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CWS organises a seminar by Rupal Oza

CWS organises a seminar by Rupal Oza

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CWS organises a seminar by Rupal Oza
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CENTRE FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES, JNU

Invites you to a Seminar on 

 

Sexual Subjectivity in Rape Narratives: Consent, Credibility and Coercion in Rural Haryana

 

by

Rupal Oza

(Department of Women and Gender Studies, Hunter College, CUNY, New York)

 

Since the national uprising after the brutal rape and death of a young physiotherapy student in 2012 and subsequent amendments to strengthen the law, the National Crime Records Bureau  in India has recorded an increase in the number of cases. This talk is an empirical study based in rural Haryana that seeks to understand this increase. On asking police officers, attorneys, and senior bureaucrats about the increase, the most common refrain the speaker heard was that 90% of the rape cases were false. Against documented evidence of police collusion and challenges women and minorities face to file a rape charge, Rupal Oza is interested in what the amplification of false cases allows. There are two arguments she makes; first she suggests the false case narrative is a hostile response to structural and discursive credibility, albeit limited and contingent, that women’s claims of violation are beginning to receive. Second, she argues that consent – in the false rape narrative – simultaneously nullifies the rape charge while discrediting the woman as corrupt and immoral. It is a disciplining maneuver, which seeks to bring the straying women back into the libidinal boundaries of the patriarchal home and state. Sexual subjectivity, in the title of this talk, signals deep anxiety of the patriarchal state machinery, which motivates efforts to wrest autonomy, accorded by the term ‘consent’ from women back to its ‘rightful’ place with men.

 

Date: 22nd January 2019, Tuesday, Time: 3.00 PM to 5.00 PM

Venue: Room No.324, Third Floor, SSS-1 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.