Registration for this event can be found here.
Welcome: Rishi Goyal (Columbia University)
Speaker: Rohit Negi (Ambedkar University)
Respondent: Kavita Sivaramakrishnan (Columbia University)
Co-sponsored by The Society of Fellows/Heyman Center for the Humanities.
This event is part of our "Medical Humanities and Pandemic Urbanisms" series.
Abstract
Dr. Negi's presentation describes Delhi's first contact with Covid in 2020, the lockdown, the framing of a 'Delhi model' of Covid management, and then its collapse when confronted with the second wave. Dr. Negi shows how political public health is, by situating these processes in the light of the growing majoritarianism and authoritarianism in the polity, as well as the deepening economic crisis. Finally, he discusses 'relational urbanism' or the response of the civil society/collectives, and the learnings related to the meaning of the 'public' going forward.
Rohit Negi is Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Ambedkar University Delhi. Rohit’s interests are in urban and environmental change, with regional specialization in India and Southern Africa. His new book, entitled ‘Atmosphere of Collaboration: Air Pollution Science, Politics, Ecopreneurship in Delhi’ is forthcoming with Routledge. Rohit is the co-editor of ‘Space, Planning and Everyday Citizenship in Delhi’ (Springer, 2016). His writings have been published in several journals including Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Geoforum, Journal of Southern African Studies and the Economic and Political Weekly.