Priyanka Talwar obtained her PhD from the School of Law and Government in DCU in 2014. She has worked as a journalist for leading Indian business daily The Economic Times where she reported on government policies on infrastructure development. Priyanka’s Master’s degree in conflict analysis and peace building from the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi required her to undertake a group project with field research in Sri Lanka where she had the opportunity to meet with Sri Lankan Tamil students and understand their perceptions of the conflict. For her Master’s thesis, she studied the discourses of Al Qaeda and presented a critique of the terminology of ‘religious terrorism’ used to define the actions of such organisations.
She has worked as a research associate at the Kathmandu-based South Asia Forum for Human Rights on a project on partition as a model for conflict resolution in South Asia. In this capacity, her research focused on conflicts in India such as in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Nagaland and Tripura as well as in Pakistan such as the conflict in Karachi, Sindh.
With interests in conflict and conflict resolution, Priyanka’s PhD thesis focused on the Indian State’s perceptions of internal conflicts and the relationship between perceptions and policies to resolve these conflicts. Kashmir, Punjab and the Naxalite conflict constitute the three case studies for her research and a comparative analysis will be attempted in order to trace similarities and differences in the broader security strategy of the Indian state. The research employs a discourse theoretical methodology and to this end tracks the production and reproduction of power played out in state discourses on conflict.
Abstract Title
Perceptions, Frames and Practice: Analysing discourse and policy on conflict in India