The Institute of Social Anthropology at University of Oslo organises a seminar entitled ”The Intimacy of Insurgency: Beyond Coercion, Greed or Grievance in Maoist India” on Wednesday 22 May 2013, 14.15–16.00. The seminar will be opened with a presentation by Dr. Alpa Shah from Dept of Anthropology, London School of Economics (LSE), UK. Venue: Eilert Sunds Hus, 6th floor, Blindern, Oslo.

Alpa Shah is a social anthropologist interested in inequality and efforts to address it. She has drawn on more than a decade of field research in India to explore how marginalised people experience indigenous rights activism and Adivasi politics; poverty, the developmental state and corruption; seasonal casual labour migration and transformations in the agrarian economy; the state, education and positive action policies; and the radical left and emancipatory politics, notably the Maoist movement. In the book “In the shadow of the state” (Duke University Press, 2010) Shah argues that well-meaning indigenous rights and development claims and interventions may misrepresent and hurt the very people they seek to help.