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M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Dr. Deblina Dey

Associate Professor, JGLS & Assistant Director, Centre for Law & Humanities

Email ddey@jgu.edu.in
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Key Expertise sociology of law in India, critical gerontology, medical anthropology (pharmaceuticalisation of care, medical harm, palliative/end-of-life care), custodial institutions, kinship studies, technology and contemporary social movements, sociology of markets.

M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Biography

Dr. Deblina Dey joined O.P. Jindal Global University in 2015. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Jindal Global Law School. She pursues interdisciplinary research on care, law and inequality with a focus on older people in India. Dr. Dey received her doctoral degree from the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Currently, she is a Fulbright-Nehru postdoctoral fellow based at DePaul University, Chicago, USA. During her fellowship, she will research the different eldercare models in urban India, focusing on the interventions made by law, market and philanthropic institutions. Her ethnographic research highlights the experiences of marginalisation in late life and suggests ways to evolve better mechanisms to address elder abuse and abandonment. Previously, she was a Hunt Postdoctoral Fellow with the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, based in New York. She has been an alumna of academies and workshops organised by the Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP), Harvard Law School, Harvard University. She is also a team member for events conducted by the Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSnet) anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Dr. Dey has published in edited volumes and various international journals on topics such as dispute resolution forums for older people, custodial neglect of older political prisoners, and religious norms related to end-of-life care. Some of her publications can be viewed at https://jgu.academia.edu/DeblinaDey. Dr. Dey is also the Assistant Director of the Centre for Law & Humanities (CLH) at the law school. For more details about the work done at CLH see: https://jgu.edu.in/jgls/research/law-and-humanities.

Introduction to Sociology [Sociology I]

Sociology of Law [Sociology II]

Sociology of Crimes

Sociological Research Methods

Foundation of Social Sciences

Received the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru postdoctoral fellowship (2024-25) to pursue sociological research in the USA.

Received the Hunt Postdoctoral fellowship (maximum funding) in 2024 from The Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York (USA) to pursue research in anthropology. She is the first from an Indian institution and the third from an Asian institution to be awarded the fellowship.

In November 2022, the jury members of the Indian Anthropological Society unanimously selected her as the recipient of Prof. Nirendra Chandra Choudhury Young Scholar Award in Social Anthropology and Sociology for her research contribution and publications.

JGU Research Excellence Award (2021)

Recipient of the Junior and Senior Research Fellowship (JRF & SRF) under the University Grant’s Commission (2012-2015).
 

2024. “Thinking of Gaza from Delhi.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 59, Issue No. 28, 13 Jul, 2024.

2024. Burden of loneliness is not older people’s alone. 360info.org, July 15, 2024. https://360info.org/burden-of-loneliness-is-not-older-peoples-alone/

2024. "Restoring dignity in women’s labour can give older women the care and respect they deserve in late life." 360info.org, March 8, 2024. https://360info.org/abused-abandoned-neglected-the-plight-of-indias-older-women/

This piece has also been republished by multiple news platforms -

1) TheWire.in: https://lnkd.in/gidEcBxu

2) Down To Earth: https://lnkd.in/gJqk26jn

3) The Diplomat: https://lnkd.in/g9JveT2C

4) Big News Network: https://lnkd.in/gXNceBtP

5) NE News (Northeast News): https://lnkd.in/gzMSgPsK

6) The Mooknayak: https://lnkd.in/g5wgFbmc

7) Millenium Post: https://lnkd.in/gDtsiZHi

8) The Hills Times (published in Guwahati & Diphu): https://lnkd.in/dTfc2KEi

2024. Changing expressions of filial piety and forms of intergenerational solidarity in neoliberal India. University of Liverpool Law School blog, 6 June 2024. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/law/blog/forms-of-intergenerational-solidarity-in-neoliberal-india/

2023. Technique as Empowerment: Dispute Resolution Forums for Older People. Journal of Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis. DOI: 10.1080/27706869.2023.2174296. URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/27706869.2023.2174296

2023. “Law’s temporality and the construction of death-worlds: Custodial neglect of older prisoners in India.” Jindal Global Law Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-022-00175-8. [Spinger Nature] URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41020-022-00175-8

2023. “Precarious Lives of Widows in India & Legal Provisions.” In Handbook on Social Protection for the Elderly in India, edited by Irudaya Rajan & Gayathri Balagopal, Springer Nature [Online-first version is available currently] URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_13-1

2022. “Santhara in Late Life: Approaching Death the Religious Way or a Form of Elder Abuse.” In Handbook on Aging, Health and Social Policy, edited by Irudaya Rajan, Springer Nature [Online-first version is available currently] URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_37-2

2022. Reclaiming Agency in Late Life: Elder Abuse and the Potential of Law. LiveWire, The Wire, https://livewire.thewire.in/rights/reclaiming-agency-in-late-life-elder-abuse-and-the-potential-of-law/

2021. “Three Models of Institutional Care in India and the Interpretation of the Needs of Older Persons.” In Ageing Issues in India: Practices, Perspectives and Policies, Mala Kapur Shankardass (ed.). International Perspectives on Aging, Series editors Jason L. Powell and Sheying Chen. Singapore: Springer. URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-5827-3_10

2020. “A Socio-legal Analysis of Elder Care Laws in India,” Theoretical Inquiries of Law published by Tel Aviv University Vol. 21, No.1. [De Gruyter] URL: https://www7.tau.ac.il/ojs/index.php/til/article/view/1638/1747

2019. Review of Disability in South Asia: knowledge and experience, by Anita Ghai (ed). Jindal Global Law Review, Vol. 10, No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-019-00099-w. [SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd]

2018. Review of Caring for the Elderly: Social Gerontology in the Indian Context, by Tattwamasi Paltasingh and Renu Tyagi (eds.), Social Change [SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd].

2018. “Stitching and Unstitching Labour with Sui Dhaaga.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol LIII no 43.

2017. “‘Fragile Body and Failing Memory’: The Construction of Care for the Elderly by the Laws and Policies in India.” In Elderly Care in India: Societal and State Responses, Irudaya Rajan & Gayathri Balagopal (eds.). Singapore: Springer, pp. 53-68. URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-3439-8_3

2017. “A Different Theatre of Justice: Jolly LLB 2” Economic and Political Weekly, 52(14): 80.

2016. “The Nostalgia of Values: Popular Depictions of Care Crisis towards Ageing Parents in India.” Journal of Human Values 22(1) 26–38. doi: 10.1177/0971685815608060. [SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd]. URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0971685815608060

2015. Review of Wombs in Labour: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India, by Amrita Pande. Contemporary South Asia, 23 (3): 365-366. doi: 10.1080/09584935.2015.1063222. [Taylor & Francis]
Email ddey@jgu.edu.in
Key Expertise sociology of law in India, critical gerontology, medical anthropology (pharmaceuticalisation of care, medical harm, palliative/end-of-life care), custodial institutions, kinship studies, technology and contemporary social movements, sociology of markets.
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