Home

M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Prof. (Dr.) Deblina Dey

Associate Professor, JGLS & Assistant Director, Centre for Law & Humanities

Email ddey@jgu.edu.in
Connect with me
ORCID ID 0000-0003-1594-0655
Key Expertise Research interests include sociology of law (crimes, carceral politics of the state, custodial institutions), critical gerontology, kinship studies, care market, medical anthropology (pharmaceuticalisation of care, medical harm, end-of-life care, healthcare in conflict zones). Dr Dey welcomes collaborative project ideas from students and colleagues, as well as applications from prospective PhD candidates in any of the above research areas.

M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Biography

Dr. Deblina Dey joined O.P. Jindal Global University in 2015. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Jindal Global Law School. She pursues interdisciplinary research on care, law and inequality with a focus on older people in India. Dr. Dey received her doctoral degree from the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellow (2024-2025) and a Hunt Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-2024) with the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research based in New York. She has been an alumna of academies and workshops organised by the Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP), Harvard Law School, Harvard University, American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), and the Training Initiative for Asian Law & Society Scholars, Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS), National University of Singapore. . She is also a team member for events organised by the Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSnet) anchored at SOAS, London. Dr. Dey is currently serving on the Board of Trustees of the Asian Law & Society Association (ALSA).

Dr. Dey has published in edited volumes and various international journals on topics such as dispute resolution forums for older people, custodial neglect of older political prisoners, and religious norms related to end-of-life care. Some of her publications can be viewed at https://jgu.academia.edu/DeblinaDey. As the Assistant Director of the Centre for Law & Humanities (CLH) at the law school, she has collaborated with other institutions, organised several academic events and supervised several research activities at the centre. For more details about the work done at CLH please see: https://jgu.edu.in/jgls/research/law-and-humanities. In 2025, she inaugurated a research network, CAARNet (Care & Ageing in Asia Research Network). CAARNet is envisaged as a platform to deliberate on critical questions related to ageing populations in Asian societies and to bring about real-life impact in the domain of eldercare in the long run through research. More information can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/caarnet.
 

 

The Art of Writing a Thesis in Law (PhD students)

Introduction to Sociology [Sociology I]

Sociology of Law [Sociology II]

Foundation of Social Sciences 1 & 2 (Law Hons. programme)

Sociological Research Methods (BA Sociology Hons. in Liberal Arts & Humanities School)

Sociology of Crimes (BA Criminology and Criminal Justice programme)

Received the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellowship in Sociology to pursue research at the Women & Gender Studies department, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, USA [2024-25].

Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship (Gr. No. 10555) of $40,000 (maximum funding) awarded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York, USA [2023-24]. She is the first from an Indian institution and the third from an Asian institution to be awarded the fellowship.

Awarded a Mobility Grant under The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Mobility Programme, overseen by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation, Portugal, to pursue research at the NOVA Centre for the Study of Gender, Family and the Law, NOVA School of Law, NOVA University, Lisbon (grant amount & dates of visit are to be communicated). 

In November 2022, the jury members of the Indian Anthropological Society unanimously selected her as the recipient of Prof. Nirendra Chandra Choudhury Young Scholar Award in Social Anthropology and Sociology for her research contribution and publications.

Recipient of the Research Excellence Award conferred at the 11th University Day Awards, O.P. Jindal Global University in the Academic Year 2019-20.

Recipient of the Junior and Senior Research Fellowship (JRF & SRF) under the University Grants Commission, Government of India.
 

International Visiting Research Fellowship [June 2024], School of Law & Social Justice, University of Liverpool, UK.

Individual consultant to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on a qualitative study on ageing in South Asia from February 2017 to April 2017.

2025. ‘Filial Piety and the Law: A Comparative Study of Indian and Chinese Laws on Care for Parents.’ In The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Ageing Issues: Global and Country Narratives, edited by Mala Kapur Shankardass. Routledge. [SCOPUS-indexed]

2025. “The Khauf of sexual violence and an otherworldly justice.” CounterCurrents.Org. https://countercurrents.org/2025/09/the-khauf-of-sexual-violence-and-an-otherworldly-justice/

2024. “Thinking of Gaza from Delhi.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 59, Issue No. 28, 13 Jul, 2024.

2024. Burden of loneliness is not older people’s alone. 360info.org, July 15, 2024. https://360info.org/burden-of-loneliness-is-not-older-peoples-alone/

2024. "Restoring dignity in women’s labour can give older women the care and respect they deserve in late life." 360info.org, March 8, 2024. https://360info.org/abused-abandoned-neglected-the-plight-of-indias-older-women/

This piece has also been republished by multiple news platforms -

1) TheWire.in: https://lnkd.in/gidEcBxu

2) Down To Earth: https://lnkd.in/gJqk26jn

3) The Diplomat: https://lnkd.in/g9JveT2C

4) Big News Network: https://lnkd.in/gXNceBtP

5) NE News (Northeast News): https://lnkd.in/gzMSgPsK

6) The Mooknayak: https://lnkd.in/g5wgFbmc

7) Millenium Post: https://lnkd.in/gDtsiZHi

8) The Hills Times (published in Guwahati & Diphu): https://lnkd.in/dTfc2KEi

2024. Changing expressions of filial piety and forms of intergenerational solidarity in neoliberal India. University of Liverpool Law School blog, 6 June 2024. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/law/blog/forms-of-intergenerational-solidarity-in-neoliberal-india/

2023. Technique as Empowerment: Dispute Resolution Forums for Older People. Journal of Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis. DOI: 10.1080/27706869.2023.2174296. URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/27706869.2023.2174296

2023. “Law’s temporality and the construction of death-worlds: Custodial neglect of older prisoners in India.” Jindal Global Law Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-022-00175-8. [Spinger Nature] URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41020-022-00175-8

2023. “Precarious Lives of Widows in India & Legal Provisions.” In Handbook on Social Protection for the Elderly in India, edited by Irudaya Rajan & Gayathri Balagopal, Springer Nature [Online-first version is available currently] URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_13-1

2022. “Santhara in Late Life: Approaching Death the Religious Way or a Form of Elder Abuse.” In Handbook on Aging, Health and Social Policy, edited by Irudaya Rajan, Springer Nature [Online-first version is available currently] URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_37-2

2022. Reclaiming Agency in Late Life: Elder Abuse and the Potential of Law. LiveWire, The Wire, https://livewire.thewire.in/rights/reclaiming-agency-in-late-life-elder-abuse-and-the-potential-of-law/

2021. “Three Models of Institutional Care in India and the Interpretation of the Needs of Older Persons.” In Ageing Issues in India: Practices, Perspectives and Policies, Mala Kapur Shankardass (ed.). International Perspectives on Aging, Series editors Jason L. Powell and Sheying Chen. Singapore: Springer. URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-5827-3_10

2020. “A Socio-legal Analysis of Elder Care Laws in India,” Theoretical Inquiries of Law published by Tel Aviv University Vol. 21, No.1. [De Gruyter] URL: https://www7.tau.ac.il/ojs/index.php/til/article/view/1638/1747

2019. Review of Disability in South Asia: knowledge and experience, by Anita Ghai (ed). Jindal Global Law Review, Vol. 10, No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-019-00099-w. [SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd]

2018. Review of Caring for the Elderly: Social Gerontology in the Indian Context, by Tattwamasi Paltasingh and Renu Tyagi (eds.), Social Change [SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd].

2018. “Stitching and Unstitching Labour with Sui Dhaaga.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol LIII no 43.

2017. “‘Fragile Body and Failing Memory’: The Construction of Care for the Elderly by the Laws and Policies in India.” In Elderly Care in India: Societal and State Responses, Irudaya Rajan & Gayathri Balagopal (eds.). Singapore: Springer, pp. 53-68. URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-3439-8_3

2017. “A Different Theatre of Justice: Jolly LLB 2” Economic and Political Weekly, 52(14): 80.

2016. “The Nostalgia of Values: Popular Depictions of Care Crisis towards Ageing Parents in India.” Journal of Human Values 22(1) 26–38. doi: 10.1177/0971685815608060. [SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd]. URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0971685815608060

2015. Review of Wombs in Labour: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India, by Amrita Pande. Contemporary South Asia, 23 (3): 365-366. doi: 10.1080/09584935.2015.1063222. [Taylor & Francis]
Email ddey@jgu.edu.in
ORCID ID 0000-0003-1594-0655
Key Expertise Research interests include sociology of law (crimes, carceral politics of the state, custodial institutions), critical gerontology, kinship studies, care market, medical anthropology (pharmaceuticalisation of care, medical harm, end-of-life care, healthcare in conflict zones). Dr Dey welcomes collaborative project ideas from students and colleagues, as well as applications from prospective PhD candidates in any of the above research areas.
Apply Now