Rupal Oza on “Ties to Land: Sexual Violation and Political Economy in Rural India”
Wed, Mar 23, 2022
6:30 PM–7:45 PM
This event will take place online via Zoom. Please register below.
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What is the relationship between sexual violation and private property? In this talk, Rupal Oza will follow how the social life of rape in rural Haryana is navigated through differential caste and community access to land. Beyond direct causal connections between land disputes and sexual assault, land anchors social relationships in Haryana. Oza’s effort to recount these stories of dispute and violence illustrates what Rana Jaleel (2021) has called “rape’s intimacies with property [which are] roughly tethered to expropriations of resources, lives, and land.” In these intimacies, caste relations braid together who has access to resources and land.
Rupal Oza is professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies, Hunter College, the Earth and Environmental Studies Program, and the Women and Gender Studies Program at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Her work focuses on socio-political transformations in the global south, the geography of the right-wing politics, and the conjuncture between gender, violence, and political economy. Her first book, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢: 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘹𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 was published in 2006 by Routledge, New York and by Women Unlimited, India. She has several articles in peer-reviewed journals on a range of issues: human rights in an age of terror and empire, rethinking area studies, special economic zones in India, and realigned geographies
after 9/11. Her most recent articles appear in 𝘚𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘴: 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 and are based on three years of empirical research in rural Haryana. Her book-length monograph entitled 𝘚𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘢𝘱𝘦: 𝘚𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘝𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 & 𝘚𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢, based on this research, is forthcoming from Duke University Press.
This event is organized and hosted by Center for the Study of Women and Society and is co-sponsored with the PhD Programs in Anthropology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Political Science, The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and The Feminist Press