Queer Politics & Democratic Rights in India: 1975 – Present

In this talk, Dr. Svati Shah presents a historiographical argument about the nature and origins of contemporary LGBTQIA+ movements in India. The talk is drawn from a larger ethnographic project on the ways in which discourses of sexuality are implicated in the rise and struggles of the Indian autonomous left since the 1970s. Here Dr. Shah focus on the ways in which civil society organizations and autonomous groups working on questions of women’s rights, caste oppression, workers’ rights, communalism, and access to healthcare have been part of the milieu in which queer politics in India have garnered greater space and legibility.

The presentation will be followed by a conversation with

Randi Gressgård
(UiB) and

Siri Gloppen
(UiB).

Kari Jegerstedt
(UiB) will moderate the conversation.

This breakfast meeting takes place in Bergen Global’s venue in Jekteviksbakken 31. Free breakfast is served.
You can also follow the event on Zoom.

About the speaker:

Svati Shah
is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. They are an anthropologist working on questions of sexuality, gender identity, caste and labor in India.

The event is organised in collaboration with
Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK),
Global Research Programme on Inequality (GRIP), and
Centre on Law and Social Transformation.