bindhulakshmi Pattadath, TISS, Mumbai). Listen in…

Listen in…

SynTalk is pleased and privileged to have hosted the following SynTalkrs (in alphabetical order) on its #TOOPP show.

Prof. Rachana Johri (psychology) is currently a psychodynamic counsellor, and a former Professor and ex-Director of Centre for Psychotherapy and Clinical Research (CPCR) at Ambedkar University, New Delhi (2011-23). Previously, she was Associate Professor in Lady Shriram College, University of Delhi (1987-2011). Prof. Johri received her academic training entirely within the discipline of psychology. She completed her B.A. (Hons, Psychology, 1980) and M.A. (Psychology, 1982) from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, & her M.Phil. (1986) and Ph.D. (1999) from Department of Psychology, University of Delhi. Her subsequent work has been shaped by her interest in questions of gender and women’s identities, questions of cultural context and social transformation, and the arena of mental illness. She has published, lectured, counselled and trained widely over the years. Her publications (both monographs as well as chapters in edited volumes) include: The Gendered Body and its Fragments: Negotiation, Struggle and Resistance in South Asia (as co-editor, 2023, Routledge India); ‘New Bodies in Cities: Contested Technologies of the Self in Urban India’ in Bracken, G. (Ed.) Contemporary Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West. Care of the Self Vol 2. (2020, Amsterdam University Press); &  ‘Mothering daughters and the ‘Fair and Lovely’ path to success’ (2011, Advertising and Society Review). She has also conducted multiple workshops at: TISS, JNU, University of Delhi, GPsyCon (Goa), & University of Edinburgh.

Prof. Mazhar Kamran (film making) is an independent film maker and also Professor in IDC School of Design at IIT Bombay, Bombay. He was an Adjunct Professor of Film at IDC (2015-16), and then joined IDC full time in 2016. Prior to joining the academic world, Prof. Kamran was freelancer director / cinematographer / writer (1993-2016) of feature / documentary & ad films. He received his B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) from IIT Madras (1984) and a P.G. Diploma in Cinema from FTII, Pune (1989). His filmography includes feature films such as Mohandas (2009, as director-cinematographer), and Satya (1998), Kaun (1999), Tarkieb (2000), Jhankaar Beats (2003), & Masti (2004), among others, as cinematographer. He has also been a cinematographer for TV films Ek Shaam Ki Mulaqat (2001, Star TV), & Husn-e-Jana (1995). In 1993-95, he also directed the widely acknowledged Surabhi and Turning Point for Doordarshan, India’s national TV channel. Prof. Kamran has received multiple awards and nominations over the years including: Special Jury Prize (Innsbruck International Film Festival, Austria) for ‘Mohandas’, which also received the Best Film and Best Director nominations at Fribourg International Film Festival (Switzerland) and Osian Film Festival (New Delhi). He was also nominated as ‘Emerging New Director’ at San Francisco International Film Festival. He has also served as a jury member at Pune International Film Festival (2020). He recently completed his second feature film (titled: ‘Safar Mein Sheher’) as a director.

Dr. Bindhulakshmi Pattadath (disability studies) is an Associate Professor and Chairperson at the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies in the School of Development Studies, at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She received M.A. (1998) and M.Phil. (2000) in Social Anthropology from Kannur University and the University of Hyderabad, respectively, and Ph.D. in Sociology from IIT Bombay (2006). Before joining TISS, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (currently Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2006-09). Dr. Bindhulakshmi has several years of experience in doing ethnographic fieldwork in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to understand the transnational mobility of Indian migrant women domestic workers. She has published widely on gendered migration, transnational labour, and domestic work. Recently, she has been actively engaged in teaching and research in critical disability studies. Her research explores questions of ageing, mental health, and care arrangements. She has recently completed a collaborative research project that explored the lived experiences and perspectives of caregivers of children with neuro-diversity, with a specific focus on the autism spectrum. She has also been published widely in academic journals and edited book volumes. Her recent publication includes a book chapter titled ‘Changing Meanings of Home: Migrant Domestic Work and its Everyday Negotiations’ in Women in the Worlds of Labour: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Perspectives, Mary E. John and Meena Gopal (Eds), Orient Blackswan (2021).

Note: Any & all errors in the brief profiles above are SynTalk’s own.

#TOOPP mentions: Sigmund Freud, Charlie Chaplin, Erich Fromm, Jean Genet, Roberto Rossellini, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler, & Mark Granovetter, among others.