Author Description

The Introductory Chapter Examines How The Immense Social Value Placed On Technical Education As A Viable Route To A Good Life, Respectable Middle-class Identity, And High Status Have Contributed To A Specific Kind Of Subject-making On Engineering Campuses Across Tamil Nadu. While Enforcing A Performativity Of The Acceptable In The Social Realm, The Institutional Structure Also Propagates A Pedagogy That Is Uncritical And Mechanically Derived; A Pedagogy That Emphasizes Application Over Criticism, And Structure Over Individual. Though Students Are Not Simply 'interpellated' By This Pedagogy And Disciplinary Framework In An Althusserian Manner, It Does Have A Role To Play In Crafting A Distinct Subjectivity And Sense Of Self-worth. Even As Students Negotiate These Institutional Constraints, It Has Become An Integral Part Of College Life And The Ways In Which 'youth' Is Experienced