Oct 20-22, 2023

South Asian/Diaspora Feminist Discourse

2023 Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (FEAST) online-only conference

A three day international online event featuring talks on South Asian feminisms

You can STILL register at: https://www.pdcnet.org/wp/registrations/2023-feast/

All times are Central Time, Conference Program Below

If you register and do not receive the link right away, please contact FEAST Philosophy <feministfeasters@gmail.com> for access to the Zoom links.

This conference is held by Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (FEAST). FEAST is a professional organization dedicated to promoting feminist ethical perspectives on philosophy, moral and political life, and public policy that centers decolonized, intersectional, and interdisciplinary approaches.

Keynote Address

South Asians in the “New World”:

Settled Narratives, Curated Silences, and the Crisis of Legibility

by Falguni Sheth

Professor and Chair

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Affiliate, Department of Philosophy

Emory University

Above portrait of Falguni Sheth by Jennifer Scuro

Friday, Oct 20

Two women embracing one another, it says: What does justice actually demand?

Above art work from http://www.shehzil.com/free-downloads/Image Description: Two women embracing one another, it says: What does justice actually demand?

Friday, Oct 20

All times are Central Time (US) / GMT-5:00

8:45 AM 9:00 AM Introductory Remarks

9:00 AM 11:00 AM Honor and bodily autonomy

Session Chair: Puja Ghosh, University of Oregon

Namita Goswami - A Deliberately Fragmentary Record Produced Elsewhere: Animal, Earth, Ocean, Planet

Rebecca Waxman - What Constitutes Rape?: Colonial Residue and Postcolonial Power in the Maya Tyagi Case, 1980-88

Sudha Rawat - Shame, Honour and Gender: Tamil women in the Tamil Refugee Camps

11:15 AM 12:15 PM Plenary Session on the book: Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality

Respondents:

Shruti Devgan

Harini Kumar

Mariam Durrani

Author: Shenila Khoja-Moolji

12:45 PM 2:45 PM Politics of Respectability

Session Chair - Paromita Patranobish, Assistant Professor, Mount Carmel College Autonomous, Bangalore

Yanis Iqbal - The Hijab Controversy in Karnataka: Understanding Identity and Resistance

Zeinab Nobowati - Between Ethical Self-Practices and Relations of Power: Rethinking the Discursive Construction of the Hijab in Light of the Woman Life Freedom Movement

Sumeet Patwardhan - "What I See with My Eyes”: Tarabai Shinde on Men Blaming Women

3:00 PM 5:00 PM Solidarity, Fragmentation, Theory as Praxis

Session Chair: Nuzhat Khurshid, Professor, York University and Seneca College

Eliana Luxemburg-Peck - Responsibility for Non-Culpable Complicity

Caleb Ward - Revisiting the ‘Agency Dilemma’ for Political Agency under Oppression

Barbara Fultner - What Good is a Theory of Transnational Democracy to Transnational Feminists? An attempt at a Fusion of Horizons

5:15 PM 6:15 PM Workshop led by Niharika Pandit and Akanksha Mehta

Insurgent Knowledges: An Interactive Workshop on Queer, Feminist, Anticolonial Pedagogies

Saturday, Oct 21

a woman with a dupatta on her head looking up at the sky, with an image of flame behind her

Above art work from http://www.shehzil.com/free-downloads/Image Description: a woman with a dupatta on her head looking up at the sky, with an image of flame behind her

Saturday, Oct 21

All times are Central Time (US) / GMT-5:00

8:45 AM 9:00 AM Chai time, Hangout on Zoom

9:00 AM 11:00 AM Norms & Religion

Session Chair: Muhammad Arslan Hanif, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan

Anjam Singh, Mona Sherpa, Priya Raghavan, Deepta Chopra - Between badhyata (duress) and avashyakta (necessity): The politics of navigating collective subaltern identity in the face of backlash in South Asia

Aditi Maddali - Claiming religion through conversions: excerpts from life histories of women who have converted out of Hindu religion in contemporary India

Jessica A. Albrecht - Local and global Sri Lankan queer activism in literature and online media engaging with religion

11:15 AM 12:30 PM

Keynote Address: Falguni Sheth

South Asians in the “New World”:

Settled Narratives, Curated Silences, and the Crisis of Legibility

12:45 PM 2:45 PM Embodiment

Session Chair - Puja Ghosh, University of Oregon

Nancy J. Hirschmann - Disability, Colonialism, and Environmental Theory through a Feminist Lens

Yingshihan Zhu - Toward A Love-based Model of Autonomy

Paromita Patranobish - Care Work as Embodied Ethics: A Cripistemological Inquiry

3:00 PM 5:00 PM Language, Identity, and Belonging

Session Chair: Feroza Jussawalla, Professor Emerita English Department, University of New Mexico

Muhammad Velji - Rethinking Saba Mahmood’s Account of ‘Inhabiting a Norm’

Mansi Hitesh - Belonging: A Feminist Reorientation toward Cultural Objects

Margaret McLaren & Sanjula Rajat - Coloniality of Gender and Queerness in India

Sunday, Oct 22

A woman in a sari riding a bicycle while other women sheer her on

Above art work from https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-45-womens-movement-india/Illustrator: Vikas ThakurImage Description: A woman in a sari riding a bicycle while other women sheer her on

Sunday, Oct 22

All times are Central Time (US) / GMT-5:00

8:45 AM 9:00 AM Chai Time, Hangout on Zoom

9:00 AM 11:00 AM The Body as a Site of Political Resistance

Session Chair: Sabeen Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Swarthmore College

Hiba Akbar - “Your Body but My Choice”: Right Wing Backlash to Pakistan’s Aurat March

Nazia Hussein - South Asian Muslim Women’s struggle to gain value: The labour behind everyday politics in Britain

Leia Devadason - Disidentifying with Odissi: Toward a Queer Phenomenology of Indian Classical Dance

11:15 AM 12:35 PM Contemporary Issues

Session Chair: Sumeet Patwardhan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Macalester College

Elise Springer - Some concerns about "sustainability" as an ideal

Danielle Rae - The Origins of the PKK’s Feminism

1:00 PM 2:00 PM Teach-in on Palestine led by Isis Nusair

Associate Professor, Women's & Gender Studies; International Studies; Middle East North African Studies, Denison University

Book Panel

Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality

by Shenila Khoja-Moolji.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Shia Ismaili Muslim communities were repeatedly displaced. How, in the aftermath of these displacements, did they remake their communities?

Shenila Khoja-Moolji highlights women’s critical role in this rebuilding process and breaks new ground by writing women into modern Ismaili history.

Rebuilding Community theorizes Muslim ethics of care that springs specifically from the Shia Ismaili tradition. In doing so, it both builds on Saba Mahmood’s work and takes it in new directions by starting a conversation about those Muslim traditions where an Imam (spiritual leader) is present and hence becomes an ongoing source of moral guidance. The book both honors Mahmood’s work and directs attention to additional minoritized interpretations of Islam where piety takes different forms.

Confirmed Speakers

Aditi Maddali

Doctoral scholar in Women's Studies at the Advanced Centre for Women's Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India

Anjam Singh

CARE Nepal

Akanksha Mehta

Lecturer in Gender, Race and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London

Barbara Fultner

Department of Philosophy, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Denison University.

Caleb Ward

University of Hamburg

Danielle Rae

Political Science, McGill University

Deepta Chopra

Institute of Development Studies

Eliana Luxemburg-Peck

Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy at the Graduate Center, CUNY

Elise Springer

Associate Professor, Philosophy Department, Wesleyan University

Harini Kumar

Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University

Hiba Akbar

Visiting Assistant Professor, Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law (SAHSOL), LUMS

Jessica A. Albrecht

University of Heidelberg, Germany, PhD student

Leia Devadason

PhD Student, University of California, Berkeley

Mansi Hitesh

Ph.D. Student, Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Emory University

Mariam Durrani

Lecturer at American University

Margaret McLaren

Harriet W. and George D. Cornell Professor of Philosophy, Rollins College

Mona Sherpa

CARE Nepal

Muhammad Velji

Visiting Assistant Professor in Philosophy Department of Wesleyan University

Namita Goswami

Indiana State University

Nazia Hussein

Senior Lecturer in Race, University of Bristol

Niharika Pandit

Lecturer in Sociology, Queen Mary University of London

Paromita Patranobish

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, India

Priya Raghavan

Institute of Development Studies

Rebecca Waxman

PhD Candidate in History, University of California Los Angeles

Sanjula Rajat

PhD stduent at University of Oregon

Shenila Khoja-Moolji

Associate Professor, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Associate Professor of Muslim Societies, Georgetown University

Shruti Devgan

Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bowdoin College

Sudha Rawat

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Sumeet Patwardhan

Assistant Professor, Macalester College

Yanis Iqbal

Aligarh Muslim University

Yingshihan Zhu

PhD student at CUNY, The Graduate Center

Zeinab Nobowati

PhD student at University of Oregon

Registration Information:

https://www.pdcnet.org/wp/registrations/2023-feast/

Colleagues, the registration is complimentary for everyone joining us from the Global South. This includes countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc.

FEAST runs on the labor of all volunteers and does give honorarium to our keynote speakers. In addition, every other year, we hold an in-person conference that also requires extensive funding. We appreciate everyone that donates to FEAST as it will help us continue our mission of promoting feminist ethical perspectives.

The meeting will be virtual, and all presentations and panels will take place online only.

Pre-Registration is required by Wednesday, October 18 to ensure immediate access to all sessions when the conference begins on October 20. After that date, the price will increase. New registrations will be processed every 24 hours, so please be sure to register at least 24 hours in advance of any panels you hope to attend.

All Faculty, students, and community members from the Global South / Undergraduate Students may attend at no charge but are required to register.

Membership: Membership is not required for the virtual conference, but ALL are invited to join FEAST.