School of Human Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi
Often on chilly New Delhi evenings in the winter, you can spot Rukmini emerging, against the setting sun, from the Kashmere Gate Metro Station, accompanied by her students. They make their way towards the Ambedkar University campus, walking through a shanty cluster. The walk is part of the Law and Society course that Rukmini teaches. The group is out on the street to explore themes of fear, safety, public space and gender. The students discuss the thin line that separates protection and surveillance, and why gender injustice is not accepted as an absolute wrong. Such deliberations are routine in Rukmini’s classes – her Sociology course on Relationships and Affinities or the Gender Studies course on Violence, Feminist Critiques and Resistance. Rukmini is passionate about shifting women’s rights formulations from discourses of victimhood to discourses of resilience – and this is evident in her pedagogy.
Rukmini is one of the few trail-blazers in Indian public universities who are willing to push the envelope on innovative pedagogy despite the bias towards status quo.
Her sources of inspiration as an educator are as unique as her pedagogical methods and course readings. She draws on her love of nature. From her plants, she has learned about the uniqueness of each individual’s pace of growth and learning needs. “It’s important to give students a sense of nourishment like the plants, the right amount of encouragement, occasionally being critical like the process of digging the soil around a plant…It is extremely humbling and necessary for learning,” Rukmini believes. It is this sensitivity to the unique experiences of her students, many of who are first-generation learners, that motivated Rukmini to help establish and work closely with the Ehsaas- Counselling Centre at the University. The center not only caters to the students’ and staff’s needs of well-being but also of people residing in the neighboring areas of the University.
Rukmini Sen is Professor of Sociology at the School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD), and also teaches at the Gender Studies Program of the University. She served as Joint Secretary of the Indian Association of Women’s Studies and is part of the Panel of Experts of the National Commission for Women since 2011.
Dr. Sen was involved in designing and teaching courses on Law and Society; Women’s Movements; Gender and Society; and Citizenship and Law as AUD Visiting Fellow at the University of Keele, England under the PECANS Fellowship. She participated in the inaugural workshop on Global Law and Economic Policy of Harvard Law School, Harvard University and was selected for the International Visitor Leadership Program of the U.S. State Department of Education and Cultural Affairs.