CREST (The Centre for Research and Social Transformation) in Kerala, India, agreed to receive 4-6 U of T student-interns per year and around 20 students took part between 2015 and 2018. The role of the U of T interns was to assist the staff by coaching and mentoring trainees individually, and by organizing activities to develop the trainees’ confidence in communication. They also undertook research as participant-observers, since they lived in the student dorms and had many opportunities to interact with the trainees informally in the dorms and on weekends. This area of the Ethnography Lab website is an archive of student and instructor writing from the CREST/Kerala trips.
By Sreeraj Elamana I come from Pantheerankave, a small village in Kerala. My journey started at a primary school in Calicut which, despite a basic setup, stoked a passion for engineering in me. I pursued a B.Tech in Mechanical engineering from a reputed engineering college. It was after my graduation that I came to … Continue reading
By Rithik Sidharth I was born and bought up in a small village in Kerala. After completing my matriculation it was my decision to choose science as my higher secondary stream in order to get a good career, because I came from a family that lacked a strong financial base. After the successful completion of … Continue reading
By Anjana I vaguely remember that very fine day that changed my life from “depressed” to “happy.” It was a normal day in my boring life, but specifically a Wednesday, the day the newspaper brings advertisement on education and jobs. I saw the notification for CREST’s 23rd batch PGCCPD programme. The main draw for me … Continue reading
By Sydney Lang During my first week at CREST, I was shocked by the visible intimacy between students; they would hold hands, play games with each other, and hug each other often. This was in direct contrast to the interactions I had experienced in the public sphere, particularly on the bus, where women sit at … Continue reading
By Shannon McKechnie The students I met at CREST were forthcoming about the transitions they felt they went through during the program. They described being scared or nervous to participate and speak with each other or the program interns when they first arrived in Calicut, but by the end of the five month … Continue reading
By Sam Tait Long heralded as an oasis of ‘development,’ democracy, literacy, genderequality, caste consciousness and political mobilization against the formalized caste system (Devika 2010; Steur 2009), in truth, structural inequality arranged across caste lines persists in Kerala (Mosse 2010; Nampoothiri 2009; Isac 2011). Dr. Susamma Isac, a project officer at CREST, asserts that in … Continue reading
By Sara Christensen Kerala is a unique place. Within India, it is a state known for its development, both economic and social. Yet institutions such as the Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation (CREST) are still needed. Although the caste system is now officially illegal in India, “former lowcaste citizens,” now referred to … Continue reading
Ethnography Lab 