Visiting Scholars

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Prof. Indira Ramarao (University of Mysore, India)​ (2020)

Prof Indira Ramarao, formerly Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Sociology at the University of Mysore is currently the President of the Indian Sociological Society. During her 42-year service at the University of Mysore, she held such positions as Director of   International Centre, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Honorary Director of the Centre for Women’s Studies, member of the Syndicate & Academic Council, IQAC & many other university committees & bodies. She is presently a member of the Board of Governors of the Institute for Social & Economic Change, Bengaluru; the Second Court of the Karnataka Central University, Gulbarga; Advisory Board of the SDM Institute of Management Development; Chairman of the Institutional Review Board of the research wing of Asha Kirana Hospital and Trustee of Public Health Research Institute of India-Mysuru.  Prof. Ramarao has worked as a Lead Researcher in many national and international research projects having a strong focus on social issues. Her research work with forest-dependent communities in the Joida region of Uttara Kannada district, with a special focus on women’s empowerment, initiated many reforms in a region that had been sidelined by development projects for several decades. She has completed major research projects on development related themes with a special focus on gender. Dr Indira has authored several books and articles in journals, edited volumes, and newspapers both in English and Kannada and has been a Contributor and Editor to Subject Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Journals, Theme based books and Translation Projects and has been conferred literary awards and recognitions for her works on social issues. These include the Triveni Award, Sadodita Award and H.S Parvathy Endowment Award. She is the President of Samruddhi Foundation, an organization working for building capacities of women, young academics & forest-dependent communities. Her fortnightly columns published in the leading Kannada daily PRAJAAVANI brought to the public domain many issues of sociological significance and continue to be cited in many works on related themes. She has lectured across the country in universities, colleges, research institutions and civil society groups. Prof Ramarao has recently completed the work on the English-Kannada Glossary in Sociology being published by the National Translation Mission as Editor and is currently leading a team translating Anthony Gidden’s Sociology into Kannada. She is also editing an English-Kannada Glossary in Gender Studies, which would be published soon. A felicitation volume brought out in her honour by her students and colleagues titled “Gender: Socio-Cultural Perspectives” published by Concept Publishers was released in November. A felicitation volume in Kannada titled “Saamaajika Tallanagalu-Kaalajigalu-Kanasugalu (Social Tensions-Concerns-Visions) containing 27 papers on three themes-Development, Education and Gender were brought out in 2015.

Prof Jan-Marie Fritz, Distinguished Professor (University of Cincinnati, USA) (2016-present)

 
Jan Marie Fritz is a distinguished professor at the University of Cincinnati and a senior research scholar with the Center for Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg.  Her areas of interest include clinical sociology, women’s studies, conflict intervention/analysis and mediation.  As the senior representative for the International Sociological Association to the UN, she became particularly interested in the development of the national action plans based on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security). Professor Fritz is a special education mediator for the state of Kentucky, a member of the executive board of the International Sociological Association, president of the clinical sociology division of the International Sociological Association and a consultant to university programs.  She has received a number of awards including the American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology (2010), the Ohio Mediation Association’s annual award – the Better World Award (2011), the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Human Rights and International Studies (2011) and, in 2012, a Distinguished Book Award for International Clinical Sociology. She recently co-edited a book with Prof Tina Uys in 2020 entitled Clinical Sociology for Southern Africa (Cape Town: Juta).