Desi Academia Podcast
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desiacadpod.bsky.social
Desi Academia Podcast
@desiacadpod.bsky.social
130 followers 320 following 130 posts
Join us, Megh + Vatsal + our researcher friends from all around the world, as we learn more about academic life, research methodology, politics, and survival.

https://open.spotify.com/show/2v6ymNb9uoxMc9gaCKJYLp
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desiacadpod.bsky.social
Have you ever wondered how an Islamic Studies scholar explains their research to an immigration officer?

Watch this space for our latest episode, where we find out more!
August 26, 2025 at 2:25 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
I would I would like to share this snippet from my dissertation's acknowledgements section. I cannot stress how IMPOSSIBLE academic success is in the Global South without disobedience.

Fuck academic paywalls forever.
Screenshot: Finally, a huge thank you to the institutions, networks and people who make science accessible. I thank all the scholars who shared their code, data, and research with me in the spirit of open science. I thank all the collectives that battle against the profit-motivated gatekeeping of science and made scientific research a reality for me in the Global South: the moderators, managers, and contributors of SciHUB, LibGen, Internet Archive, and ArXiv. Thank you, Aaron Schwartz. I am profoundly grateful to the tireless defenders and advocates of public-funded higher education in the United States and India, who raise their voices even in the darkest of time. Thank you for fighting the good fight.
August 26, 2025 at 1:22 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Coming soon!
July 18, 2025 at 8:57 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Indian scholars deserve better.

Making the constantly walk a tightrope between blatant exploitation and lack of opportunities is a reflection on our inability to give them value their contributions.
June 28, 2025 at 8:27 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Small teaser of the things to come!
Interesting conversations, amazing people…stay tuned!!
May 29, 2025 at 9:01 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Cue crawling when asked to bend…
May 21, 2025 at 5:22 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Privatisation favours the spineless.

Source: theobserverpost.com/ashoka-unive...
Meanwhile, Ashoka University issued a statement distancing itself from the professor’s remarks. “The comments made by a faculty member on his personal social media pages do not represent the opinion of the university,” the statement said. It added that the university stands firmly with the nation and its armed forces. In response, academics from across India have begun rallying in support of Mahmudabad. A letter initiated by Delhi University’s Professor Apoorvanand and Ashoka University’s Professor Aparna Vaidik has called for the withdrawal of the summons, describing the case as an attack on academic freedom and the right to dissent.
May 21, 2025 at 5:20 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
😍 We saved the best last! 😍
Join us next week for the season 8 finale, where Amit Kaushik (@amitkaushik3.bsky.social) tells us all about his journey finding a career in conservation, winning funding from NatGeo, his plans for studying wolves in India, and using art for ecology!
🐺🏔️🗺️🇮🇳
April 18, 2025 at 9:57 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
IISER Pune’s official account supporting LGBTQ rights in response to right wing lunatics is heartening.

I wish this was the rule, and not the exception.
Tweet by Abhijeet Iyer Mitra @Iyervval: “How much of our taxpayer money is wasted on this @dpradhanbjp &@ChDadaPatil? Cc@I|SERPune” QTed by Eminent Intellectual @total_woke_ “IISER Pune was made by Central government for promotion of science. But the director Sunil Bhagwat instead is allowing THIS anti Hindu pro terrorism display deliberately on the day of #Ramnavmi!” Response from IISER’s official account: “This video is from a march organised by our students within the IISER Pune campus in support of the LGBTQ community. Please note that there were no religious or anti-national slogans at the march. The term azadi was used in the context of freedom from prejudice against the LGBTQ community. This is an annual peaceful event by our student community to create awareness and promote inclusivity.”
April 8, 2025 at 4:35 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
I bet these “passionate debates and healthy discussions” were about the types of snacks the Indian Association should serve at the annual Garba event.
As a @Columbia @ColumbiaSIPA alumna from India, it is deeply embarrassing that an Indian national, Ranjani Srinivasan, violated U.S. laws and desecrated the very place where she could have sought enlightenment and education. Her actions have brought disgrace to herself and to the law-abiding Indian diaspora, which is known for its deep patriotism and integrity in the U.S. She has also shamed the Indian student community, which is typically hardworking, focused on their studies, and committed to learning while in the U.S. During my time at Columbia, we, as Indian students, never participated in any anarchic activities. Instead, we hosted passionate debates on campus, engaged in healthy discussions, held inter-community seminars, contributed differing points of view to SIPA and Columbia journals and also strived to ace each and every class. It is disheartening to see how Indian students at Columbia are now being associated with such violent political activism. I urge the relevant authorities to take strict action, including revoking the F-1 visas of students involved in such activities. @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk
March 15, 2025 at 5:41 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
“I can keep harping on the negativity. I have done that for the longest time and I have achieved nothing…Now I am trying a different route. I am trying to counter negativity with positivity…this is how Muslims are contributing to Viksit Bharat,”
she says, holding the book.
News article snippet. Large picture of Shehla Rashid with text: “ A court here has allowed Delhi police to withdraw a 2019 sedition case against former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (INUSU) vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora for her tweets on the army.”
March 14, 2025 at 7:12 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
How do institutions find new and creative ways to make PhDs even more torturous than they already are?
UGC's Apathy Is Killing PhD Scholars - Manipal University Is Just One Example Policy/Economy I don't know how else to say this. I am drowning. And I know I am not alone. I am a PhD scholar at Manipal University, stuck in a system that does not care if I live or die, as long as I clock in my hours, submit my work, and stay silent. And the worst part? Manipal is just one name in a long list of institutions in India that function the same way. Because the real culprit isn't just one university —it's UGC, the governing body that refuses to set even the bare minimum protections for research scholars in this country. 1. Life Under Siege Every morning, at exactly 8:50 AM, I press my finger against a biometric scanner, a machine that does not care if I am sick, grieving, or exhausted. Eight and a half hours later, at 5:30 PM, I am finally allowed to leave. This cycle repeats endlessly, without vacations, without medical leave, and with just one casual leave per month—a miserable little privilege handed to us like a piece of stale bread. If you dare to think of quitting, the institution If you dare to think of quitting, the institution reminds you of the financial trap they've laid out for you "you must repay every rupee of the stipend you've received so far". It doesn't matter if you are at your breaking point. It doesn't matter if you are physically or mentally shattered. You must stay. Or leave and drown in debt. The worst part? There is no way out. You cannot transfer to another university. You cannot switch to part-time. You cannot change your research guide, no matter how abusive or incompetent they are. And this is the case everywhere. Because UGC-the highest authority in education-has no basic guidelines to protect PhD scholars from being crushed by the institutions they study in. 2. Manipal University: A Place With Zero Support for Research Scholars At Manipal University, there is no system in place to support struggling PhD scholars. There is no mental health assistance, no academic flexibility, and no grievance redressal mechanism that actually works. The so-called grievance cell exists only to protect the university's image, not to help students in distress. Complaints don't lead to solutions-they lead to gaslighting. Students are made to feel like they are the problem. That their suffering is normal. That if they can't handle it, they should just quit (but of course, quitting comes with its own punishment-the financial burden of repaying years of stipend). There is no accountability for abusive research guides who exploit students, who suffocate them under unrealistic expectations, who push them into depression. There is no support system for PhD scholars dealing with toxic environments. If you get stuck with a bad guide at Manipal, you are left with only two choices-suffer in silence or leave everything behind and walk away from years of hard work. And the administration? Silent. The faculty? Silent. The university? Silent. No one speaks. No one listens. And when another PhD scholar takes their own life, no one asks why. 3. The Changes We Desperately Need This is not a complicated problem. UGC needs to set basic, minimum protections for PhD scholars-rules that universities cannot ignore. • Mandatory leave policies - Every research scholar should have access to vacations, medical leave, and a fair number of personal leave days. PhD students are not machines. • Transfer options - A PhD student should not be trapped in a university. There must be a proper system that allows scholars to transfer to another university without losing years of their work. • Guide replacement system - No one should be forced to work under a toxic or incompetent guide. If a research guide has a history of multiple students quitting, there must be an investigation, and they must be held accountable. • Mental health support and grievance redressal - Universities should have functioning, independent grievance cells-not these fake mechanisms that exist only to protect the institution's image while gaslighting students into must be held accountable. • Mental health support and grievance redressal - Universities should have functioning, independent grievance cells-not these fake mechanisms that exist only to protect the institution's image while gaslighting students into believing their suffering is "normal." • Private universities must be held accountable - If a PhD scholar dies by suicide, the university should not get to wash its hands clean and move on like nothing happened. Investigations must be mandatory, and institutions should be held legally responsible if systemic issues led to the student's death. Enough is Enough I did not write this to just vent. I wrote this because I am tired of seeing more names turn into statistics. Every PhD scholar in India knows this pain. The helplessness. The frustration. The fear of speaking out. The knowledge that no one is coming to save us. If you have suffered under this broken system, speak up. If you know someone who has, demand answers. And to UGC, to the government, to the policymakers who claim to care about education-do something. Because if you don't, the deaths will continue.
March 8, 2025 at 6:28 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
This is the same Hon'ble body currently handling two cases of 'defamatory citations'.

No amount of 'Return to India' R&D expenditure can create a civil society where Indian academics would energetically condemn such statements. 😶
Tweet by @barandbench: "Justice Kant: there are some people who are writing articles on free speech etc .. we know how to handle them also. Every fundamental right is followed by duty. There are restrictions also."
March 5, 2025 at 3:29 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
bunny communism meme with caption “our-demia“
March 2, 2025 at 6:31 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Must be fun to be in a department budget meeting with Dr. "I have no sympathy..." 💀

On a more serious note, check out the funding sources for all the papers this guy has ever cited, and tell me if he is influenced by "government funded propaganda masquerading as science" or not?
Tweet by Vinay Prasad MD MPH: I have no sympathy for academic researchers and their staff who do shit science and live off NIH grants. I am sorry. Never have. Never will. They do work that cannot be reproduced, just say the same empty slogans that are in vogue. During the pandemic they failed society and lied about the impact of school closure and the viral origins. I can't believe we tax plumbers and bus drivers who do real work to fund this bullshit. It's a welfare program for upper middle class kids. Recently they were saying even a single drink of wine kills you. They should be completely defunded for using low quality science to insert themselves in debates they don't understand, or appreciate. It's not even science. It's propaganda that's government-funded masquerading as science.
February 10, 2025 at 8:43 PM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Coming soon!!
February 3, 2025 at 5:51 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Toh jaake imagination theek kar na chutiye.
I understand why the community is unnerved - experiments and livelihoods are at stake. That said, some pauses are to be expected during a change of administrations. We should wait to see if restrictions get quickly clarified and narrowed as the implications of these overly broad cancellations become apparent. Cancer, diabetes, and other biomedical research have broad bipartisan support and I can't imagine the intention is to damage our world-leading enterprise and hurt scientists indiscriminately nationwide.
January 23, 2025 at 7:24 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
I like this imagery of a post-PhD life, where I will be able to read all the books I want to read.
Tweet: "I’ve completed all the novels on my 2024 reading list! I just finished the last one today. During my Ph.D., I found it challenging to focus on reading anything other than research-related books and articles. I’m so thrilled to be able to read for fun again!"
December 28, 2024 at 12:43 AM
desiacadpod.bsky.social
Coming soon!
December 18, 2024 at 11:09 PM