A thesis exploring the lives of children from slums in Delhi and their engagement with the programs of a media NGO has won the prize for best thesis on Asia conferred in 2016.

The 2017 John Legge Prize for the Best Thesis in Asian Studies has been awarded to Dr Annie McCarthy, Australian National University, for her dissertation titled “Under Development: Stories of Children and NGOs in Delhi, India”.

Alongside ethnographic observations of children’s participation in NGO classes and campaigns, Dr McCarthy argued and demonstrated that a much richer understanding can be gained through a reading of the texts and performances these children produced in NGO spaces. Dr McCarthy’s thesis expertly showed the awareness these children had of the development discourse and the different roles they employed from innocent victims to conscious agents.

For her prizewinning thesis, Dr McCarthy will receive an award of $2,000 and a $500 book voucher from DK Book Agency.

In 2017 the ASAA’s President’s Prize was renamed the John Legge Prize for the Best Thesis in Asian Studies to honour Professor John Legge.

You can read more about Dr McCarthy’s thesis in her post for Asian Currents.