About
Barefoot Philosophers is an informal collective started to deal with the crisis in education as well as research in the social sciences and humanities. It was founded by Prof. Sundar Sarukkai with a committed group of young scholars who are deeply interested in education reforms as well as in bringing philosophy to children and the public. The primary task is to bring the skills of thinking and doing philosophy into the domain of the public and this proposal aims to leverage philosophical practice in the public sphere to create meaningful public citizenship.
Current Workshop
Online Course of Ten Lectures on Knowledge and Education: For/Of/By Whom? Adivasi and Other Perspectives, Barefoot Philosophers in collaboration with Bhasha Research Centre
Past Initiatives:
Since the inception of the project, we were able to successfully create a platform for philosophical discourse that is truly public and open. The website, which has been live since February 2019, has been the source for editorial and academic exchange of thoughts, along with public events like Vichaara Dhaara, lectures and workshops have been organized throughout the country to make philosophy as a discourse more public and accessible. The approach and implementation have been primarily in the following domains of public outreach (workshops/ events), philosophy for kids (summer camps/ children’s book), dissemination of textual information curated (website/ newsletter), collaboration with arts and media (specific modules and seminars/ audio-video online archives)
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Creation of “Barefoot Philosophers” Youtube channel
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The barefoot philosophers’ newsletter: A periodic newsletter that showcases the content on the barefoot philosophers’ website with subscribers all over the world.
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Vichaara Dhaara : A series of public talks on Philosophy, an open event aimed at providing a platform for democratic exchange of ideas.
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Vichaara Dhaara 1: Reading Philosophical Texts by Prof. Sundar Sarukkai
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Vichaara Dhaara 2: Feminism and Philosophy by Dr. Devaki Jain
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Vichaara Dhaara 3 – Education and the Idea of Justice by Deepa Dhanraj
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and Prof. Suma B.U
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Workshops
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International workshop on Egalitarianism
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Workshop for Naropa fellowship
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Workshop for the children of Kattai Kuthu sangam, Kanchipuram o Philosophy Workshop at Ninasam
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Philosophy of Science workshop at IISc
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Lectures and Talks
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“Exploring exciting texts XIV”: Talk at the British Council, Bengaluru on
Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakarika
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Public lecture on ‘Happiness’ at an event organized by the Indian Women’s Association in Chennai
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‘Democracy and the question of choice in India’ organized by Open Society (University of Calicut) at Malappuram
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‘Doing with Philosophy’: Interviews and conversations that explore everyday life through philosophy. An audio-video documented series that explores everyday activities and concepts by means of conversations with practitioners, experts along with the everyday people doing the activities to uncover the underlying philosophical ideas.
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“Philosophy for Children” series: Philosophy Summer Camps for children were organized around the country in Udupi, Tumkur, Chennai, Malappuram and Bengaluru. The goal of these camps was to encourage young people to engage with the world around them philosophically. The project seeks to address a great inequity in the access to information about philosophy in rural India through conducting workshops in vernacular languages for children who may not be fluent in English.