Special Centre for the Study of North East India

Special Centre for the Study of North East India (SCSNEI) was established in the year 2018. Earlier it was a University-level Programme under the name, North East India Studies Programme, established in 2006. The Centre aims at a holistic understanding of the region by bringing together different epistemic perspectives with a strong commitment to an inter-disciplinary research. The focus of the Centre covers humanities, social and environmental sciences, and other allied disciplines, that are linked to studies on North East India and its neighbouring areas.

The main thrust of the Center is to undertake critical research on the diverse and complex issues of the region and build up a body of scholarly works on the region including its wider historical and contemporary global contexts and connections. At present, SCSNEI focuses on areas of study, such as social change, religion and statecraft, economic development and livelihood practices, conflict, peace and human security studies, frontier and borderland studies, history of infrastructure, visual history, history of goods and circulation, cultural studies, literature, cultural history, resistance studies, traditional knowledge system, political ecology and environmental studies, transnational and migration studies, borderland and regional economy, print culture, ancient Indian culture and archaeology, aesthetics and performance studies, biodiversity, traditional medicinal practices, performing arts and folklores, and oral traditions.

SCSNEI promotes active interaction between JNU and various Universities and institutions at the regional, national and global levels. This is being done through the exchange of scholars, workshops, seminars, symposia, research, etc., on themes pertinent to the region. SCSNEI also engages in comparative research which covers themes connecting local and global issues and their wider implications. It aims to develop into a Centre of Excellence which would serve as a resource hub for scholars from diverse parts of the country and abroad and be a platform that brings academics, administrators, policy makers, civil society actors and activists interested in the region and its neighbouring areas to dialogue on its various challenges and prospects, develop new methods and approaches for holistic growth and development of the region, and locate the region in national discourse and policy intervention.