Designation: 
Office Phone: 
(022) - 2576-7298
Email: 
pankaj.sekhsaria@iitb.ac.in
Research Interests: 

Science and Technology Studies; S&T visioning and policy making;  Technology, Society and Development; History of Technology; Environment and development; Citizen Science, Wildlife conservation, Island studies, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Media studies

Education: 
  • PhD Thesis title: ‘Enculturing Innovation – Indian engagements with nanotechnology’,  Department of Technology and Society Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, 2016  
  • MA – Mass Communication  Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, 1997
  • BE- Mechanical Engg Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, University of Poona, Pune, Maharashtra, India    Feb 1994    Courses in Engineering that included Thermodynamics, Electrical Engg, Engg. Drawing, etc
Courses Taught: 
  • TD 626: Technology, Society and Development
  • PS 612: Science and Technology Policy
  • TD 899: Communication Skills
Experience: 
  • Associate Professor (Dec 2018 onwards), Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay
  • Senior Project Scientist (Apr 2017 - Nov 2018), DST - Centre for Policy Research, IIT Delhi
  • Assistant Professor (Sept 2004 - May 2005), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad
Publications: 

BOOKS

  • Sekhsaria, P. 2021. Conservation Kaleidoscope - A compilation of editorials and news from the Protected Area Update (1996 - 2021), Kalpavriksh, Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Foundation and Authors Upfront.
  • Sekhsaria, P. and Thayyil N. 2022 (Forthcoming). First Steps - Citizen Science in ecology in India (with Naveen Thayyil), DST Centre for Policy Research, IIT Delhi and Authors Upfront
  • Sekhsaria, P 2020. Nanoscale: Society's deep impact on science, technology and innovation in India, Authors Upfront, New Delhi, pp 182, ISBN: 9387280705; https://tinyurl.com/y4rhwgme
Reviews of the book:
  1. Sekhsaria, P.  (Editor) 2019. The State of Wildlife and Protected Areas  in Maharashtra: News and Information from the Protected Area Update 1996-2015, Rainfed Books, Chennai, Kalpavriksh and The Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Foundation, pp 248, 100 line illustrations, ISBN: 8192326934; https://tinyurl.com/y4rhwgme
  2. Sekhsaria, P. 2019. Instrumental Lives – an intimate biography of an Indian Laboratory, Routledge, pp 148, ISBN: 0367856298; https://tinyurl.com/y4rhwgme
  3. Sekhsaria P. 2019. Islands in flux – the Andaman and Nicobar story, Harper Litmus India; https://tinyurl.com/y4rhwgme
  4. Sekhsaria, P. (Editor). 2013. The State of Wildlife in Northeast India: (1996-2011) – A compilation of news from Protected Area Update, Foundation for Ecological Security, India; https://www.academia.edu/3152382/_THE_STATE_OF_WILDLIFE_IN_NORTHEAST_IND...
  5. Sekhsaria, P. and Pandya, V. (Editors). 2010. The Jarawa Tribal Reserve Dossier – Cultural and Biological Diversities in the Andaman Islands Kalpavriksh, Pune & UNESCO, Paris; https://www.academia.edu/2637014/The_Jarawa_Tribal_Reserve_Dossier_-_Cul...
  6. Sekhsaria, P. 2003. Troubled Islands: Writings on the environment and indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands LEAD India and Kalpavriksh

Fiction

Book Chapters

  1. Sekhsaria, P. 2022 (Forthcoming). Frugality and jugaad in Indian science: Evidence from an Indian laboratory in Beers, C. van, Bhaduri, S., Knorringa, P., & Leliveld, A. (Eds) Handbook on Frugal Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  2. Sekhsaria, P. 2020. A Brahmos in the Emerald Islands in A Rahmani & K Gore (Eds), Saving India's Wilderness: Challenges and Solutions. Corbett Foundation, Mumbai
  3. Khandekar, A., Beumer, K., Mamidipudi, A, Sekhsaria, P. and Bijker, W. 2017. STS for development in CA Miller, U Felt & L. Smith-Doerr (Eds), The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (2017), MIT Press (co-author with
  4. Sekhsaria, P. 2013. The making of an indigenous STM: Technological Jugaad as a Culture of Innovation in India in Konrad, Kornelia, Christopher Coenen, Anne Dijkstra, Colin Milburn, and Harro van Lente (Eds.), Shaping Emerging Technologies: Governance, Innovation, Discourse, Berlin: IOS Press / AKA
  5. Sekhsaria, P. 2012. Deforestation in the Andaman and Nicobar – Its impact on Onge in Indira Munshi (Editor), The Adivasi Question, Issues of Land, Forest and Livelihood, Orient Blackswan and Economic and Political Weekly

ARTICLES

Peer Reviewed Journals

  1. Sekhsaria, P and Thayyil N. 2022 (Forthcoming). ‘Citizen Science’ in ecology in India: How it is shaping up? Where is it headed? Dialogue, Scientists and Society
  2. Deora, S and Sekhsaria, P. 2022. Conceptualising Small Watersheds as Infrastructures of Immobility to Address Distress induced Rural-Urban Migration in India. Environment and History 28(1): 9-16; DOI:10.3197/096734022X16384451127221
  3. Sekhsaria, P. and Thayyil N. 2019. Narratives of Technology and Society Visioning in India (Editor's notes). Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 54. No. 34, p. 39-40; https://www.epw.in/journal/2019/34/technology-and-society/technology-vis...
  4. Sekhsaria, P and Thayyil N. 2019. Technology Vision 2035: visions, technologies, democracy and the citizen. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 54, No. 34, p. 64-69; https://www.epw.in/journal/2019/34/technology-and-society/technology-vis...
  5. Narayan, T. and Sekhsaria P. 2019. Media reporting on protected areas in Maharashtra, India: A thematic analysis. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(2); https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/4461
  6. Sekhsaria, P. 2018. The A&N islands are not an ‘empty space’. Ecology, Economy and Society, Vol. 1, No. 1; https://ecoinsee.org/journal/papers/issue-1-1/16.pdf
  7. Sekhsaria, P. and Thayyil N, 2017. Visions for India: public participation, debate and the S&T community. Current Science, Vol. 113, No. 10, p. 1835-40; https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/113/10/1835.pdf
  8. Sekhsaria, P. 2017. How Users Configure Producer Identities – Dilemmas of Retinoblastoma treatment in India. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. LII (40), p. 57-64;
  9. http://www.epw.in/journal/2017/40/special-articles/how-users-configure-producer-identities.html
  10. Sekhsaria, P. 2014. An Identity- Card on the wall: Identities in flux and ethics of technology change. Economic and Political Weekly Vol. XLIX (34), p. 65-69; http://www.epw.in/journal/2014/34/notes/identity-card-wall.html
  11. Sekhsaria, P. 2013. Tribal reserves, IBAs, and bird conservation: The unique case of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indian Birds, Vol. 8 (4), 85-90; https://www.academia.edu/4171572/Tribal_reserves_IBAs_and_bird_conservation_The_unique_case_of_the_Andaman_and_Nicobar_Islands
  12. Sekhsaria, P. 2013. The making of an indigenous scanning tunneling microscope. Current Science, Vol. 104 (9); www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/104/09/1152.pdf
  13. Sekhsaria, P. 2009. When Chanos chanos became tsunami macchi: The post-December 2004 scenario in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. 106 (3); https://www.academia.edu/2636644/WHEN_CHANOS_CHANOS_BECAME_TSUNAMI_MACCHI_THE_POST-DECEMBER_2004_SCENARIO_IN_THE_ANDAMAN_and_NICOBAR_ISLANDS
  14. Sekhsaria, P. 2007. Conservation in India and the Need to Think Beyond ‘Tiger vs. Tribal’. Biotropica, Volume 39 Issue 5 Page 575-577;  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00333.x/abstract
  15. Sekhsaria, P. 2006. Andaman’s Tribal Reserves: Protecting Forests, Biodiversity and the Indigenous peoples. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. 103 (2&3)
  16. Sekhsaria, P. 2001. Deforestation in Andaman and Nicobar: Its impact on Onge. Economic and Political Weekly, 22/09/2001; http://www.epw.in/special-articles/deforestation-andaman-and-nicobar.html
  17. Sekhsaria, P. 2001. Illegal logging and Deforestation in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India: The Story of Little Andaman Island. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Hathworth Press & Food Products Press, USA, Volume 19, Nos. 1/2/3; http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J091v19n01_14#.Uqgjyo1SawY

Book Reviews

Conferences: 

INVITED CONFERENCE TALKS

[1] "Scrap to 'cutting-edge' scientific instrument to scrap - Attempting a 'commons' understanding of a modern scientific enterprise (With Shashank Deora)," (Un)doing the CommonShiv Nadar University, NOIDA, UP 2020-02-17

[2] "At the tri-junction of fragility and vulnerability - The story of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands," Interrogating Emerging Post-Pandemic Scenarios in Light of Covid-19Kazi Nazrul Islam Mahavidyalaya, Churulia, West Bengal (Online) 2020-09-10

[3] "Conservation vs Development Dilemma," Earth Mela organised by RD&SH National College and Sprouts Environment Trust Mumbai 2020-01-12

[4] "Marrying Research and Media for the Environment," astion Workshops on the Environment Online 2020-09-11

[5] "At the tri-junction of fragility and vulnerability - The story of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands," Man-Nature: Through the lens of eco-criticism, Organised by the Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College, New Delhi, New Delhi (Online) 2020-11-06

[6] "Climate Crisis, Manmade Disasters and the Future of Tourism," Climate Crisis, Manmade Disasters and the Future of Tourism organised by the Transforming Tourism Initiative, Online 2020-12-0 4

[7] "At the tri-junction of fragility and vulnerability - The story of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands," Invited Talk by Fridays for Future Youth Group Online 2020-08-20

RESEARCH TALKS

[1] "Instrumental Lives - The lab as the site of a historical excavation: A presentation and a discussion with Prof Cyrus Mody (Maastricht University)," Archives Public Lecture Series, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) BengaluruBengaluru (Online) 2020-05-15

[2] "Even at the Nanoscale - Society's Deep Impact on Science, Technology and Innovation in India ," ASET Forum, TIFR Mumbai Online 2020-10-09

[3] "Even at the Nanoscale - Society's Deep Impact on Science, Technology and Innovation in India," Paraspar, Office of Communications, Indian Institute of Science, BengaluruBengaluru (Online) 2020-10-19

Reports: 
Ph.D Student Details: 

Ongoing

1. Amruta Shirpurkar

Title: Citizen Science for Policy and Policy for Citizen Science

2. Hariprasad VM (Co-Guide with NC Narayanan, IIT Bombay)

Title: Technology, Legality and Sanitation Work: The Evolution of Fecal waste management in Kerala (Tentative Title)

3. Shashank Deora

Title: Commoning and Infrastructuring of Watersheds (Tentative Title)

4. Gaurav Kapse (Co-Guide with Murali Sastry, Monash University)

Title: What does safe, affordable drinking water mean?