Professor Sundeep Muppidi, PhD delivered (virtually) an invited paper titled "From Seed Banks to Radio Waves: Emergence, Feedback Loops, and Knowledge Sovereignty in Community-Engaged Research," at the University of Hyderabad in India during a two-day international seminar on marginalized voices and community media.
The presentation was part of a panel session on "Communication for Social Change and Vulnerable Communities" at the SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration) seminar, held Jan. 22–23. The event, titled "Marginalised Voices, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Community Media: A Multidisciplinary Approach," honored Professor Vinod Pavarala, UNESCO Chair in Community Media, on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Hyderabad.
Professor Muppidi's paper reframes participatory development as a complex adaptive system rather than a linear process, using the women-led Sanghams of the Deccan Development Society (DDS) as a case study. The research is particularly timely given current challenges to civic space globally and the systematic erasure of indigenous expertise from policy discourse.
The presentation highlighted how women of the DDS have created autonomous media systems, seed banks, and alternative markets while transforming their social positions from marginalized laborers to internationally recognized experts. Professor Muppidi argued that knowledge equity functions as both a research ethic and an organizing strategy, demonstrating how long-term community research infrastructures can support situated theory-building and cross-movement solidarity.
"In an era when dissent faces increasing criminalization and progressive scholarship comes under assault, community-based research partnerships offer critical spaces for preserving and advancing marginalized knowledge systems," the paper concluded.
The SPARC seminar brought together scholars and practitioners from multiple disciplines, globally, to examine the role of community media and indigenous knowledge in advancing social justice.