Roots and Routes : How Life Has Been Shaping Me (Nat)
M. Nadarajah (Nat) holds a doctoral degree in sociology. He is an API fellow (Asian Public Intellectual Fellow/Nippon Foundation). In 2019, he served as chair professor at a centre he helped establish (along with the then VC, Prof. Dr Fr Paul) – the Centre for New Humanities and Compassion Studies at Xavier University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. He collaborates (as an associate director) with the Sejahtera Leadership Initiative and Global Sejahtera (Malaysia). He now serves with the Centre for Constitutional Values and Dialogical Democracy, Loyola Extension Services at Loyola College of Social Sciences (A), in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
Nadarajah has spent a significant part of his life developing alternative experiential learning and educational initiatives influenced by an integrated orientation that bridges conscientisation, deschooling, decolonisation, counter-hegemony, and socially engaged spirituality. These ideas ground themselves at the intersection of transdisciplinarity, transformative learning, and critical and compassionate civic engagement. His wider interests span exploration and encounters with the interconnected concerns of sustainability, eco-social regeneration, alternative computational cultures, eco-social spiritual immersion, diversity of thinking cultures, emotional cultures, peace, eco-socially engaged spirituality and futures, truth, dialogical democracy and the cultivation of compassionate cultures. [More here -- At different instances -- Here1 and Here2 and Here3 and Here4 (with photos).]
My 'learning sites' are vast and beyond what I shared above, and I like to remember here the many people—parents, siblings, close and distant relatives, neighbours, friends, school-college-university mates, teachers, mentors, colleagues, staff, students, godchildren & god-grandchildren, well-wishers, and even strangers—along with communities, animals, plants, trees, forests, and oceans—that have helped shape me into 'who I am'. Many of them continue to share their presence and teach me lessons. My experiences—good, bad, messy, complete, incomplete, and lost —have taught me. Growing is not over yet, though.
Note: These web pages offer a glimpse into my portfolio, showcasing some of the work I was able to trace and share. It has been a heartfelt journey of rediscovering and engaging with my memories... and, in a way, rediscovering one aspect of 'my-Self'. Some of the older pieces included might need a bit of revisiting and revising... as my experiences, understanding, struggles, and 'language' have evolved. I have included them for the record. I did what I liked, did not worry too much about institutional recognition, but worked with supportive institutions willing to explore new learning pathways.
I hope you discover something useful here.
Email: amanibana@gmail.com
