The workshop, which will bring on one platform activists and filmmakers engaged with caste-based issues together with representatives of the academic fraternity, will be inaugurated at 9.30 am by Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav.

“Caste in our urban classrooms rarely moves beyond the presumed commonsensical discussions on reservations and meritocracy, and efforts to caste-sensitise the curricula is usually restricted to adding units on Dalits to the existing syllabus,” said sociology department head Sharmila Rege.

The workshop will aim at broadening the discussion on caste in the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula by engaging with documentary films that are centred on the subject, and having panel discussions based on them. Participants will include students and teachers from undergraduate colleges and the university, as well as members of curriculum sanctioning authorities like the university Board of Studies.

Among the films to be screened will be “India Untouched by K Stalin, ‘We Are Not Your Monkeys’ by Anand Patwardhan, ‘Acting Like a Thief’ by Shashwati Talukdar and Kerim Friedman, ‘Faces of Change’ by Michele Stephenson, and Ramaiahvin Kudusai by Bharati Krishnakumar. Open discussions will follow the film screenings.

Panel discussions will be held on a wide range of themes like “Addressing caste in the interdisciplinary spaces,”

“Engaging with caste: the cinematic and the documentary in the curriculum,” “Caste and patriarchy in history,” and “Rethinking caste in the curricula: pedagogical practices.” Panelists will include Gail Omvedt, Gopal Guru, K Satyanarayana, Raosaheb Kasbe, Uma Chakravarti, Vidyut Bhagwat, Ashish Rajyadhyaksha, K Stalin, V Geetha, Eddie Rodrigues, PG Jogdand, and Deepa Dhanraj, among others. The discussions will be held in English, Marathi, and Hindi.