Chapter in book edited by Faiz Ullah, Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar (eds), Unheard Voices, Unseen Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India, Sage, 2021, 2021
Citation: • Shilpa Phadke and Nithila Kanagasabai (2021) Doing Feminist Community Media: Collecti... more Citation: • Shilpa Phadke and Nithila Kanagasabai (2021) Doing Feminist Community Media: Collectivising in Online Spaces, in Faiz Ullah, Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar (eds), Unheard Voices, Unseen Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India, Sage. p.289-317.
ISBN: 978-93-91138-46-2 (HB)
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academic feminist community engages with digital media to reimagine
the discipline of Women’s Studies, and consequently feminist
politics. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Women’s
Studies Centre at a university in Tamil Nadu, India, this paper moves
away from the framework of the digital as simply enabling or
empowering, and instead seeks to examine these digital cultures
as shaped by the particularities of their geographic coordinates,
and as part of a larger media environment which is characterised as
much by continuities as it is by innovations. In doing so, it attempts
to understand feminisms as media phenomena that are actively
shaped by and shaping media technologies and discourses. It
argues that Women’s Studies scholars in these locations, operating
from hybrid geographical and digital places, enable the possibility
of decentring feminist scholarship and thus allow for a reframing of
the digital. To do this, it focuses on three distinct areas of engagement—
the co-creation of knowledge in Tamil language Wikipedia,
interactions on social media platforms, and their engagements with
little magazines in their online avatars.
collaborations between South Asian countries and the US, almost all of it
is produced by scholars located in US universities, either as tenured
faculty or as doctoral students. Much of this work is predicated upon
the access these scholars have to stakeholders in both countries, which
is dependent on the predominantly one-way flow of gaze/theory from
the global North. Based on in-depth interviews with Indian doctoral
scholars enrolled in Women’s Studies and allied disciplines in
universities in the US, but whose research fields are in India, this paper
examines the ways in which coloniality structures the knowledges thus
produced. Particularly, it examines how the construction of the ‘field’ is
contingent upon complex processes such as visa regimes, funding
opportunities to travel, and disciplinary framings. It argues that despite
the increased focus on a globalised academia and movement of
scholars and students around the world, material inequities continue
to frame certain locations as ‘forever fields’. Finally, unpacking the
politics of mapping a field, it poses the possibility of activating a
disruption in the ways in which the category ‘field’ is perceived.
Kanagasabai, N., & Phadke, S. (2023). Forging Fraught Solidarities: Friendship and Feminist Activism in South Asia. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 7(1), 02. https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/12880
Link to open access essay: https://www.lectitopublishing.nl/download/forging-fraught-solidarities-friendship-and-feminist-activism-in-south-asia-12880.pdf
Abstract:
Friendship has been central to the forging of feminist solidarities. Cross-border friendships and feminist activism in South Asia have disrupted narratives of violence and hostility between countries. Friendship then is deeply political for multiple reasons, often facilitating a powerful critique and unsettling hegemonic, heteropatriarchal narratives of affective relationships. Drawing on the narratives of feminist activists in South Asia, we explore the nuances of ‘doing activism’ with friends as well as how friendship itself inflects activism and the interrogations that these might bring to the fore. We reflect on the ways in which feminist activism has engaged with fun arguing that joy is intrinsic to feminist organising. We also examine feminist fractures and how these might impact our activism, our friendships, and what they reveal about structural inequalities. As we reflect on the transformative potential of feminist activism within the South Asian region over the last four decades and the friendships it has nurtured, we ask if friendship has fulfilled the promise of challenging existing structural hierarchies and reimagining our relationships, concluding that the answer must be yes and no.
ISBN: 978-93-91138-46-2 (HB)
women’s studies in Tier II cities are apposite starting points for a critical reflection on non-metropolitan locations as brokers of student mobilities. Focusing on two government-funded Women’s Studies Centres in universities in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, I explore the transformations catalysed by these mobilities and discuss the politics of the personal – by rethinking the notions of home and alienation, and reflecting on the re-imagination of futures that Women’s Studies (WS) has permitted.
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academic feminist community engages with digital media to reimagine
the discipline of Women’s Studies, and consequently feminist
politics. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Women’s
Studies Centre at a university in Tamil Nadu, India, this paper moves
away from the framework of the digital as simply enabling or
empowering, and instead seeks to examine these digital cultures
as shaped by the particularities of their geographic coordinates,
and as part of a larger media environment which is characterised as
much by continuities as it is by innovations. In doing so, it attempts
to understand feminisms as media phenomena that are actively
shaped by and shaping media technologies and discourses. It
argues that Women’s Studies scholars in these locations, operating
from hybrid geographical and digital places, enable the possibility
of decentring feminist scholarship and thus allow for a reframing of
the digital. To do this, it focuses on three distinct areas of engagement—
the co-creation of knowledge in Tamil language Wikipedia,
interactions on social media platforms, and their engagements with
little magazines in their online avatars.
collaborations between South Asian countries and the US, almost all of it
is produced by scholars located in US universities, either as tenured
faculty or as doctoral students. Much of this work is predicated upon
the access these scholars have to stakeholders in both countries, which
is dependent on the predominantly one-way flow of gaze/theory from
the global North. Based on in-depth interviews with Indian doctoral
scholars enrolled in Women’s Studies and allied disciplines in
universities in the US, but whose research fields are in India, this paper
examines the ways in which coloniality structures the knowledges thus
produced. Particularly, it examines how the construction of the ‘field’ is
contingent upon complex processes such as visa regimes, funding
opportunities to travel, and disciplinary framings. It argues that despite
the increased focus on a globalised academia and movement of
scholars and students around the world, material inequities continue
to frame certain locations as ‘forever fields’. Finally, unpacking the
politics of mapping a field, it poses the possibility of activating a
disruption in the ways in which the category ‘field’ is perceived.
Kanagasabai, N., & Phadke, S. (2023). Forging Fraught Solidarities: Friendship and Feminist Activism in South Asia. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 7(1), 02. https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/12880
Link to open access essay: https://www.lectitopublishing.nl/download/forging-fraught-solidarities-friendship-and-feminist-activism-in-south-asia-12880.pdf
Abstract:
Friendship has been central to the forging of feminist solidarities. Cross-border friendships and feminist activism in South Asia have disrupted narratives of violence and hostility between countries. Friendship then is deeply political for multiple reasons, often facilitating a powerful critique and unsettling hegemonic, heteropatriarchal narratives of affective relationships. Drawing on the narratives of feminist activists in South Asia, we explore the nuances of ‘doing activism’ with friends as well as how friendship itself inflects activism and the interrogations that these might bring to the fore. We reflect on the ways in which feminist activism has engaged with fun arguing that joy is intrinsic to feminist organising. We also examine feminist fractures and how these might impact our activism, our friendships, and what they reveal about structural inequalities. As we reflect on the transformative potential of feminist activism within the South Asian region over the last four decades and the friendships it has nurtured, we ask if friendship has fulfilled the promise of challenging existing structural hierarchies and reimagining our relationships, concluding that the answer must be yes and no.
ISBN: 978-93-91138-46-2 (HB)
women’s studies in Tier II cities are apposite starting points for a critical reflection on non-metropolitan locations as brokers of student mobilities. Focusing on two government-funded Women’s Studies Centres in universities in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, I explore the transformations catalysed by these mobilities and discuss the politics of the personal – by rethinking the notions of home and alienation, and reflecting on the re-imagination of futures that Women’s Studies (WS) has permitted.