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Postcolonial Governmentality and the Politics of Rape: Violence, Vulnerability and the State

Postcolonial Governmentality and the Politics of Rape: Violence, Vulnerability and the State

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Postcolonial Governmentality and the Politics of Rape: Violence, Vulnerability and the State
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<strong>CENTRE FOR WOMEN'S STUDIES, JNU</strong> a Seminar on <strong>Postcolonial Governmentality and the Politics of Rape: Violence, Vulnerability and the State</strong> by <strong>Nikita Dhawan</strong> Professor of Political Science at the Leopold-Franzen University Innsbruck and Director of the Frankfurt Research Center for Postcolonial Studies, Goethe University, Frankfurt DATE:<strong> 8th JANUARY, 2015</strong> Given the routineness of rape, the unprecedented nationwide anti-rape rallies in India protesting the gang rape and gruesome assault of a young student in the country's capital have been hailed in the global media as a sign of an "empowered" Indian public, which managed to shame the Indian state into action against sexual violence. The troubling questions are whether the protests would have been so widespread if the young woman had been from a marginalized group or had "only" been brutally assaulted, instead of being raped. Do the protests and media coverage simply reflect the fetishization of penovaginal penetration? Against the deployment of sex as a site of power, Michel Foucault recommends "desexualization of rape" as a strategy against disciplinary power. The sexual definition of rape, he argues, reinforces the genitalization of the body, thereby justifying the disciplinary targeting of sexuality. He provocatively asks why an assault with a penis should be distinguished legally from an assault with any other body part. Given his distrust of law as well as the state, Foucault seeks to delink desire and crime, sexuality and the law in an attempt to immunize sexual acts from becoming target of state intervention. Revisiting Foucault's controversial proposal to treat rape like a "punch in the face", Dhawan's talk will address issues of gendered vulnerability and political agency, shame and guilt, accountability and governmentality, surveillance and securitization, to investigate the role of civil society and the state in promoting and obstructing gender justice. Instead of pursuing for or against positions vis-à-vis the state and judiciary, she will explore the Derridian/Spivakian idea of state as pharmakon - medicine as well as poison.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.