Feminism, activism, politics: Production of knowledge in the semiperiphery - Book of proceedings in honour of Marina Blagojević Hughson, 2021
One of the central arguments of my recent book, Gender and Hindu Nationalism: Understanding Mascu... more One of the central arguments of my recent book, Gender and Hindu Nationalism: Understanding Masculine Hegemony, is that all hegemonic formations are also gendered hegemonies, or masculine hegemonies. This paper attempts to elaborate this formulation in the context of the university, both as an idea and as a real-world space. Universities are – at least theoretically – supposed to be gender-neutral and heterogenised spaces that ostensibly encourage questioning, tolerate dissent and
support the co-existence of diverse, even contradictory perspectives. The paper argues that, contrary to such expectations, universities are structured and operationalised as strongly gendered sites, implicitly and explicitly upholding the hegemonic perspectives and dispositions that prevail outside them. It also argues that at least one reason for this is the relation of knowledge to power; another is the relation of knowledge to money – and consequently, the attendant implications of these for the
institutionalisation of knowledge in the disciplinary and organisational structures of universities, and in its financial arrangements. A further significant factor in the production and dissemination of knowledge in universities is the role of such institutions in the containment and regulation of knowledge. The paper tries to explicate these questions by referring to the structures and dynamics of specific universities in India. Finally, the paper seeks to use the analytical framework of 'masculine hegemony' to unravel the mechanisms by which such gendered
hegemonies are perpetuated even within spaces like the university, and argues that sites of knowledge transmission like universities serve ultimately to perpetuate the masculine hegemonies that they are molded by.
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support the co-existence of diverse, even contradictory perspectives. The paper argues that, contrary to such expectations, universities are structured and operationalised as strongly gendered sites, implicitly and explicitly upholding the hegemonic perspectives and dispositions that prevail outside them. It also argues that at least one reason for this is the relation of knowledge to power; another is the relation of knowledge to money – and consequently, the attendant implications of these for the
institutionalisation of knowledge in the disciplinary and organisational structures of universities, and in its financial arrangements. A further significant factor in the production and dissemination of knowledge in universities is the role of such institutions in the containment and regulation of knowledge. The paper tries to explicate these questions by referring to the structures and dynamics of specific universities in India. Finally, the paper seeks to use the analytical framework of 'masculine hegemony' to unravel the mechanisms by which such gendered
hegemonies are perpetuated even within spaces like the university, and argues that sites of knowledge transmission like universities serve ultimately to perpetuate the masculine hegemonies that they are molded by.
Students are often perceived to be ‘unruly subjects’. This chapter discusses these ‘unruly subjects’ as political subjects. It will frame this discussion around three deeply intertwined questions:
What is entailed in this perception of the subject as ‘unruly subject’, i.e. how should we understand this phrase?
What are the relations between the subject, qua subject, as this ‘unruly subject’, and as a ‘political subject’?
What are, or could be, the politics of this ‘unruly subject’?
Several studies have already explored its close relationship to the spread of television in India, accounting in particular for the creation of a hegemonic discourse around the identity 'Hindu', and the religion 'Hinduism', especially since the 1980s.
This paper will briefly outline the audio-visual manufacturing, through the expansion of television, of a hegemonic imagination of the nation as a 'Hindu' one. It will then
1) chart the subsequent extension and amplification of this imaginary, in and through the emergence and rapid spread of IT communication systems, including the exponential growth in IT-capable cellular phone usage.
2) outline the consequent transformations of social spaces and the emergence of a ‘virtual public sphere’ that transcends the more conventional boundaries of ‘public’ and ‘private’, as well as of ‘nation’.
3) trace the impact of these, as well as of the commercial interests that produce this ‘virtual public sphere’, on the discourses of gendered nationalism that constitute Hindutva.
4) profile the kind of gendered citizen-subject that is produced through these transformations and discourses, as well as the conditions (of access to that ‘virtual public sphere’) within and through which such a subject is produced.
5) argue that there are vast demographies that are excluded from access to these imaginations of the nation, because lacking either technological access, literacy skills or financial means.
It will conclude with the suggestion that this exclusion is the clearest indicator of the power of Brahminical masculine hegemony, as a deeply entrenched system of social exclusion and negation, to re-establish itself, albeit tacitly.
support the co-existence of diverse, even contradictory perspectives. The paper argues that, contrary to such expectations, universities are structured and operationalised as strongly gendered sites, implicitly and explicitly upholding the hegemonic perspectives and dispositions that prevail outside them. It also argues that at least one reason for this is the relation of knowledge to power; another is the relation of knowledge to money – and consequently, the attendant implications of these for the
institutionalisation of knowledge in the disciplinary and organisational structures of universities, and in its financial arrangements. A further significant factor in the production and dissemination of knowledge in universities is the role of such institutions in the containment and regulation of knowledge. The paper tries to explicate these questions by referring to the structures and dynamics of specific universities in India. Finally, the paper seeks to use the analytical framework of 'masculine hegemony' to unravel the mechanisms by which such gendered
hegemonies are perpetuated even within spaces like the university, and argues that sites of knowledge transmission like universities serve ultimately to perpetuate the masculine hegemonies that they are molded by.
Students are often perceived to be ‘unruly subjects’. This chapter discusses these ‘unruly subjects’ as political subjects. It will frame this discussion around three deeply intertwined questions:
What is entailed in this perception of the subject as ‘unruly subject’, i.e. how should we understand this phrase?
What are the relations between the subject, qua subject, as this ‘unruly subject’, and as a ‘political subject’?
What are, or could be, the politics of this ‘unruly subject’?
Several studies have already explored its close relationship to the spread of television in India, accounting in particular for the creation of a hegemonic discourse around the identity 'Hindu', and the religion 'Hinduism', especially since the 1980s.
This paper will briefly outline the audio-visual manufacturing, through the expansion of television, of a hegemonic imagination of the nation as a 'Hindu' one. It will then
1) chart the subsequent extension and amplification of this imaginary, in and through the emergence and rapid spread of IT communication systems, including the exponential growth in IT-capable cellular phone usage.
2) outline the consequent transformations of social spaces and the emergence of a ‘virtual public sphere’ that transcends the more conventional boundaries of ‘public’ and ‘private’, as well as of ‘nation’.
3) trace the impact of these, as well as of the commercial interests that produce this ‘virtual public sphere’, on the discourses of gendered nationalism that constitute Hindutva.
4) profile the kind of gendered citizen-subject that is produced through these transformations and discourses, as well as the conditions (of access to that ‘virtual public sphere’) within and through which such a subject is produced.
5) argue that there are vast demographies that are excluded from access to these imaginations of the nation, because lacking either technological access, literacy skills or financial means.
It will conclude with the suggestion that this exclusion is the clearest indicator of the power of Brahminical masculine hegemony, as a deeply entrenched system of social exclusion and negation, to re-establish itself, albeit tacitly.
Arguing that Hindu nationalist thought and predilections emerge out of, and, in turn, feed, pre-existing gendered tendencies, the author presents the new concept of 'masculine hegemony', specifically Brahmanical masculine hegemony. The book offers a historical overview of the processes that converge in the making of the identity ‘Hindu’, in the making of the religion ‘Hinduism’, and in the shaping of the movement known as ‘Hindutva’. The impact of colonialism, social reform, and caste movements is explored, as is the role of key figures such as Mohandas Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Narendra Modi. The book sheds light on the close, yet uneasy, relations that Hindu nationalist thought and practice have with conceptions of 'modernity', 'development' and women's movements, and politics, and the future of Hindu nationalism in India.
A new approach to the study of Hindu nationalism, this book offers a theoretically innovative understanding of Indian history and socio-politics. It will be of interest to academics working in the field of Gender studies and Asian Studies, in particular South Asian history and politics.
The actual lecture starts 10 mins into the video - please feel free to jump straight to that point.
Held March 3–5, 2022, Online
Hosted by Dr L. Acadia, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature,
National Taiwan University, with funding from the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology.
Organizing Committee: Dr Santiago Juan-Navarro (Florida International University) and Dr Greg Simons (Uppsala University).
Keynote: “Why Ban Books?” by Dr Emily Knox (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Plenary: “Living with Covid from/and China: A Taiwanese Immigrant on Endgames” by Prof. Sheng-mei Ma (Michigan State University)