We are pleased to announce that the Centre is hosting a public talk on 'Modernity, Decoloniality, Violence: Towards a Feminist Dialogue across the South' with Professor Mary E. John, Professor Emerita, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi on Wednesday 13 May at 5.00 pm. The talk will be held in Seminar Room S1, Second Floor, Alison Richard Building. Professor John's talk stages a critical dialogue from the location of feminism in India with three major thinkers who have played pioneering roles in the development of decolonial feminism in the Afro-American context.
The talk will commence with a meet and greet with attendees and will be followed by a drinks reception. All are welcome to attend.
Abstract
Oyeronke Oyewumi, a Nigerian anthropologist, has offered a provocative analysis of pre-colonial Oye-Yoruba society to make the claim that Yoruba society had no concept or practice of gender, which was purely a colonial imposition. Her work has become quite influential, including in the writing of Maria Lugones, an Argentinian philosopher in the US who coined the notion of “the coloniality of gender”, arguing for non-binary forms of gender in the Americas before the Spanish and Portuguese conquests. The third thinker Professor John will discuss is the anthropologist Rita Segato in Brazil, who presents evidence of what she calls “low intensity patriarchy” prior to colonial and republican conquests and the consequences of this in present times. The talk will seek out critical engagements with these thinkers for feminist concerns in India, leading to a possible reconceptualization of our encounter with British colonialism during the battle over “women” in the period of social reform. This has consequences for existing approaches to modernity, western feminism and violence against women.
Biographical note
Mary E John is a feminist scholar who retired as Professor at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi. She was Director of the Centre from 2006-2012 and before that the Deputy Director of the Women’s Studies Programme at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi from 2001-2006. She writes and speaks widely on issues related to gender and feminism. Her most recent publications include the co-edited volume Querying Childhood: Feminist Reframings (2025), Women in the Worlds of Labour: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Perspectives (2021) and the monograph Child Marriage in an International Frame: A Feminist Review from India (2021). She has undertaken several studies in the areas of family, sex selection, sexuality, marriage, labour, political representation, women’s studies and feminist theory. She was the co-Chair of a Task Force set up by the University Grants Commission to explore sexual harassment in universities and colleges and brought out the report Saksham: Measures for Ensuring Safety of Women and Programmes for Gender Sensitization on Campuses (2013). She is currently a member of a National Task Force set up by the Supreme Court of India to investigate and provide recommendations on Student Mental Health and the Prevention of Suicides in Higher Educational Institutions. Mary currently lives in Bengaluru.