Parallel Worlds: Supporting conversations on struggle, survival and resilience

The lack of South Asian representation, be it in media or growing up in the UK, was not obvious to me until I moved to Canada when I was 10 years old. I lived in a suburban area in the UK near London, where culture was not something that was talked about very often.

Once I came to Canada, I was surrounded by peers who came from many different backgrounds including my own, and I learned a lot about my own culture through interacting with others. From that point on, I felt empowered to foster meaningful connections.

When I came to Guelph, I discovered CIRCLE through the university’s club fest, which allowed me to learn about the connection between culture and people’s journeys in academia. I was able to read through the many profiles and encounters that were on the website, showing people in different fields of research such as agriculture or business explaining how their culture has brought them to where they are today.

I participated in the 2024 CIRCLE Graduate South Asia Conference as a student conference tech support. The conference had multiple different workshops with different themes, and for each workshop there were presentations on topics pertinent to the theme at hand. While I was aware beforehand that these presentations would have cultural significance, it was a novel experience in some ways since usually when I am finding articles or doing research there is limited data that is applicable to South Asians. It was heartening to see that there were in fact people who were dedicated to exploring these fields from a South Asian perspective. I was able to better visualize the interconnectedness of South Asian experiences in an academic setting.

Specifically, I engaged in two sessions: one about violence and gender in media, and the other on agriculture, climate change, and Indigenous communities.

At first, the contrast between these sessions could not have been sharper, after all these are two topics that have little obvious connection to each other. The first session looked at how violence and gender are portrayed in media—stereotypes, gender-based violence, and how media shapes public attitudes. The second focused on how climate change affects agriculture and Indigenous communities, including traditional knowledge, food sovereignty, and land rights.

The workshop on violence was intense and emotional. The topics ranged from the lingering effects of Partition-era conflict to the ethical concerns of video surveillance. The presentation on the generational trauma of Partition helped facilitate conversation about the experiences of South Asians pre- and post-Partition. Each presentation shared accounts of pain, systemic injustice and personal perseverance, in both historical and present-day contexts.

The second session on agriculture and Indigenous communities was less emotionally charged but equally powerful. Presenters talked about adopting climate-smart farming practices in Bangladesh, and how the Bhotiya tribe is adapting to environmental changes in the Himalayas. Here, a different kind of resilience was displayed—one rooted in environmental adaptation and innovation. Listening to these stories prompted me to think about how communities find ways to survive and thrive despite huge challenges.

At first, these sessions felt completely different – one talked about media from a gender-based perspective, the other on environment and indigenous communities. But the more I listened, the more I saw the connections. Both were about how communities deal with forces beyond their control, whether political upheaval or environmental change. In both cases, survival comes down to resilience, adaptation, and passing down knowledge. This made me realize that different fields—history, environmental science, and even my own background in biology—all help us understand how people persevere through challenges. 

This conference really showed me how resilience—whether in history, media, or environmental challenges—connects so many areas of study. Going forward, I want to work on projects that mix different perspectives to tackle complex issues. I hope my peers do the same—questioning assumptions, learning from each other, and finding better solutions in areas like public health, climate change, and social policy. When we share ideas openly, we not only improve our work but also build a stronger academic community.

Neha Chandrasekaran is a student writer for CIRCLE. She is in her third year of her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Guelph. 

Connect with us! Do you want tell us how you encountered India or South Asia in this section? Or, you might want us to profile you and your research in the Profiles section? Write to us at circlel@uoguelph.ca.