MCCI EDI: Global caste-scapes: inequality and belonging in the 21st century

You are warmly invited to our MCCI EDI research panel event “Global caste-scapes: inequality and belonging in the 21st century” on Wednesday the 29th of October, from 5 to 7pm in room C309 at City St. Georges, University of London, with Professor Meena Dhanda, Professor Corinne Lennox, Dr. Pardeep Attri and Dr. Shailesh Kumar. This event brings together an interdisciplinary panel of scholars to critically examine caste inequalities and their implications for identity and belonging in contemporary contexts. There will be light refreshments at the event and opportunity to ask questions. The event will be chaired by Dr. Shubhda Arora and is supported by Dr. Carolina Matos, Research Lead in the department.

Abstract

Structured in two parts, the discussion will first focus on caste realities in the UK, exploring how political, social, and institutional structures shape the everyday experiences of students and staff in universities. The second part will broaden the lens to situate caste within global discourses, engaging with its intersections across business, law, sociology, political thought, and human rights. By foregrounding diverse perspectives, the panel will illuminate how caste operates transnationally and contributes to wider debates on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within shifting political environments in the UK and beyond.

About our speakers

Professor Corinne Lennox
Corinne Lennox is a Professor in Human Rights and Co-Director of the Human Rights Consortium at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her research focuses on issues of minority and indigenous rights protection, civil society and on human rights and development. She holds a PhD and MSc in International Relations from the LSE, an MA in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex and a BA (Hons) in Political Science from McMaster University, Canada. She is Programme Director of the distance-learning MA in Human Rights, University of London. She has worked for many years as a human rights practitioner and has been an advisor on minority and indigenous rights to governments, NGOs, the UNDP and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She is author of Transnational Social Mobilisation and Minority Rights: Identity, Advocacy and Norms (Routledge 2020), which features an analysis of global social mobilization by Dalits. She is Co-Editor of the Journal of Human Rights Practice (OUP), and was a trustee of the Dalit Solidarity Network UK for nearly 15 years.

Dr Pardeep Attri
Dr Pardeep Attri is a Lecturer in Strategy and Organization at the School of Management, University of Bath. His research broadly examines management challenges at the intersection of business and society, with a particular focus on how caste, inequality, and organizational dynamics intersect to reproduce and reshape social hierarchies. Through this work, Pardeep contributes to critical debates on diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations and society.

Dr. Shailesh Kumar
Dr Shailesh Kumar is an interdisciplinary socio-legal researcher, criminologist, and ethnographer working as a Lecturer in Law at the Department of Law & Criminology, Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was also nominated for the Education Excellence Award 2025. He earned his PhD degree from Birkbeck as a Commonwealth Scholar. His research areas are Criminal Law, Public Law, Legal Anthropology, and Socio-Legal Studies, primarily focusing on child Sexual Abuse, Youth Justice, Penal and Prison Abolition, Casteism & Racism in the Criminal Justice System, and Gender, Sexuality and Crime. His research works have been published in several international journals and International Handbooks. He has reviewed for leading publishers like Oxford University Press, Routledge, and Bristol University Press, and has written opinion pieces for the Hindu, Indian Express, The Wire, The Print and LiveLaw. To create awareness of, and make a world free from, caste discrimination and human rights violations, he has worked with DSN UK, FABO UK and PUCL India.

Prof. Meena Dhanda
Professor Meena Dhanda is a distinguished political philosopher whose work critically interrogates caste and identity, conceptualising casteism as a form of racism. Her research is transdisciplinary and socially engaged, examining the intersections of caste, class, gender, and race, while centring the lived experiences of oppressed groups and their strategies of resistance. She is the author of The Negotiation of Personal Identity (2008) and editor of Reservations for Women (2008). Besides writing numerous articles, chapters and keynotes, she has co-edited multiple special issues of academic journals, including a cross-journal feature on Race and Racism in Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2024). Her most recent roles include co-editing the Routledge Handbook of Punjab Studies (2025) and Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Intersections: Racism by Context, (Oxford University Press, 2025-2027). She is currently completing a monograph, Caste: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press). Professor Dhanda was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2010–2012) for her project Caste Aside: Dalit Punjabi Identity and Experience and served as Principal Investigator of the UK’s first interdisciplinary research project on caste, Caste in Britain (2013–2014), commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, UK. The resulting reports directly informed parliamentary debates on incorporating caste under the protected characteristic of race in the UK Equality Act 2010. Professor Dhanda supervised the first global research project on the political thought of Periyar, with Horizon2020 MSCA funding of the European Commission (2020-2022). She is currently a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics (Department of Media and Communications).

Register here:

https://cityunilondon.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bKFgNNa32CGk6tE