Talking Research

Dr Manali Desai is a Reader in Comparative and Historical Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on the areas of state formation, political parties, social movements, development, ethnic violence, gender and post-colonial studies. In this conversation, we spoke about gendered violence in India in general and Manali's related research in particular. Manali brought along her expertise of post-colonial India and used her sociological lens to dissect the institutional conditions that normalise violence, neoliberalism and how that relates to sexual violence, white feminist gaze and more.

Article that we discussed: Desai, M. 2016. ‘Gendered Violence and the Body Politic in India', New Left Review, May/June.

Manali's Books:

DeLeon, C., M. Desai and C. Tugal (eds.). 2015. Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. (ASA Political Sociology Section: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Article or Book Chapter) Award (Honorable Mention)

Chatterjee, P., M. Desai and P. Roy (eds.). 2009. States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia. New Delhi: Zubaan and Cambridge University Press.

Desai, M. 2007. State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860-1990. [Studies in Asia's Transformations Series]. London and New York: Routledge.

What is Talking Research?

Talking Research features in-depth interviews with prominent academics and researchers who study sexual violence across disciplines. The aim is to make academic knowledge and research on sexual violence accessible. Every other Wednesday, guests talk about their research, their findings, the process, the challenges and everything else in between.

talkingresearchpodcast@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/talkingresearch https://twitter.com/talk_research

Organisations that provide support:

India: https://yourstory.com/2016/04/women-helpline-india
Scotland: https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/
England & Wales: https://rapecrisis.org.uk/
USA: https://www.rainn.org/
Australia: https://www.rape-dvservices.org.au/

Credits:
Logo- Raghvi Bhatia
Music- Madhav Narayan

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