Nexus

The Impact of Opportunity: Reflections of a TASA 2024 Bursary Recipient by Ayushi Banerjee

The fascinating experience of stepping into the unknown coupled with the pangs of anxiety of travelling abroad at a young age all by myself was precisely what defined the moments that followed the initial excitement and joy of getting selected and procuring a generous bursary to get me to TASA 2024, from India. Now coming straight to the bursary. To me it was not only an opportunity to present my ongoing research on political masculinity in India and integrate it into a larger global sociological context, but also to interact and heavily engage with a diverse group of seasoned scholars.

Owing to my working paper which seeks to examine the nature of Hindutva sanctioned political masculinity in India through public speeches, it was imperative for me to understand the larger socio-political context of Australia with a supposed labour government in power and being able to read my data against the background of otherisation of the Muslims in the nation-making narrative. In this regard, the various feedbacks and interpretations I received from my audience motivated me to think in lines previously unexplored. Furthermore, the very insightful talk of Shakuntala Banaji was not only in accordance with my research interests around hate speeches, it also looked into the possibility of political violence.

Therefore, to briefly suggest and reiterate once again, the extremely generous Postgraduate bursary was not only a key to attend a conference but it marked a dream coming true of an aspiring academic awaiting to see and interrogate global cultures from a middle class family in a Third world country.

Ayushi Banerjee and Sally Daly