Satanik Pal
Background
Satanik is a native of Kolkata, India. He acquired his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Calcutta and then his Masters in Sociology degree from Presidency University. In 2015 he qualified for his Lectureship and Junior Research Fellowship from the Government of India. He then went on to teach Sociology at the undergraduate level in the West Bengal Education Service in 2018, where he served as an Assistant Professor of Sociology (Grade A Officer).
In 2020 he resigned from his position to focus on his research, which led him to join NUS as a Doctoral Candidate in the Comparative Asian Studies Programme. His desire to compare the early modern Bengali and Japanese caste orders led him conduct his research and publish some articles comparing them. At the core of his drive to conduct research is the desire to demonstrate that human beings are essentially similar to each other, irrespective of their vast cultural dissimilarities. Particularly the aspect of caste, which was a product of colonial orientalism, is something that can be found in complex societies all over the world – and Satanik is determined to demonstrate this in most of his research.
Asian Languages
Satanik is fluent in English, Bengali and Hindi and has intermediate proficiency in Japanese.
Research Interests
Satanik believes in comparing similar phenomenon in different societies in order to understand how different socio-cultural phenomenon emerged in different societies. He follows the methodology of Weber, Bourdieu and Charles Tilly in most of his work.
Recent Publications
S Pal. Caste-ing the Nation: Comparing Publics of Leisure and Power. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 1-17. September 2023.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41978-023-00144-y
S Pal. From Ritual Scapegoats to Actual Scapegoats: Different Practices of Scapegoating in Premodern Caste Societies. Comparative Sociology 22 (3), 389-409. June 2023.
https://brill.com/view/journals/coso/22/3/article-p389_3.xml
S Pal. Caste Groups: Simply, Indian Status Groups. Comparative Sociology 22 (1), 74-94. February 2023.
https://brill.com/view/journals/coso/22/1/article-p74_3.xml