Changing the Subject Feminist and Queer Politics in Neoliberal India

Srila Roy is Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Before joining Wits, she was a lecturer in sociology at the University of Nottingham, after obtaining a PHD in sociology from the University of Warwick. Her long-standing research interests and expertise is in the field of transnational and decolonial feminist studies.

In Changing the Subject Srila Roy maps the rapidly transforming terrain of gender and sexual politics in India under the conditions of global neoliberalism. The consequences of India’s liberalization were paradoxical: the influx of global funds for social development and NGOs signaled the co-optation and depoliticization of struggles for women’s rights, even as they amplified the visibility and vitalization of queer activism. Roy reveals the specificity of activist and NGO work around issues of gender and sexuality through a decade-long ethnography of two West Bengal organizations, one working on lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues and the other on rural women’s empowerment. Tracing changes in feminist governmentality that were entangled in transnational neoliberalism, Roy shows how historical and highly local feminist currents shaped contemporary queer and nonqueer neoliberal feminisms. The interplay between historic techniques of activist governance and queer feminist governmentality’s focus on changing the self offers a new way of knowing feminism—both as always already co-opted and as a transformative force in the world.

This seminar is part of an open seminar series, hosted by CGSS

SC199 Career Development and Making a Difference

Essex students within the department can attend this event as part of eligibility criteria for module SC199. Once attended, you can complete a short reflection on what you learned by attending the event. This can be downloaded via Moodle and then uploaded to FASER.