Speakers

Bios

Dr Aqsa Shaikh

Dr Aqsa Shaikh is a medical doctor and Community Medicine Specialist. She is an Associate Professor of Community Medicine at HIMSR, Jamia Hamdard, Delhi. She is India’s first and only Transgender woman to head a Covid Vaccination centre and be an investigator in Covid Vaccine Clinical trials of Sputnik Vaccine. She has also been a part of WHO Research on Epidemiology of Covid-19 Transmission amongst healthcare workers. She is working with Sangath, on TransCare Covid-19 Project to study the access to healthcare by Transgender Community in Pandemic. She is also a part of University of Chicago funded project on reforming Medical Education to make it Trans-affirmative. Dr. Shaikh is an investigator in VaccinEquity Project by Sabin Vaccine Institute to study the access to Covid-19 Vaccination by the Transgender Community. Born and brought up in Mumbai, she completed her education from Seth GS Medical College. She is a Proud Transgender Woman and works on LGBTQIA+ rights, Rights of Persons with Disability, and Mental Health. She has a keen interest in Medical Ethics, Medical Humanities, and Medical Education Technology and is a Fellow of Advanced Course in Medical Education. She also serves as Section Editor of PLOS Global Public Health and is a reviewer with Research in Humanities in Medical Education.

Arvind Narrain

Arvind Narrain has been involved with research, writing and practice related to law and social concerns. He has done a bachelor’s in law from the National Law School of India University(NLSIU) followed by a masters in the University of Warwick on a Chevening scholarship. He is currently in the process of doing his PhD on ‘Mapping the elements of an Ambedkarite jurisprudence’ at the NLSIU.

He is the author of India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance and the co-editor of Law Like Love: Queer perspectives on law as well as the Co-author of Breathing Life into the Constitution. He was the founding member of the Alternative Law Forum www.altlawforum.org He was also a part of the team of lawyers challenging Section 377 of the IPC right from the High Court in 2009 to the Supreme Court in 2018.

Ashima Vishnoi

Graduated in English literature from University of Delhi and post graduated in Education from Azim Premji University, Ashima is an educator cum learner, an applied Theatre practitioner and in last eight and a half years she has worked with youth and children extensively in different parts of India with different organizations,schools and colleges. She practices different art forms to create collective learning in collaborative spaces for critical thinking and collective resolutions.

She was a peace walker in the global peace movement Jai Jagat 2020. Some of the places she has worked with are Rangbhumi- a happy playground, Mumbai, Centre for Community Dialogue and change, Bangalore, Eklavya Tamia , Nari Gunjan Patna, Living Farms Orissa, Saahas Delhi, DIET Korba, and many more schools and colleges across India. Committed to bring a pedagogical shift in learning spaces she keeps on learning and teaching in different area of life.

She currently is creating spaces and holding workshops to facilitate applied theatre sessions and retreats in and around Bhopal as an independent artist and practitioner.

Dr Ashlesha Bagadia

Dr Ashlesha Bagadia is a Perinatal Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist with over 24 years of clinical experience. After completing her medical training in India, she spent over a decade overseas, completing advanced training in the UK, Australia and Canada. These covered internationally accredited specialist training in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Systemic Family Therapy, Mentalisation Based Treatment and a Fellowship in Perinatal Psychiatry & Women’s Mental Health.

Dr Ashlesha moved to India 9 years ago and is now based at The Green Oak Initiative. She leads “Chiguru-thrive to 5”, one of our flagship mental health services focusing on mental health care in pregnancy, post-partum and parent child bonding upto school age. She also heads our psychotherapy services and runs MBT - group therapy program for borderline personality disorder and collaborates with other clinicians to help manage similar conditions. She offers Systemic Family Therapy through our complex needs clinic which is available for low fee patients as well.

She is the director and co-founder of The Parc, our training partner, through which she conducts workshops and training courses on various therapeutic skills for counsellors, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists and mental health clinicians from any background. She was recently elected as the President of SAMA- South Asian Marcé Association, which is a regional chapter of the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health.

Ayush Gupta (Ayesha)

Ayush Gupta (Ayesha) is Associate Professor at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Before this, they were Associate Research Professor (Physics), and Keystone Instructor (Engineering) at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. They did their Bachelors in Technology (Hons.) from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. While their dissertation research was on computational and analytical modelling of laser-matter interactions, they shifted to education research for post-doctoral work and afterwards. Their work involves designing science and engineering learning environments coupled with research on the cognitive, emotional, and social dynamics of learning, and cultural aspects of science and technology that reproduce marginalisation and inequities. They have published ~70 papers in leading international peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings in education research. Her most recent work is on queering science education, and on how technology education can serve grassroots transgender communities and movements. They serve on the editorial board for the International Journal of Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace. They have trained in Theatre of the Oppressed with Centre for Community Dialogue and Change (CCDC). Still early in their practice, they are especially interested in exploring how TO can help us stretch our imaginations on social issues, especially on the question of gender. In collaboration with CCDC, they have designed & facilitated Theatre of the Oppressed workshops for teachers and for grassroots transgender communities.

Benson Issac

Benson came to Samvada as a student in 1994 when he was studying sociology at St. Joseph’s College of Arts and Science. He trained in urban and rural community development from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and has been working in the development sector for over 20 years now. During this period, he has been associated with child rights issues, anti-communalism initiatives, worked for Greenpeace as a climate change campaigner and also worked as Faculty of Social Work at St. Joseph’s College. Through his involvement with Samvada, he has done extensive work in sensitising and mobilising youth around social change, trained youth in alternative livelihoods and contributed to developing the body of knowledge around youth studies.

Geet

Geet is an artist and facilitator whose practice includes using various art forms to create spaces where young people can freely express themselves without needing to conform to societal norms. They are trained in storytelling, Playback theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed. Their practice uses creative processes to understand the impact of political and social structures in the everyday lives of young people. Geet facilitates arts based community projects for young people with grassroots organisations in Bangalore. They also work with the Queer community to facilitate the understanding of safe space for individuals in the community using arts. Geet is keen to explore ways in which people from marginalised backgrounds can make themselves heard and tell their own stories. Geet is also a Chartered Accountant.

Dr Harshawardhan Shrotri

Harshu, as he is popularly known, has been active as a writer, director and actor in theatre and films over the past few years. He trained in ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ (TO) and started facilitating workshops since 2018. He has been effectively using TO with groups of corporates, social workers, rural and urban students, health professionals, medical teachers, patients, and theatre artists, facilitating them to find a way out of their conflicts. He seeks great pleasure in learning from the participants, who come from various walks of life. Perhaps, being a medical practitioner himself (Interventional Radiologist), he finds true satisfaction in offering TO as a ‘therapeutic’ self-help tool, in an ‘out of hospital’ set-up.

Dr Maitri Gopalakrishna

Dr Maitri Gopalakrishna is a drama therapist, counselling psychologist, theatre maker and researcher. She has a PhD from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai) and an MA in Counselling Psychology with a concentration in Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies (San Francisco). Maitri works in community building, preventative care, mental health support, psychotherapy, and training in a variety of institutional and community contexts. She has experience working with issues of gender, sexual trauma, and childhood sexual abuse. Maitri’s recent areas of practice-research include drama as an intervention for sexual trauma, therapeutic theatre, and drawing on theories and practices from the Natyashastra in therapeutic work. Maitri has been working with Parivarthan Counseling, Training and Research Centre since 2009.

A Mangai

A. Mangai is the pseudonym of Dr. V. Padma. She retired as Associate Professor in English from Stella Maris College, Chennai. She has been actively engaged in Tamil theatre as an actor, Director and Playwright for almost three decades. She hopes that her academic, activist and artistic selves can find a vibrant intersection. Her fields of interest are theatre, gender and translation studies. Her passion is to concentrate on community theatre – to make theatre the voice of the voiceless, or the marginalized. She has directed over thirty -five plays so far. All of them deal with women – centred themes and characters. Her book Acting Up: Gender and Theatre in India 1979 Onwards has been published by Left Word, New Delhi.

Manikandan Pari

Manikandan started his career as a professional social worker. He has completed his M.Phil in Social work in 2016. Currently he works as a research assistant at SCARF India. He has over 6 years of experience working with people with mental illness and their families as an agent of support and guidance. His professional life includes a commitment to serving the needs of persons with mental illness and their families as a social worker.. He has also trained Self Help groups(SHG) and community workers and has conducted various Awareness programmes on HIV, TB, blood donation, and pandemic crisis intervention, apart from mental health. His primary hobbies include poetry writing and bike riding.

Naghma Khatoon

Nagma is one of the younger powerhouses in the Aagaaz group. She has been with Aagaaz since 2011 and loves singing, dancing, embroidery and of course- theatre. She expresses that theatre offers her a new world, that has a set of rules that are different from those in real life. This allows her to do the things she would otherwise not be able to do. She is pursuing her graduation from IGNOU and simultaneously trying to delve deep into facilitation, since she values the give and take relationship it creates.

Dr Navjeevan Singh

Leading a retired life keeps one busy. The day shrinks to accommodate whatever needs to be done; and, in any case, there is nothing that cannot be put off until tomorrow. Management professionals have long sold me a useful dictum to live by- “study a problem long enough, and the problem tends to disappear”; however, some things defy procrastination. They just have to be done. So, besides trying to teach spoken English to a motley dozen children of vegetable vendors of my locality, and failing miserably, when I get the occasional opportunity to foray into a world I once knew: the world of TO and the Health Humanities, I take a break. This trip to Bangalore is one such occasion. I look forward to having a rollicking time.

Nisha Abdulla

Nisha Abdulla is a Bangalore based playwright, performer, director, dramaturg, and educator. Her anti-oppressive arts-based practice places care, curiosity, and community at the core of her creative process. She is deeply invested in creative journeys related to dissenting imagination and anti-caste advocacy. She is the Artistic Director of Qabila, and the co-Founder of Offstream. She was recently included in the Rise Beyond the Ceiling Muslim Women Achievers from Karnataka 2024. Nisha’s journey in the theatre began with improvisational forms - including Theatre of the Oppressed, and she continues to rely on it as a pedagogical ally in her educator tool box

Dr Nithya Poornima

Dr. Nithya Poornima Murugappan is a Clinical Psychologist with a keen interest in working with children, adolescents and parents. She has a special interest in mental health promotion in early childhood and in the well-being of mental health professionals. She completed her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Psychology from Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed Women’s College, Chennai. She trained at NIMHANS, Bangalore at the M.Phil. and Ph.D. levels. Nithya has worked as a faculty member at Sampurna Montfort College from 2008 to 2015 and at the Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS from 2015 to 2021. Since then, she has been working as an independent consultant in Bangalore to balance time for her priorities in life better. She thoroughly enjoys teaching-learning opportunities offered through classes, workshops, clinical supervision and research guidance. Nithya has contributed to various journal articles and book chapters for academia. She has also shared her perspectives on child mental health and parenting through articles and videos meant for the community in general. Nithya deeply appreciates her journey towards being authentic and congruent. She particularly credits mindfulness, being a mother, personal therapy, Theatre of the Oppressed and Theatre for Living, and Vipassana for aiding this journey. She recognizes and values the influence of these experiences in the therapy room. She has grown to look at all of life as learning and feels energized by observations, questions, insights and humour that show up in everyday life. Being close to nature, playfulness, travel, reading, music and dance make her feel most alive.

Noor Sengupta

Noor Sengupta is a Srishti graduate with experiential education training. At Srishti, she trained under Evan Hastings, who introduced her to the world of TO through his program Shadow Liberation. After this program, she expanded her understanding of TO with level 1 training with CCDC. She went on to work with Buguri, Hasirudala, where she used her education and developed interactive stories for and with children.

During one of the summer back-to-school programs, she was introduced to a wordless picture book (Ikru’s first day of school) by Geet Goyal. While co-facilitating a read-aloud with this story she began to realise the immense multifaceted exploration that was a wordless picture book. It was this experience that pushed her to want to expand on her exploration of the creation of such a book.

Grappling with the following questions to start her off… What would it mean to co-create a story with the intention to create a wordless picture book? Which TO and additional tool can be used for the co-creation? What would this process look like?

During this conference, she hopes to share the findings of one such experiment and hopes to discuss its further potential and possibilities.

Dr Padmavati R

Dr R Padmavati currently holds the position of Director at Schizophrenia Research Foundation, (SCARF, India). She completed her Postgraduate Psychiatry degree at the University of Bombay, India and since then has been with SCARF for over 28 years. She has been involved in several research areas like epidemiological studies, drug trials, untreated schizophrenia, culture and psychoses, metabolic disorders in mental illness. She has been closely involved in SCARF’s community mental health programs and the telepsychiatry project. Her key interests have been in socio-cultural aspects of Mental illnesses. She has a keen interest in psychosocial rehabilitation. She has extensively published and is a reviewer of many national and international psychiatric journals. She teaches postgraduate students of Psychiatry and guides postgraduate dissertations.

Piramal Foundation

Aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals, Piramal Foundation is committed to improving the lives of marginalized communities, by leveraging the power of youth and strengthening Government systems. It works in collaboration with the Central Government and State Government, international and national organizations and academia to accelerate change in India.

By focusing on the most marginalized groups within India, strengthening the ability of states to deploy impactful initiatives, and engaging youth in nation building efforts, the Foundation has touched the lives of 11.3 Crores Indians in the last 16 years.

Dr Radha Ramaswamy

Radha founded the Centre for Community Dialogue and Change (CCDC) in 2011 after her training in Theatre of the Oppressed with Marc Weinblatt at the Mandala Centre for Change, Portland, Seattle. CCDC is dedicated to the practice and promotion of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) in India, especially in education.

Radha continued her learning in this new methodology through working with David Diamond( Theatre for Living), Hector Aristizabal (ImaginAction) and Julian Boal. Radha’s practice as a TO facilitator and trainer is informed by over 25 years of experience as a teacher, her interest in theatre, and her passion for social justice work. She offers workshops and trainings across different cities in India and abroad, for students, educators, women’s groups, NGOs, senior citizens, and organisations exploring creative solutions for change.

Radha’s pioneering efforts to introduce TO in the field of Medical Humanities, and the corresponding efforts by a dedicated team of medical educators trained in TO, have resulted in some significant changes to the undergraduate medical curriculum in India.

Radha enjoys holding space for the community of TO practitioners who have trained with CCDC, or Bangalore Jokers as they are known, through regular gatherings, online and offline. These sessions sustained the community through the difficult pandemic period, and also paved the way for experimentation and innovation.

Radha believes in research and documentation as a way to maintain rigour in the practice. She has made presentations at national and international conferences, and published articles on the application of TO in medical education.

Ramya Sundarajan

Ramya Sundarajan is the Chief Executive Officer at WeLive foundation and has been a part of the team from the program inception stage. Her association with WeLive has been extremely meaningful with her working as head of programs for 2 years before assuming her current role. She is a certified english language trainer who is associated with the Azim Premji University as part-time faculty for their english language support centre. With a postgraduate degree in management, Ramya is a professional storyteller who takes great joy in her interactions with children and young people. Her capacity to put in the work to make dreams a reality combined with her fierce commitment to the cause makes her a valuable resource for WeLive.

Ravi Ramaswamy

Ravi Ramaswamy (they/them) identifies as queer and has experience working with diverse communities. Using a deep understanding of issues such as urban poverty, education, child and youth rights, gender and sexuality, they have worked with the LGBTQIA+ community, inmates of the Bangalore Central Jail, farmer groups and youth from different strata of society. Ravi was trained in Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) by Marc Weinblatt of the Mandala Center for Change, Seattle, Washington. Ravi is a trustee at CCDC and has led Theatre of the Oppressed workshops across India since 2011. The core areas of Ravi’s work are the use of TO for Community Education, Medical Humanities and Mental Health. Since 2014, Ravi has led workshops in Medical Humanities for medical faculty and students in various cities across India like Bangalore, Kolar, Mysore, Manipal, Mangalore, Mumbai, Bhopal, Jodhpur, Alappuzha, Sevagram, Wardha, Amritsar and Tezpur. In September 2019, Ravi also co-authored a chapter on the use of TO in Medical Education in the Routledge Handbook of the Medical Humanities.

A Revathi

A Revathi is a Bangalore-based writer and activist working for LGBT rights in India. She is a trans woman and member of the Hijra community. She has authored three books: Our Lives Our Words (Tamil, Hindi and English), The Truth About Me (Penguin, Tamil - Vellai Mozhi, Adayalam Publication), Baduku Bayalu (Kannada, Telugu, English), and A Life in Trans Activism (Zubaan Books - English). She has worked in crisis intervention, community mobilization, training, capacity building, organizing, advocacy, alliances with Adivasi and Dalit women’s movements, and has published many articles on minority struggles. She has worked extensively in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala. Revathi has performed her solo act “Vellai Mozhi,” a stage play directed by A. Mangai, at 108 locations across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Nepal, and the USA.

Dr Ruthshee Suresh

Dr Ruthshee holds a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in Psychiatry from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. Dr. Suresh has accumulated valuable experience over the years. She completed her senior residency at the prestigious National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), honing her skills in the comprehensive assessment and management of psychiatric disorders. She has held the position of Consultant Psychiatrist at the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre. Her contributions were notably focused on facilitating the establishment of a residential facility for persons with Dementia at DEMCARES (Dementia care at SCARF). A proud member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych), her areas of interest include neuropsychiatry, young adult and geriatric psychiatry. Currently serving as a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Green Oak Initiative, Dr. Suresh is dedicated to a holistic approach and believes in addressing not only the symptoms but also the underlying factors contributing to mental health challenges. By integrating her expertise with a holistic perspective, she strives to empower individuals to achieve optimal mental health.

Samuel Moses

Hello everybody! I’m Sam and I’m from Bangalore. I’m currently working as an assistant football coach and as an inventory manager. I’m also a professional athlete, and I have run multiple marathons across the calendar- 5k,10k,15k, 25k and 30k too. My dream is to become a football coach and an athletics coach. Later this coming year, I will be competing for 50km and 100km. I was pursuing my B.A in Psychology but had to quit due to some urgent, personal issues. Speaking about my background, I’m an orphan and I have had no parents since the day I was born. One of my aunts rescued me from the road side and raised me. Her name is Buelah John. She and her husband John, and their two sons, took care of me, just like the way they took care of their own sons. I grew up in their home. I had to move to an NGO when I was 13. I did my 10th and PUC, and moved out again from there. It was then I started living at WeLive foundation for a year and a half. Yeah, I’ve had a tough life, not at all an easy life. I go through battles everyday. And tears. Not at all easy to live the life of Sam. But still, with a smile on my face, I do my work.

Dr Satendra Singh

Dr Satendra Singh co-founded the Health Humanities Group with Navjeevan and Upreet at UCMS in 2009. He was instrumental in organizing the first-ever Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) workshop for medical students globally, held in collaboration with CCDC on 23-24 August 2011 at UCMS. In 2014, he formally became a facilitator of the TO method (BJ) and has since conducted numerous workshops across India. Many of his disability advocacy initiatives have utilized ’invisible theatre’ as a core element, and his leadership in advancing the health humanities movement in India ultimately led to the inclusion of ’Forum Theatre’ as a teaching-learning modality for disability competencies in the new medical curriculum in India. Academically, Dr. Satendra Singh is a Director and Professor of Physiology at the University College of Medical Sciences & GTB Hospital, Delhi. He is the Co-chair of the International Council for Disability Inclusion in Medical Education and a member of the core group on disability at the National Human Rights Commission. A passionate disability justice advocate, Dr. Singh has played a pivotal role in policy reforms, including the incorporation of disability rights in the new MBBS curriculum in India. He is also a dedicated ally of transgender and intersex rights.

Shahid Shaikh

Shahid is a founding member of Aagaaz Theatre Trust and is a part of its Core Group of theatre practitioners. He has been performing professionally since 2015. As an actor and co-facilitator, he has been a part of plays that have performed in theatre festivals, school, public performance venues, public spaces, and many national level events. Always a smile on his face and willing to listen, he is also one to speak his mind, even if that means challenging voices of authority in any space. Over the years we have seen Shahid pause every once in a while to reflect on who he is and where he is headed. He is never afraid to face his faults and always ready to embrace aspects of himself. He is intelligent and hardworking as a performer and always willing to go back to the drawing board.

Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota

Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota is an artist currently living in Kalaburgi. Born and brought up in Bangalore, she graduated in Media Arts and production from Sydney, Australia. She has been in the field of social justice as a social activist and media consultant with NGOs working on youth, women and child rights. She taught Documentary filmmaking in Mount Carmel Collage, and has worked at Ranga Shankara Theatre Bangalore as a Program Coordinator. She is the Co-founder of Urban Folk Project, a collective that looks that collating of folk knowledge systems of North Karnataka. She has been a Karnataka Janapada Academy member for the three years 2019 to 2022. She is currently on the Academic Advisory Committee of the IGNCA, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Bangalore.

Shyam Kamala Balasubramanian

I am a Gender fluid Trans Masculine person. I currently work as an Engineer in the semiconductor industry and I’ve been part of the Transgender Rights Struggles and movement actively from 2013 to 2022, as a community Volunteer, facilitator and an amateur artist, a valuable journey through which I not just got the opportunity to contribute, but also got to evolve as a person taking learnings from my friends, sisters and mothers from our Vibrant Queer, Trans community. I am truly grateful to have journeyed into realizing the powerful feminine and Masculine side to myself, I am a Mother, a sister, a son, a brother .. all of it.. In these 42 years of surviving life I feel the idea of Diversity,Equity and inclusion is truly centered on very simple values like love, empathy, sensitivity and a genuine sense of justice that truly appeals to the heart, giving space for a real sense of coexistence and collective growth. Getting to be a musician for Revathi Amma’s play Vellai Mozhi has been a very valuable gift. I am deeply grateful to her and Mangai Amma for this opportunity. My journey with Revathi Amma as her son has helped me shape my soul and life.

Soliga Pusumale Kala Tanda

Soliga Pusumale Kala Tanda, led by Basavaraju Soliga, are members of the Soliga community, an indigenous tribe of Karnataka, inhabiting the peripheral forest areas near Biligiri Rangana Hills and Male Mahadeshwara in Chamarajnagar district. Gorukana is a rendering, into song, of their everyday experience in the forests, rich with references to birds, insects, trees and various other wildlife. Often capturing curious natural history and observations in its lyrics, the song brings people together into rhythm and dance around the evening fire, at festivals and other days alike.

Sowmiya

Sowmiya is a trans artist with more than 15 years of theatre experience, and has been working with the Marappachi Theatre group in Chennai.

Timira Gupta

Timira is an educator, an art-based therapist, author and is currently pursuing a PhD. She uses different artistic forms like drama, story-telling, visual art and circus arts to work with children at risk, juveniles in conflict with law and educators.

Her collective ‘Teachers As Artists’ works with arts-based teacher education across several schools in India. Timira believes that the dream to live in an inclusive world can be lived only if our schools become inclusive spaces.