The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Easwari School of Liberal Arts (ESLA) organised a methodology workshop titled “Rendering the Invisible: Researching Marginality in the Social Sciences” from March 30 – April 01, 2026, encouraging researchers to critically examine the positionality of the researcher and the politics of representation. The workshop encompassed six sessions, bringing together different disciplines, methods, and experts, exploring how overlapping structures of inequality, such as caste, class, gender, and location, shape lived experiences in complex ways.

Dr Ghazala Jamil, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, JNU Delhi gave a lecture on ‘Power, Legibility, and Cultures of Knowing’; Dr Chandan Bose, Associate Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, IIT Hyderabad, spoke on ‘Marginality and Sexuality: Crime, desire and technology in the city’, and Dr Anandita Pan, Assistant Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, IIT Hyderabad, explored ‘How to make sense of Intersectionality?: A Question in Method’.

In the fourth session Dr Ishita Dey, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, South Asian University, Delhi, delved into ‘Doing Multi-sited Ethnography: Biography of Sweetness’; Dr Bheemeshwar Reddy, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Finance, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus, spoke on ‘Structural Marginality and Educational Inequalities in India’; and in the final session Dr Nanda Kishore Kannuri, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Hyderabad Central University, discussed ‘Mixing’ Disciplines, Approaches, Methods and People’.

Participants developed greater sensitivity to the complexities of inequality across caste, class, gender, and location and reflected on issues of power, legibility, and the silencing of certain lived experiences. The introduction to approaches such as sensory ethnography and mixed methods expanded their methodological toolkit, encouraging more embodied and attentive ways of engaging with everyday life.

Overall, the workshop helped cultivate reflexive, ethically grounded, and socially responsive research practices, with participants expressing a stronger commitment to engaging with marginality through accountability and critical awareness.