A celebration of ideas and debate

  • September 27, 2017
A celebration of ideas and debate

Two Gates Cambridge Scholars will take part in events at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Two Gates Cambridge Scholars are taking part in this year's Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Asiya Islam and Surabhi Ranganathan are speaking at the Festival, which celebrates the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. It runs from 16th to 29th October and has a programme of over 200 events, including talks, debates, exhibitions, film and theatre performances.

Asiya [2015], who is doing a PhD in Sociology, has co-curated an exhibition called The New Woman: 150 years of British and Indian women's magazines which takes places on 21st October. The exhibition shows the shared history of Britain and India through the way women's magazines in the two countries have portrayed changing ideals of femininity. 

Surabhi [2008] is speaking in a discussion entitled Technology and Nationalism in India. It asks what role technology has played in India's recent economic development and how this links to equality issues and the rise of nationalism. Surabhi, who did her PhD in Law with the support of a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and is now a lecturer in International Law at Cambridge, will talk about technology in terms of India's posture in international negotiations on nuclear technology and oceans exploitation and about how that illuminates the issues of nationalism, equality and pride. 

Surabhi is the author of Strategically Created Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law, a study of international legal thought and practice, exploring treaty conflicts in nuclear governance, the law of the sea and international criminal justice. She is also assistant editor of The Cambridge Companion to International Law.

*Picture credit of Mumbai at night: Wikimedia Commons.

Surabhi Ranganathan

Surabhi Ranganathan

  • Alumni
  • India
  • 2008 PhD Law
  • St John's College

I have degrees in law from New York University (as an Arthur Vanderbilt Scholar); and the National Law School of India University, from where I graduated third with two gold medals. I am interested in public law, and public international law. From September 2006-2008, I was a fellow at NYU’s Institute for International Law and Justice, where I combined programmatic and research responsibilities for projects on ‘Private Military Companies’ and ‘Global Administrative Law’. At Cambridge, I will study the creation and mediation of conflicts between treaties with non-identical parties, and seek to develop an account of their systemic implications. I hope to graduate to a career combining teaching with policy-oriented research. Into this, I aim to channel previous research and work experience, including an Indian Supreme Court clerkship, internships at UNICEF and UNHCR, the Indian telecom regulator, an environmental action group, and research assistance to Professor Thomas Franck.

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