The South Asian Studies Initiative presents a book discussion on The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India with author Shailaja Paik.
Balmurli Natrajan, Professor of Anthropology at William Paterson University and author of Culturalization of Caste in India: Identity and Inequality in a Multicultural Age will be in conversation with Shailaja Paik, Professor of History, University of Cincinnati on her new book The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India published by Stanford University Press. Professor Madhumita Dutta (OSU Geography) will moderate the discussion.
The Vulgarity of Caste offers the first social and intellectual history of Dalit performance of Tamasha—a popular form of public, secular, traveling theater in Maharashtra. Drawing on ethnographies, films, and untapped archival materials, the book illuminates how Tamasha was produced and shaped through conflicts over caste, gender, sexuality and culture.
Sponsored by the South Asian Studies Initiative and the Departments of History, Geography, and NESA. This event is free and open to the public.
Shailaja Paik's research, writing, and teaching interests lie at the intersection of a number of fields: Modern South Asia; Dalit studies; women's, gender, and sexuality studies; social and political movements; oral history; human rights and humanitarianism. She specializes in the social, intellectual, and cultural history of Modern India. Her first book, Dalit Women's Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination (Routledge, 2014), examines the nexus between caste, class, gender, and state pedagogical practices among Dalit ("Untouchable") women in urban India. Her second book, The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India (Stanford University Press, 2022), analyzes the politics of caste, class, gender, sexuality, and popular culture in modern Maharashtra. She is working on her third monograph Becoming "Vulgar": Caste Domination and Normative Sexuality in Modern India.
Balmurli Natrajan is a professor of Anthropology in the Department of Community Development and Social Justice at William Paterson University of New Jersey. An anthropologist, marine engineer and software developer by training, his research and teaching is on group formation; identity & inequalities (caste, race, community, culture, diversity, cognition, variation, and transmission); globalization and international development (sanitation, domestic work, indebtedness, livelihoods); India and South Asia. Dr. Natrajan's book Culturalization of Caste in India: Identity and Inequality in a Multicultural Age (2011) covers the new modes of persistence of caste in India, and his co-edited volume "Against Stigma: Studies in Caste, Race and Justice Since Durban" (2009) is on the global discourse of 'race' and caste. His current work is on sanitation practices and development policy in India.
In our current moment of riding the unpredictable currents of the pandemic, we reaffirm the value of in-person engagement. We strive to amplify the energy in the room. But we also recognize the need to be careful and the fact that not all our guests will be able to visit our space. We, therefore, will continue to offer Zoom access to all our events upon request.
This event is free and open to the public.
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