Khushboo Jain
Research interests:
- Spatial sociology
- Feminist theory and politics
- Home and homelessness, migration studies
- Childhood studies, street children research
- Ethnography
- Indian sociology
Scientific training and research
2021 – | PhD (Sociology), thesis titled Home-making on the Streets of Delhi under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Silke Steets, Institut fur Soziologie, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany |
2022 | Research Assistant (Apr – Sept), DFG Research Training Group – The Sentimental in Literature, Culture, and Politics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
2018 | Research Associate, Marseille (France), for Principal Investigator Dr. Jonah Steinberg (Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA), for the US National Science Foundation-funded study Social and Geographic Marginality in Contemporary Urban Spaces |
2014 – 2019 | All India Working Group for Rights of Children in Contact with Railways (AIWG-RCCR) research on Life World and Agency of Children in Contact with Railways, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, India |
2009 – 2012 | Senior Research Associate, India, for Principal Investigator Dr. Jonah Steinberg (Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA), for the US National Science Foundation-funded study The Rite of Running Away: Street Children’s Experiences in North India |
2008 | Research Assistant to Prof Tulsi Patel (Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi) on a research project Rising Caesarean Section Births: A Study of Medical Personnel |
2006 – 2009 | M.Phil. (Sociology), dissertation titled Locating Women’s Empowerment in Maoist Movement in Nepal under the supervision of Dr. Rabindra Ray, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi |
2003 – 2005 | M.A. (Sociology), Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu |
1999 – 2002 | B.Com., University of Delhi, Delhi |
Courses offered
Summer semester 2024:
- Seminar “A Passage to India: A Land of Continuities, Change and Contradictions” (Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute of Sociology, Bachelor of Sociology)
- Seminar “Breaking Stereotypes: Voices of Contemporary Indian Women” (Volkshochschule, Erlangen)
Winter semester 2023/24:
- Seminar “Beyond Traditions: Stories, Struggles and Uprisings of Women in Contemporary India ” (Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute of Sociology, Bachelor of Sociology)
Winter semester 2022/23:
- Seminars “Reimagining Home ” and “ Introduction to Contemporary Feminist Theory” (Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute of Sociology, Bachelor of Sociology)
Publications
- Jain, Khushboo, “Negated Agency, Silenced Voice and the Continued Negotiations in the Spaces Within”. In Latika Vashist and Jyoti Dogra Sood (ed.) Rethinking Law and Violence. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2020. pp 311-339
- Jain, Khushboo, “The Unseen Tales: of the Streets, its Cultures and Women Treading the Two”. In Selvy Thiruchandran (ed.) Bound by Culture: Essays on Cultural Production Signifying Gender. Delhi: Women Unlimited. 2020. pp 110-125
- Research report “Life World and Agency of Children in Contact with Railways”, with Dr. Bharti Sharma, Deep Purkayastha, Dunu Roy, G Kollashany, Kavita Ratna, Shwetank Mishra. Published by All India Working Group for Rights of Children in Contact with Railways (AIWG -RCCR). January 2019.
- Fact finding report “In the Name of Arresting Crime” on treatment of children during detention/arrest in bastis of Bhopal, with Asha Mishra, Bharti Sharma, Kalpana Mehta, Maharukh Adenwalla and Prashant Dubey. Muskaan (Bhopal, India). 2015.
- Jain, Khushboo, “Whose Voice Counts? The need for constant introspection in intervention”. Discussion paper on child labor. Published by The Concerned for Working Children (Karnataka, India). 2015.
Online articles
- The story of my hair and now. FemAsia. October 25, 2023.
Web link: https://femasiamagazine.com/the-story-of-my-hair-and-now/ - Childline 1098 stands to help and assist children – not police them. The Indian Express. August 12, 2021.
Web link: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/web-edits/childline-1098-stands-to-help-and-assist-children-not-police-them-7451076/ - I was sexually abused as a child. I don’t want a death penalty, I prefer healing for him. ThePrint. April 9, 2018.
Web link: https://theprint.in/report/i-was-sexually-abused-as-a-child-i-dont-want-death-penalty-for-the-abuser-i- prefer-healing-for-him/53386/ - Colors of Masculinity. Youth Ki Awaaz. March 16, 2018.
Web link: https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2018/03/colors-of-masculinity/
Conference papers
(Selected)
- (2024) Wolokon 24 ‘Fragile Behausungen: Prekäres Wohnen & Wohnungslosigkeit in Zeiten Multipler Krisen Fragile Housing – Precarious Housing and Homelessness in Times of Multiple Crises’, February 22 – 24, 2024, at Technische Hochschule Georg Simon Ohm, Nürnberg. Organised two ad-hoc groups. In the ad-hoc group Problematizing the Problem of Homelessness, presented a paper titled ‘Diluting housing rights to shelter: the politics of homelessness in India’. In the ad-hoc group Home-unmaking: Interdisciplinary Conceptualizations of Home and Homelessness in Spaces of Housing Precarity, presented a paper ‘Reimagining Home: Perspectives on Street-Dwelling’.
- (2024) Presented a paper titled ‘Reimagining Home’ at the conference Practices of Imagination – Placings of Imaginaries from February 8 – 10, 2024 at Eichstätt, Germany
- (2023) Presented two papers, ‘Home-making on the streets of Delhi’ and ‘Research with street dwelling children and youth: the (methodological) tension between research ethics and prevailing laws of the country’ at the 3rd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS Conference) held on-site at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee, India) from February 20 – 26, 2023.
- (2022) Paper titled ‘Home-making on the Streets Amidst the Politics of Evictions’ presented online at the 2nd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS Conference), Brazil from September 8-10, 2022
- (2018) Paper titled ‘Understanding Young Person’s Aspirations and Preparedness: Railway-connected Children in India and Their Life Worlds’ presented at Alfred Deakin Institute ‘Youth Futures Connection and Mobility In The Asia Pacific Conference’ 2018, 15 – 16 November 2018, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
- (2018) Presented two papers titled ‘Not leaving till the Passenger Trains Ply: Children and Young People in the Railway Space and their Jerky Transition to Adulthood’ and ‘Of Battles Won and Lost – New Age Child and Urban Policies: Offering Protection or Drowning Agency’, at RGS IBG Annual International Conference 2018, Cardiff University, UK, 28-31 August 2018.
- (2017) Paper titled ‘The Unseen Tales of Streets, its Cultures and Women Treading the Two’ presented at the South Asian Conference 2017 Cultural Productions from a Gender Perspective, 24-25 November 2017, Women’s Education and Research Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka.