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Sex Work and Queer Movements, Money and Space: Land Use, Economic Informality, and Sexuality in India

Sex Work and Queer Movements, Money and Space: Land Use, Economic Informality, and Sexuality in India

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Sex Work and Queer Movements, Money and Space: Land Use, Economic Informality, and Sexuality in India
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<strong>CENTRE FOR WOMEN'S STUDIES, JNU</strong> <strong>a Seminar</strong> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Sex Work and Queer Movements, Money and Space: Land Use, Economic Informality, and Sexuality in India</strong> by <strong>Svati P. Shah</strong> Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst <strong>DATE: 13th JANUARY (Tuesday), 2015</strong> This talk reviews the major theoretical contributions of Svati Shah's recently published book, Street Corner Secrets: Sex Work and Migration in the City of Mumbai, which challenges widespread notions of sex work in India by examining solicitation in three spaces within the city that are seldom placed within the same analytic frame - brothels, streets, and public day-wage labor markets (nakas), where sexual commerce may be solicited discretely alongside other income-generating activities. Focusing on women who migrated to Mumbai from rural, economically underdeveloped areas within India, Shah demonstrates that sex work, like day labor, is properly understood as both insurance and a source of income within India's vast informal economy. In the course of this ethnography, Shah discusses policing practices, migrants' access to housing and water, the idea of public space, critiques of states and citizenship, and the discursive location of violence within debates on sexual commerce. The latter part of the talk reviews the theoretical bridges between sex work and queer movements in India, and explores the ways in which a critique of sexuality politics is imbricated within critiques of displacement and the production of space.

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.