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Director, SLS Pune
Dr. (Mrs.) Shashikala Gurpur is a distinguished academician and orator having presented more than 200 invited lectures, workshops and seminars across India, Thailand, US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Canada and UAE. She has an outstanding career with a wide range of experience in teaching, research and industry and has been continuing with Symbiosis Law School, Pune since 2007.
Academic and Research Distinctions:
Dr. Gurpur had her formal schooling in Kannada medium in Gurpur, Karnataka. She pursued higher education in science and law from Mangalore University. Dr. Gurpur received her Ph.D. in International Law from Mysore University where she was the topper and Gold medallist in LL.M.
Her career span includes long years of experience in legal literacy and gender training, where she served as the Co- Director in gender and human rights-based wing of an NGO for 2 years. She has also worked as HR Manager & Administration in an MNC in Abu Dhabi, UAE from 2004 to 2007. She has more than 24 years of teaching experience which includes tenures in NLSIU, Bangalore, SDM Law College, Mangalore, Manipal Institute of Communication, MAHE, Manipal and University College Cork, Ireland. Her teaching and research interests encompass Jurisprudence, Media Law, International Law and Human Rights, Teaching and Research Methodology, Feminist Legal Studies, Biotechnology Law, Law and Social Transformation besides having guided more than sixty-five Masters and twelve Ph.D. students.
Dr. Gurpur has 65 articles/research papers, two co-authored books and twelve book chapters to her credit. She has guided national award-winning project on Community-based law reforms for National Law School of India in 1991, acted as an Advisor to research project and publication for Asian Network of Women in Communication sponsored by WACC, UK in 1999-2004; won the NPS Sector research grant under Ford Foundation on Gender Advocacy in 2001.
Under the leadership and guidance of Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, Symbiosis Law School, Pune has been a part of various prestigious projects like the Erasmus Mundus Programme, the DAAD “New Passage to India Programme”, the Eurasia Project which is a 3-year action, funded under Key Action 2 Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education of the Erasmus + Program.
Recently SLS, Pune has also received two prestigious Erasmus + and one DAAD Grant. The Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education is about Teacher training with specialization on life and information technology skills (21st Century Teaching Skills) and the other project is on Development of a Master level programme in International Law and Forced Migration Studies.
Recognition:
Dr. Gurpur has been a member of the Law Commission of India. Currently, she is a part of Curriculum Development Committee, Bar Council of India and Academic Council of National Judicial Academy, Bhopal. She is on the advisory board and is a Ph.D. referee to several National Law Schools and Universities across India including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mangalore University, Delhi University, Mumbai University, Nagpur University, NLS Jodhpur University, Karnataka State Women’s University, BPS Women’s University, Goa University and Saurashtra University, Gujarat. She is associated with academic and governing councils, research teams of several national law schools and universities including IGNOU, NALSAR, NLSIU Bangalore, NLU Mumbai, NLU Nagpur and is also a member of International Consortium of Law Schools (ICLS). Recently, Dr. Shashikala Gurpur has been nominated as a member of the MCCIA Corporate Legislation Committee 2020-2022 as well.She has been appointed as a Distinguished Member Of The Editorial Board Of The Cyberlaw University International E-Journal.
Dr. Gurpur has been listed in the book ‘100 Legal Luminaries of India’, by LexisNexis along with Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon, Senior Counsel Indira Jaising, Adv. Arun Jaitley, Adv. Ram Jethmalani and others. The community legal service rendered by SLS Pune under her guidance among prison inmates and rural women in Pune won the Herbert Smith Freehills grant in 2016.
Under Dr. Gurpur’s leadership, SLS, Pune had the unique distinction of being the only Indian partner with the Erasmus Mundus Global Consortium of Law Schools in 2008. SLS, Pune has been the recipient of two Erasmus+ CBHE projects in 2019 namely ‘Teacher Training with Specialization on Life and Information Technology Skills’ and ‘Development of a Master Level Programme:' International Law and Forced Migration Studies’.
Dr.Gurpur has been instrumental in mentoring the partnership under DAAD - A New Passage to India with Leibniz University, Hannover and Brunswick European Law School, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany and SLS, Pune has recently become a part of the DAAD programme with Berlin School of Economics and Law. It has been the recipient of the DAAD Study Trip Program with partner universities in 2008, 2014, 2015 and 2020. It has also been a part of Ontario Maharashtra Goa (OMG) Exchange Program.
