Prasanta Ray

Professor Emeritus

BA Political Science (Presidency College, Calcutta University, 1963)

MA Political Science (Presidency College, Calcutta University, 1965)

Ph D Poltical Science (Calcutta University, 1977)

I joined West Bengal Junior Education Service in 1966. My teaching in Presidency College began in 1977. I retired as Professor and Head, Department of Political Science and Professor-in-charge (1989-2003), Department of Sociology, Presidency College, in 2003. I taught simultaneoustly as a Guest faculty in Department of Sociology, Calcurtta University. I was Emeritus Professor in Political Science and Sociology in Preidency College/University, 2004-12. I am currently Emeritus Professor in Sociology, Presidency University, and Honorary Visitng Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata.

I was Indian Council of Social Science Research post-doctoral fellow: 1987-89, Visiting Scientist, Sociology Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (September, 2003-March, 2004), and Member, Working Group on Under-graduate Colleges in India, National Knowledge Commission. 2006.

My doctoral research was on role of family in political education of the young in family. As an ICSSR fellow, I researched on conflict management by the post-colonial state in India. My current research interest is in economic morals.

I teach Everyday Sociology, Development Studies and Political Sociology in BA and MA classes in Presidency University, and Economic Sociology and Qualitative Research Methodology at MPhil level in IDSK.

Ten doctoral students, six in Sociology and four in Political Science have been awarded Ph. D degree by Calcutta University. Their research areas include occupational sociology, middle class politics, network theory,politics of  marginal people, the state and ethnicity, political biography, leisure industry, and feminist autobiography,                                        

Member, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group

Conflict and the State: Explorations in the behaviour of the post-colonial state in India (1991).

Everyday Life worlds: Contestations and Negotiations (forthcoming, Primus).