Reading Group on Nationalism studies

The State Capacity Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Delhi in partnership with Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN), LSE, London invites applications for a Reading group. The focus will be on Indian nationalism but we look forward to applicants researching nationalism in similar contexts of multi-ethnic, federal democracies in Asia, Africa, South America and Central Europe. Some of the recent trends around nationalism which will be of interest are authoritarianism, populism, majoritarianism. We are also keen examine the impact of social media and tech defined statecraft on nationalism.

The reading group aims to gather scholars with an academic interest in nationalism and writing in popular media. The reading sessions will aim to:

• Engage with contemporary as well as classical texts on nationalism to produce insightful and accessible outputs for popular media forums
• Create a community of scholars working on nationalism, both with the ‘old’ issues of ethnic politics, state-building and democratic stability and ‘new’ ones of technology led statecraft, social media ‘public’(s) and digital tools for nation-state making
• Shape popular and academic discussions on Indian nationalism in order to highlight its continuities with global structural changes in economy, politics and technology
• Create newer channels for making academic knowledge widely available

Please share a CV and a brief cover letter detailing your interest in the reading group to nationalism.research@gmail.com latest by March 30, 2022.