The PhD project is dedicated to the educational trajectories and professional and personal aspirations of first-generation students in Northeast India. While access to tertiary education has long been reserved for the privileged middle class, students from hitherto disadvantaged backgrounds are increasingly entering India's universities. The research project focuses on students who are recognised as belonging to so-called "Scheduled Tribes" under the Indian Constitution and consequently benefit from a number of affirmative action measures (e.g. disadvantage compensation through reserved study places, scholarships, etc.). The present research project analyses how these first-generation students navigate the new terrain of higher education and develop different strategies to make use of the scope for action they have gained. Based on individual life and educational trajectories, the focus of interest is on the diverse social constructions and negotiations of belonging(s), conviviality and mobility in the context of everyday university life.

Procedure and milestones

The data basis for the doctoral project was created during a total of ten months of ethnographic field research in north-east India.