Funded by the Leverhulme Trust
This Interchange programme brought about 16 exchange visits by UK and Indian academics and 8 seminars in order to cultivate an international research network in gender, sexuality and law. Through these activities the programme developed critical and comparative research in this interdisciplinary field in a manner which prioritised location and mutuality of expertise. The programme developed research by drawing on social sciences and humanities methods in the areas of: law, literature & popular culture; law, history & society; sexuality & post-coloniality; gender, reproduction & health; and social movements & human rights struggles. Participants gathered and analysed data on such varied topics as the impact of HIV/AIDS on issues of reproductive control, the impact of television in promoting ideas about sexuality, the debates about the regulation of sex-work, the effect of outward male migration on matrilineal property, representations of lesbianism, and the making of the Widow Remarriage Act. In doing so scholars developed an evidence base for assessing the impact of gender and sexuality on human potential and its regulation in cross-cultural contexts. They also mobilised a theoretical framework which used gender and sexuality to enable a critical dialogue between cultural contexts while constantly accommodating historical specificity. This analytical framework does not necessarily throw out the concept of universality but demands its constant rearticulation in light of particularity. The presentation of research in different cultural contexts enabled scholars to expose the assumptions underpinning their own research and their learned interpretation of gender and sexuality. The exchange produced a critical comparative framework which sought to turn the Western gaze back on itself and asked that international gender and sexuality scholars question the impact of their location on their research.
A full report of the project of is available to download (PDF 55kb)