ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will be examining gender as conceptualised and applied in Sri Lankan women’s studies discourses, and arguing that gender is, in effect, an epistemology (connaissances). This is a sharp departure from existing understandings within the local context of gender as a category of research alongside the categories of women and feminist. To argue the point I will pose the following questions concerning gender. How does gender generate / construct / deconstruct knowledge? What is the relationship between gender and subjectivity? How does gender operate in research praxis? In responding to these questions, I hope to uncover, compose and problematise epistemologically what it means to ‘do’ gender research in the local context (as well as what ‘being’ or becoming gender means).
