This foundational course seeks to provide an introduction to intersectional approaches in the understanding of gender and embodiment in our everyday lives. The question of embodiment has been perennial in feminist research and scholarship, and this course will help students learn to critically reflect on, and engage with the ways in which structures and power relations operate and shape society and the individual. I also emphasise the importance of reflexivity in social sciences, whereby students critically look at their own embeddedness in society and get acquainted with diverse perspectives, and thus become active participants in the co-production of knowledge.

The course employs an interdisciplinary approach, and seeks to familiarize the students with pertinent sociological and feminist theories that address the social construction of embodiment and the formation of gendered identities in social institutions such as families, schools, workplaces, public spaces and/or virtual spaces. The course also gives an overview of the ways in which these gendered identities and categories are questioned, contested and subverted in everyday lives. As readings, the course will rely on primary readings such as academic papers or books. The course will also employ other kinds of audio-visual texts such as documentary/feature films and other relevant works of fiction to open up and broaden the scope of classroom discussions in an effort to include diverse perspectives.

I wish to employ various teaching methods. Apart from lectures in the classroom, I would like to employ interactive pedagogical tools, including discussions, inviting subject experts to talk about their research (relevant to the curricula), (individual or group) presentations in class, assignments, and so on.

The modules of this course shall be structured keeping in mind the following central questions:

How do bodies and embodied experiences become gendered? What roles do social institutions play in the social control of the lived body? How does gendered embodiment intersect with various axes of power (such as caste, class, religion, or sexuality, state, law, community or religion) in India? How do we understand the concept of power and resistance in the context of gendered embodiment?

The structure and sequence of the course is as follows –

• Understanding gender

• The ‘lived body’ and its experiences

• Socialization, social control and the institutionalization of gender

• Masculinities

• Intersectional approaches to understanding gender

• Gender and work

• Gender and space

• Gender and the media

• Queer embodiment and the politics of gender

• Gender and the state

• Gender and violence

• Claiming space, claiming rights: Gender rights movements in India