Prof. (Dr.) Deep K Datta Ray 

Prof. (Dr.) Deep K Datta-Ray holds a BA in Chinese History from SOAS, an MA in War Studies from King’s College, London and a DPhil in International Relations – along with a Diploma in Research Methods – from the University of Sussex. Prior to joining JSIA, Deep worked for nearly a decade as a business consultant with several international firms and in New York, London, Singapore and Mumbai. He also wrote extensively for newspapers, appearing most frequently in the South China Morning Post and the Times of India.

The only outsider to have been embedded in any Foreign Ministry, Deep was attached to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for his DPhil. The result is a monograph, The Making of Indian Diplomacy (Oxford University Press, New York). It reflects Deep’s broad interests, which lie at the intersection of the violence that underpins everyday political, social and economic life and how to negate it by negotiating in an ethical manner. These concerns are investigated using a mode Deep calls ‘producer-centred-research’. Applicable across disciplines, it is intent on presenting the world in terms of the people being studied. Requisite is collecting empirical data and analyzing it in terms of the producers. Contextualizing such work within theories so established that they are habitually regarded as ‘common sense’, makes for theoretically engaged arguments that ironically, frequently, displace those very ideas.

His book was launched by Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. Deep has also presented his work at the Ecole Normale Supérieure at Rue d’Ulm, Sciences Po, Heidelberg University, Oslo University, NUPI and at Delhi University, amongst others.

Deep seeks to foster a highly transferable skill set, at whose core is critical methodological thought, by promoting reasoned argumentation and debate. Not only is such a skill set sought by professional organisations, but it makes for a person rational, that is, capable of acting ethically.