CSAS Lecture. "Addressing Under-Representation in the Time of Globalization: A Kerala Experience in Affirmative Action"

This talk will discuss the issues surrounding higher education in Kerala, the Southwestern state of India. Higher education was opened to the poorest communities in Kerala, such as Dalits and Adivasis. However, from the 1950s onward, they experienced very little upward social mobility, largely because these historically ostracized and excluded communities lacked the social, cultural, and symbolic capital which the mainstream communities always held in ample measure. The government of Kerala launched CREST (Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation) in 2002, which has initiated new affirmative educational programs to empower the graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds. These innovative interventions were specifically designed to provide critical knowledge frames and cutting-edge, competitive skill sets to the professional graduates hailing from disadvantaged backgrounds so that they are enabled to access high-end, open-market jobs in India and abroad, as well as get admitted to a new generation of higher-education programs.

This event is co-sponsored by the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.