Research topic: 

The Adivasi Question:  Assertions and contestations of Indigeneity, well-being, citizenship and belonging

Ruby Hembrom is an Adivasi (indigenous from India) cultural documentarian and publisher. She is an LSE PhD Studentship supported doctoral student at the Department of Social Policy.

Research interests: Her research aims to use a Social Policy frame to interrogate the ‘Adivasi Question’ within the multi-layered contestations of indigeneity, identity, well-being, citizenship and belonging in India. This will be explored through the legacy of social policies devised for Adivasis to incorporate these peoples into the national fabric of the country, and their agency in the process. She hopes to contribute to both the academic literature and debates on the politics and deliberations on indigeneity, focusing on the situation of Adivasis in India, their status, assertion, recognition and dignity in varied contexts, and the contentions around social provision for them. Social Policy, when interrogating being, place, space and contestations for Adivasis also becomes a framing paradigm, and a tool for meaning making. Her hope and commitment is to learn from and contribute to this field, making room for Adivasi discourses.

Supervisors: Professor Armine Ishkanian, Dr Sunil Kumar