Dr Gaurav Pathania is a sociologist of higher education, and is currently teaching on Social Movements in the Department of Sociology at George Washington University in Washington D.C.. USA. 
Dr Pathania argues in his lecture that universities around the world are emerging as a key site for expressions of dissent, emancipation and the assertion of collective identities. From Hong Kong to JNU, they are perceived as sites of resistance which challenge the prevalent norms and popular conceptions of power. Using an extensive ethnographic study of student politics in Indian universities, his lecture will bring to light the myriad ways in which student politics uses strategies of resistance to create new forms of cultural politics — such as the movement for Telangana statehood that was spearheaded by university students.