Social Difference Columbia University 1/31/17 Social Difference Columbia University 1/31/17

Anupama Rao Publishes New York Times Opinion Piece on Indian Supreme Court Ruling

Anupama Rao, Associate Professor of History, Barnard College, and director of the recently completed CSSD project on Gender and the Global Slum, published an opinion piece in the New York Times on an Indian Supreme Court ruling that bans political appeals to identity.

"In India today, we are seeing the overturning of an order predicated on the protection of social minorities in favor of majority rights," wrote Rao. "Given current politics, will Hindu majoritarian claims be allowed, while minorities are banned from making claims to discriminated identity, or social suffering?" she wrote.

Read the full piece here.

Social Difference Columbia University 1/22/16 Social Difference Columbia University 1/22/16

"Difference of Caste" Workshop Convenes in New Delhi

The working group Gender and the Global Slum convened a closed workshop December 21-22, 2015 at the India International Centre in New Delhi on "The Difference of Caste."

The workshop served as preparation for the forthcoming publication of a volume of the same title concerning the intersections of caste, gender, sex, and social difference, to be edited by Anupama Rao and published by Women Unlimited.

The Difference of Caste will extend and elaborate on issues that were first addressed in a reader entitled Gender and Caste: Issues in Indian Feminism, that was published by Zed in 2003. Gender and Caste asked scholars to recognize caste’s centrality to the production of the gendered subject, and feminism’s complicity in producing a limited, or partial subject of feminism.

The workshop was supported by funds from the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Center for the Study of Social Difference. Read more about the workshop here.

Social Difference Columbia University 11/29/14 Social Difference Columbia University 11/29/14

Women Leaders in Changing India

Anupama Rao, Women Creating Change project director for "Gender and the Global Slum" will participate in a discussion at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, featuring: Anjali Bansal ’97SIPA, Managing Director, Spencer Stuart, Sheela Patel, Director, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC), and Falguni Nayar P: ’12CC, Founder and CEO Nykaa.com. The panel will address the challenges and opportunities that face women in India's formal and informal economies.

The panel will be moderated by Vishakha Desai, Special Advisor for Global Affairs Columbia University, Professor of Professional Practice in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs.