Gender in South Asia

Catalog description

This course studies historical and contemporary gender issues in South Asia through the colonial, modern, and postcolonial worlds. Among them are questions like: How do Hindu epics and its complex characters, along with the figure of the sati, configure gendered imaginaries? What are the reasons for skewed sex ratios in parts of South Asia? How are modern marriages made? What role does caste play in shaping lives? How traditional transgender communities understood today? How are same-sex and queer desires shaped? How have different communities from the colonial period onwards constructed modern subjectivities through notions of social reform? How do transnational and global Diasporas of South Asians shape and transform gender norms?