The NLS Public Lecture Series | Dimapur Matters

The NLS Public Lecture Series invites you to a talk on ‘Dimapur Matters’ by Dolly Kikon and Duncan McDuie-Ra on November 24, 2021 at 3 pm.

About the speakers

Dolly Kikon is an anthropologist. She teaches at the University of Melbourne.
Duncan McDuie-Ra is professor of urban studies at the University of Newcastle with an interest in urban cultures.

Abstract

The presentation discusses their recent book titled ‘Ceasefire City: Militarism, Capitalism and Urbanism in Dimapur’ (Nagaland, India) through the fluid meanings of particular spaces in the city, and the embodied experiences of the city by its residents. The authors use a description of a single site as the catalyst for drawing these parts together; the collapsed bridge over the Chathe River at Naga United Village in Dimapur’s east. At the collapsed bridge, the visions of Dimapur as a cohesive urban space, as city-like, meet the reality of its patchwork of places demarcated and governed as distinct units. The common spaces in between fall into disrepair, a locus for community frustrations materialized in concrete slabs in the riverbed, and an ornate village gate leading nowhere.