Odile Henry, Director of the CSH and Professor at Paris 8 University, together with Mathieu Ferry Associate Professor (Maître de conférences) at Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, has authored a chapter entitled “What Does My IITian Tag Actually Mean?: The Relationship between Academic Titles and Job Positions: The Case of Students at an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)” in the book Engineers and Society in India: From circa 1850 to Present Times, edited by Vanessa Caru, published by Oxford University Press Oxford in April 2025.

Abstract: The liberalisation of the Indian economy since at least the 1990s has established the prevalence of the private sector as the primary recruiter of graduates from the high-knowledge sector, including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). While the public sector provides pathways for the mobility of dominated castes through quotas at government universities and in public recruitment, reservation policies do not exist to access the private sector. Yet, still relatively few empirical studies have examined the role played by caste in private sector recruitment. Based on a long fieldwork conducted in one of the most famous and oldest IITs, our study seeks to objectivise the logics behind placement for new graduates. We examine the role of caste in shaping a differentiated valuation of degrees. In doing so, we explore the combined effects of caste and degree according to the characteristics of the companies at the time of recruitment.

The book is available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198935940.001.0001

Odile Henry   Mathieu Ferry