2024-05-05
Compared to the expanding body of literature on caste in the Indian subcontinent, caste in Sri Lanka has received only sporadic academic attention and has been largely ignored in policy debates and social development interventions on the island. Read the full Call for Proposals. Read the full Announcement.
2023-06-07
We are pleased to announce the results of the international competition for the Bluestone Rising Scholar Prize for 2023. The journal received outstanding submissions from South Asia, North America, the UK, and Europe. Our jury, consisting of respected scholars from South Asia and the USA, deliberated together over a period of two months. Read the full announcement.
2023-05-01
J-Caste and the Center for Global Development and Sustainability at Brandeis University announce the Sixth International Conference on the Unfinished Legacy of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, October 20 to 22, 2023. The theme of the conference is Law, Caste, and the Pursuit of Justice.
2023-01-30
Caste is one of the most complex, dynamic, and oppressive social systems existing today. Over the last two hundred years, scholars have examined caste from multiple disciplinary perspectives and documented its societal and economic underpinnings. However, as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar emphasized, caste also has a psychological dimension. Among other things, caste is also a state of mind – an entity that emerges from the interaction between the human mind and society. Therefore, caste would not simply wither away with broad socio-economic changes but would require a radical transformation in people's cognition, emotion, and behavior. It has been more than 80 years since Babasaheb Ambedkar pointed out the need for addressing psychology of caste. The experience of past 80 years suggests that despite sweeping changes brought by forces of democratization, globalisation and development, caste still persists as a decisive psychological factor affecting people’s bodies, minds and social relations. Strangely, despite this ubiquitous relevance of psychological study of caste, a glaring gap exists between caste and psychology.
2022-12-08
The Real Utopias Project was started in the early 1990s by Marxist sociologists in search of alternatives to existing structures of power, privilege, and inequality. However, this philosophical framework did not widen its study to diverse categories, dimensions, and manifestations of social stratification in different societies outside the Western world. This themed issue of J-Caste intends to critique, engage and expand The Real Utopias Project within a Dalit Bahujan framework of emancipatory social transformation.
2022-10-24
The Joint Editors-in-Chief of J-CASTE announce the 2023 Bluestone Rising Scholar Competition in Caste Studies. The Award recognizes individuals who show great promise to make outstanding scholarly contributions in their future careers to the study of caste. The 2023 Prize will be awarded to an early career scholar or professional for the study of caste in South Asia or diaspora communities. Papers submitted for consideration may be on any aspect of Caste Studies and be written from the perspective of any discipline including social sciences, humanities and the arts, gender, history, philosophy, theology, medicine, or law. Click on the annoucement title for full details.
2021-06-27
The J-CASTE Editorial Team invites submissions for its forthcoming issues and welcomes high-quality papers that are based on rigorous empirical analysis of case studies, policy frameworks, situational analysis, and contextual literature mapping. The Editorial Team welcomes submissions from both established and emerging scholars, policy officials, and practitioners. Please click the title above to read the full announcement.
2021-03-23
We are pleased to announce the results of the international competition for the Bluestone Rising Scholar Prize for 2021. The journal received numerous outstanding submissions from South Asia, Europe, and North America. Our jury, consisting of leading academics from South Asia, the UK, and the USA, deliberated together over a period of several weeks. Read the full announcement and also this news release and interview with the winners.
2020-07-21
Watch Brandeis University Provost Lisa Lynch, Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas, University Librarian Mathew Sheehy, J-CASTE Editors Laurence Simon and Sukhadeo Thorat among others speak on the importance of the Bluestone Prize and make the first awards to Rising Scholar winners Maya Pramod and Vivek Narayan. A special award was also conferred on Phillip Martin, WGBH Senior Investigative Reporter for his 5-part series on Caste in America.
2019-09-02
J-CASTE announces the winners of the Bluestone Rising Scholar Prizes for 2019 as well as several papers noted for Honorable Mention.