Fund Uzair to go to the University of Cambridge

Why Uzair?

Uzair has gained admission for an MPhil in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. However he is short of GBP 5000 to pay the tuition fees. His research centres on two themes:

'Not alternative development - but alternatives to development'

'Not universal healthcare - but pluriversal healthcare'

Uzair is a medical doctor from India, with a Double-Degree in International Development and Governance. He has been able to conduct all his previous studies through full scholarship support.

He is passionate about questions on Global Health, Development and Decoloniality. He is engaged in research which is crucial to the future of India(ns): how to deal with ‘development’, which has not only been a failure in many areas, but has now increasingly become the pretext for the rise of fascism? How to deal with a healthcare system which has a burgeoning medical tourism on the one hand, and pushes people into poverty on the other? Thus, on a deeper level, how shall India engage with modernity? Social Anthropology has engaged with such resonant questions with perhaps unparalleled nuance and sensitivity. Uzair would like to explore these questions through his research in the fields of development and global health.

Why Cambridge?

Studying within an Anthropology department will allow for a rich critique of many of modernity’s premises and ‘mental furniture’. The Anthropology department at Cambridge is perhaps the best in the world, and one of very few that has a rich history of engagement with medicine, development and India. Exceptional courses on ‘Medical Anthropology’ and ‘Development Anthropology’, as well as the work of Dr Macdonald and Dr Mody. His inclination for independent study will be most apt at Cambridge. This MPhil is crucial for him to deeply engage with the nuances of ethnography and decoloniality theory, before he will start his PhD in the same field.

His Future Goals

Uzair is dedicated to working with marginalized communities in India. He has already started dialogue with previously acquainted scholars from the Indian public health community for plans to focus my MPhil dissertation, and eventual doctorate, on multi-sited ethnographic work amongst specific communities and health initiatives in India. These include the Jan Swasthya Sahyog in Bilaspur, and the Tribal Health Initiative in Sittilingi, where he has spent time before and has personal contacts. He sees himself either working for a Non-government organization related to Global Health or teaching at university level in the future.

Where does the fundraised money go to?

The international tuition fee at Cambridge is 24'000 British Pounds (41'500 Canadian Dollars). Everything that is donated here will contribute towards the tuition fee. He is currently working as a research assistant at the Balsillie School for International Affairs. However, his earnings will not be sufficient to cover the entire cost.