ABSTRACT

This book maps the intersections between sociology and feminism in the Indian context. It retrieves the lives and work of women pioneers of and in sociology, asking crucial questions of their feminisms and their sociologies. The chapters address the experiential realities of women in the field, pedagogical issues, methodological frameworks, mentoring processes and artistic engagements with academic work. The volume’s strength lies in bringing together Indian scholars from diverse social backgrounds and regions, reflecting on the specificity of the Indian social sciences. The chapters cover a range of key areas, including sexuality, law, environment, science and medicine.

This volume will greatly interest students, teachers, researchers and practitioners of sociology, women’s studies, gender studies and feminism, politics and postcolonial studies.

chapter |29 pages

Introduction

Mapping and marking feminist sociologies in India

part I|92 pages

Reading and writing early women in sociology

chapter 1|32 pages

Early women sociologists in India

chapter 2|22 pages

Reclaiming Neera Desai’s sociological legacy

Women’s movements, struggles and organizations

chapter 3|16 pages

The sociology of C. Parvathamma

Going beyond stereotypes

chapter 4|20 pages

Ratna Naidu

An intellectual biography

part II|72 pages

Pedagogies and mentoring: living processes

chapter 5|23 pages

Sociology, feminism and mentoring

Contested sites of knowledge production and consumption

chapter 6|25 pages

Transforming the sociology classroom

Implementing a critical feminist pedagogy

chapter 7|22 pages

Finding feminism(s)

Through life in general and academics in particular

part III|143 pages

Substantive transformations

chapter 8|23 pages

Interrogating (non)consent in sexual intimacies and infringements

Mapping the socio-legal landscape in India

chapter 9|22 pages

Desire, violence and ‘pink money’

Life of kothis in a small city of western India

chapter 10|29 pages

Organizing rule through an imagiary of the ‘masculine’

A case of the ‘martial’ Marathas

chapter 11|18 pages

Interrogating the sociology of environment in western India

A gendered understanding

chapter 12|27 pages

Gender, mental illness and the everyday

Understanding the interface of psychiatry with the lives of women diagnosed as mentally ill 1

chapter 13|22 pages

Narratives in feminist sociology of science

Contextualizing the experience(s) of women scientists in India