Dr Manali Desai is a Reader in Comparative and Historical Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on the areas of state formation, political parties, social movements, development, ethnic violence, gender and post-colonial studies. In this conversation, Dr Desai describes the underlying factors behind gendered violence in India, which is a key focus of her research. Dr Desai brings her expertise of post-colonial India and uses her sociological lens to dissect the institutional conditions that normalise rape, explores how neoliberalism relates to sexual violence, white feminist gaze and more.
Article discussed:
Desai, M. 2016. ‘Gendered Violence and the Body Politic in India‘, New Left Review 99, 67-83.
Further publications:
DeLeon, C., M. Desai and C. Tugal (eds.). 2015. Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. (ASA Political Sociology Section: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Article or Book Chapter) Award
Chatterjee, P., M. Desai and P. Roy (eds.). 2009. States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia. New Delhi: Zubaan and Cambridge University Press.
Desai, M. 2007. State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860-1990. [Studies in Asia’s Transformations Series]. London and New York: Routledge.
Decolonise Sociology @ Cambridge 