About AUD

Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK)

The Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK) is a Centre of Ambedkar University, Delhi. It works as an institutional platform in interdisciplinary areas of the Social Sciences, to link academic research and teaching with dispersed work on Community Knowledge. With a focus on communities at the ‘margins’, it links community-led documentation of cultural heritage with scholarly rigour of analysis and research in a public, transparent and collaborative way.

Academically, the Centre collaborates in implementing field programs with community organisations and academic partners.  It promotes multi-disciplinary study of oral and community knowledge in collaboration with other Schools of the University, external institutions and individuals. Working with other faculty of the University, CCK identifies opportunities to integrate collected knowledge and approaches to teaching and learning in the formal academic system.  In the field, the Centre contributes to a community led reappraisal of heritage, including programs that provoke discussion on challenges and change. This is done through local heritage centres, community and ethnographic museums, community digital archives, travelling exhibitions and local cultural festivals.

A key area of interest is in the ethics and methodology of digital techniques and field practices in knowledge research and documentation.  Other themes of study range from oral history to village studies, governance practices to material culture, ecological and technical knowledge, to innovative and unique aspects of traditional knowledge.

Planning and implementation of CCK activities is overseen by an Advisory Committee of distinguished academics, subject experts and community members.

Current Research Areas–

Material Culture: Contemporary creation and use, among indigenous communities in North East India. This project is mentored by faculty of the North East Research Forum.

Delhi Citizen Memory Project, to digitally document citizen’s memories of the city, along with artifacts and records from private collections. This project is mentored by the Delhi Research Forum.

Documentation of Community Cultural Resources, Mon, Nagaland - to collect, codify and contribute to building an understanding of the oral cultural heritage of the tribes of Mon district, Nagaland. The collection, digital and physical, will be placed online, and at the Tribal Heritage Centre in Mon, Nagaland.

Affiliated Researchers

·         Faculty– 

Delhi Research Forum , involving 6 faculty members of School of Liberal studies

North East Research Forum, involving 7 faculty members drawn from School of Development Studies, Human Studies and Educational Studies.

·         Other organisations / Independent Researchers–

Dr. Lotika Varadarajan, Delhi ;  Dr Archana Shastri, Delhi ; Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata.

Fellowship and Internship Programs

Fellowship Program, to document innovative examples of Community Knowledge. This program begins in 2012, with fellowships of one year duration, funded by the National Innovation Foundation.

Conferences–

1.       International Conference on Digital Archiving, Dec 15-18, 2010 - in partnership with the World Oral Literature Project (University of Cambridge);  Anthropological  Survey of India (Kolkata); Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) and Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (New Delhi).  (Conference Report available as downloadable pdf file( on the website)

2.       Workshop Series on Oral History, January to March 2012, with Centre for Contemporary Archives, JNU, New Delhi.


Click here for Digital Archiving Conference Report