Egor Novikov was awarded Summa Cum Laude for his PhD Dissertation

Prof. Sax’s assistant Egor Novikov was awarded Summa Cum Laude for his dissertation “A Dirty Job: Abjection and Transgression in International Volunteering in Calcutta”.  

                                                                                 

                                                                                           Thesis Abstract 

This dissertation examines the phenomenon of international humanitarian volunteering in Calcutta, India, focusing on the experiences of volunteers working with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity and other charitable organizations. Through ethnographic fieldwork and phenomenological analysis, the study explores how volunteers engage with dirt, suffering, and death as they provide care for destitute and dying individuals in shelters and on the streets.

The author argues that beyond the stated motivations of “helping the poor,” volunteers are drawn to Calcutta seeking transformative experiences that disrupt their routine lives and allow them to confront existential anxieties. The city's reputation for poverty and filth, juxtaposed with its colonial history and spiritual associations, creates a heterotopic space where volunteers can transgress social and psychological boundaries. 

Central to the volunteer experience is the encounter with the abject - that which disturbs identity, order, and borders. By overcoming initial disgust to touch diseased bodies, clean wounds, and wash soiled linens, volunteers engage in acts of transgression that momentarily dissolve the subject-object divide and provide a sense of authenticity and meaning. The dissertation draws connections between these experiences and religious mystical practices that use filth and suffering as pathways to the sacred.

The study situates volunteer motivations and experiences within broader critiques of international aid, arguing that while problematic power dynamics exist, reducing volunteering to neo-colonial tourism overlooks its phenomenological and ethical dimensions. For volunteers, confronting dirt, decay and death becomes a way to attune to otherness and cultivate an ethical selfhood.

Ultimately, the dissertation suggests that the "dirty" aspects of humanitarian work, typically sanitized in public discourse, are central to its appeal and transformative potential for volunteers. By embracing rather than erasing ambiguity, contamination, and human finitude, this mode of charity offers an alternative to dominant biopolitical and developmental models of aid.