Queering Knowledge: Academia in the Hands of the Activists

Building on preliminary fieldwork with feminist activists in Kolkata the project proposes to conduct a focused study into the use of knowledge by activists and those identifying primarily as non-academic.
The main objectives are:
- to develop a nuanced understanding of how academic knowledge is encountered, interpreted and deployed by individuals identifying primarily as non-academic (theoretical/anthropological).
- to reflect upon knowledge hierarchies and reconsider the process of knowledge exchange between different knowledge forms and different intellectual contexts e.g. activist, academic, policy, regions, politico-legal environments (epistemological).
- to use knowledge and activism as lenses to explore the lived experience of queer-identifying and feminist women in North-East India in the current political context of right-wing Hindu Nationalism (regional contribution).