EVENTS

The Research Methodology Workshop, conducted as a part of the 18th All India Conference of China Studies (AICCS), will be held online via Zoom for shortlisted candidates on Saturday, 9th August 2025, from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. It will provide candidates with an opportunity to enhance their research design and analytical skills, engage with field experts, engage in peer learning, and refine their methodology in line with academic standards, thereby improving their research papers.

Resource Persons

Rajan Kumar teaches in School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. His areas of interest include international politics, Russia and Central Asia, India's foreign olicy, and Research Methods. His co-edited volume Locating BRICS in the Global Order: Perspectives from the Global South was published by Routledge, London, in 2022. Earlier, he co-authored Re-emerging Russia: Structures, Institutions and Processes, which was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017. He writes regularly for national and international journals. His columns appear regularly in Financial Express and other newspapers. He is a regular commentator on national and international media channels.

Topic: Research Methods in Social Sciences and Area Studies.

Usha Chandran is an Assistant Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Honorary Fellow, at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. She holds a PhD in Chinese on Gender issues in China from JNU. Her major research interests include gender issues in China and comparison with India, interface between gender and language as well as popular culture, women’s subjectivity in literature, and exploring Sociological methodologies to study the Chinese society. Her major publications include book chapters and journal articles. Her book, Gender Discrimination at Work in Urban China, is due to be out in August and she is also editing a volume titled, Gender in Language and Expression.

Topic: Conducting Research in China studies

Ajit Phadnis completed his FPM in Public Policy from IIM Bangalore, where his doctoral research was an effort at melding the academic streams of public policy and political science. Prior to the doctoral degree, he received a management diploma from IIM Bangalore and a bachelor degree in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay. He has four years’ experience as a practitioner of public policy, working in the varied capacities of a consultant, policy advocate and a researcher. During the FPM, he was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowship to pursue a portion of his doctoral research at Duke University. His research interests include comparative legislatures; legislative politics; political parties and business-politics linkages.

Topic: Research Methodology and Academic Writing.

Chair

G. Venkat Raman is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. He has recently completed his Fulbright Fellowship at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University (Virginia, USA). He obtained his doctoral degree from the School of Government, Peking University, Beijing. His research interests include the current state of US-China power rivalries, with a primary focus on the technology war and climate change, and China's interface with global governance. His recent publication is a co-edited volume on BRICS titled, Locating BRICS in the Global Order: Perspectives from Global South. He has also co-authored case studies on Indian businesses in China.