The Kent SeNSS conference

The three day participation at the conference in Canterbury, my first official participation in the UK, was a great experience.  What's more all of it paid for by the bursary I won in the competition organised by South east Network of Social Sciences (SeNSS).  I had initially applied for the competition because I wanted to visit Canterbury, the historical town.  Coming to know that the University of Kent is located at Canterbury was the sole reason I applied.  Thanks to the organisers I got the chance and am happy to have been there - though did not get to see much of the town... maybe on another visit. 

Close to the Canterbury (East) station in a park! 

The Westgate in the heart of the town

The Cathedral, headquarters of the Anglican Church...

For a political sanyasi like me, with no interest or ear for politics, the talk on Brexit was truly an enlightening one - given by Prof. Anand Menon of Kings College, London.  The panel discussion on the European Union and some of the serious issues plaguing it, too was enriching.  One could clearly see the competence, indepth knowledge and interest of some of the professors involved. 

Though would have loved some more substantial intellectual exercises or presentations, was happy to hear some of the research topics of other doctoral researchers.  So wide, varied and at times weird!  There is one studying cock fights in the Canary islands!  One doing research on a small community park in some remote African country.  One Spaniard studying the privatization of water in England - of all places! Several in the field of education and business.  But all spending time and energy gathering data and analysing it.  The principle or theory they were proving seemed just a line or so.  I was the only one who was not doing any empirical data collection and analysis!  That was quite an eerie feeling. But now I've almost got used to that feeling because, no other discipline exempts a doctoral research from substantiating their data. Philosophy is the only stream where you only blah, blah, blah!  For me it was a good experience talking casually and in smaller circles about my research topic... explaining philosophical pursuits in simple language.  The fact that most often those listening would continue the conversation, ask questions and even criticize some ideas of mine was a great success indicator.

Met some Indians, a Nepali, a Pakistani and a Bangladeshi at the conference and it was a great time of fun and laughter when not in the sessions.  Chatted with them in Hindi and it was great... spoke Hindi after two years!