The CWS Library and Documentation Centre houses a wide collection of books and documents. The Library is open to students and faculty members from all over the University. Visitors to the Centre/University can also consult the Library holdings, if they have prior permission from the Chair to do so.
Rules:
CWS faculty and Direct PhD Students are allowed to issue books. All other members of the university, or people from outside the university, with prior permission, can sit in the library and use the available resources.
International Collaborations :
Erasmus+ Programme: Center for Women’s Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi and Vilnius University (VU) in Lithuania have an ongoing Erasmus agreement. This agreement facilitates exchanges and mobility between VU and Center for Women's Studies, JNU.
UK Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project: "Globalising Gender Studies after the Cold War: Histories and Movements, 1985-2025".
Co-Lead: Dr. Mallarika Sinha Roy, Assistant Professor, CWS, JNU.
This international collaborative project brings together a distinguished research team consisting of one Principal Investigator (University of Cambridge), two Co-leads (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and Jawaharlal Nehru University), and three postdoctoral research fellows across three continents.
Globalising Gender Studies explores the gendered effects of transitions to liberal democracy and neoliberal market economies after the Cold War through a comprehensive global history of Women's & Gender Studies. The project is conducted in partnership with women's studies centres and non-profit organisations across Eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Asia.
Our research challenges narratives that emphasize the imposition of 'gender expertise' by the global North, instead uncovering the rich history of contestation and negotiation between global and local actors. Through archival research and interviews with international donors, national governments, and women's/gender studies centres, we explore the complex process of institutionalization from the perspective of contemporary actors.
The project provides a unique comparative analysis of how this interdisciplinary field emerged through interactions between international donors, financial institutions, philanthropic foundations, national governments, and local social movements in the global South and post-socialist East.
Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) Courses:
(Global Initiative of Academic Networks, Ministry of Education, India and Centre for Women’s Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi)
In the Event of Women: Teaching East to East, South to South, by Prof. Tani Barlow, Rice University, USA. 27 Nov-8 Dec 2017.
Feminism, Theatre and Activism, by Prof. Elaine Aston, Professor Emerita at Lancaster University, UK. 17th-21st February 2025.
Student Publications (2024-Present):
• Student Publications (2024-present)
Ardra R.
• “Monstrous Daughters and Forgotten Mothers: Rewriting the ‘Matrilineal’” In Feminist Dystopias - ‘Horror Womenism: Reclaiming the Monstrous Feminine’: Volume 1, Omniversa Publications. 2026.
• “Memory and the Female Subject: An Analysis of ‘Ormayude Njarambu’ by KR Meera” – in ‘Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens’, CSMFL Books. 2025.
• Feminisation of Terror: The Overlooked Role of Women in Terrorism’, The International Prism https://www.theinternationalprism.com/feminisation-of-terror-the-overlooked-role-of-women-in-terrorism/. 2024.
Himalika Mohanty
• Review: Superheroes in the Street: Muslim Women Activists and Protests in the Digital Age. Gender and Development. 2024. https://www.genderanddevelopment.org/3212-gender-and-public-space/book-review-superheroes-in-the-streets-muslim-women-activists-and-protest-in-the-digital-age/
• “What Happens to Friendship When We Marry? Insights from Urban India”. CRFR Blog. The Centre for Research on Families and Relationships. University of Edinburgh. January, 2026. https://www.crfr.ac.uk/what-happens-to-friendship-when-we-marry-insights-from-urban-india/
Upcoming Publications
• “Heterosexual Scripts and the Trouble of Friendship”. Lambda Nordica. Issue: Heterosexuality. Issue 31(1). Spring-Summer 2026.
• Edited Volume - Mapping Friendships: Geographies of Belonging. Eds. Shilpa Phadke, Nithila Kanagasabai and Himalika Mohanty. Routledge. Summer 2027.
Nadeeka Sandamali Pieris
• “Navigating Multiple Worlds: Intersectionality, Identity, and Artistic Agency in the Life of Arundhati Devi”. 2026. Journal of the English Literator Society, 12(3), 21-29. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/404469893_Navigating_Multiple_Worlds_Intersectionality_Identity_and_Artistic_Agency_in_the_Life_of_Arundhati_Devi
Shrestha Bandopadhyay
• Review of Cultures of Ageing and Ageism in India, edited by Paromita Chakravarti and Kaustav Bakshi. Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), 18 April, 2026. https://www.epw.in/journal/2026/16/book-reviews/re-imagining-aged-body.html
• “Daring to Tell the Tale: A Thematic Analysis of Feminist Retellings of Popular Mythological Narratives.” Journal of Women’s Studies, Vol. XIII, University of North Bengal, 2024. 42.104.73.51:91/nbujournal/womenstudies/JOWS_2024_Volume_13.pdf
• “Precarious Lives: Analysing the Contemporary Struggles of Sex Workers and Their Children in Sonagachi.” International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Review Studies (IJMRRS), 2024. https://ijmrrs.com/volume-1-issue-1/
• Bandopadhyay, Shrestha. “Sarala Ray: The Tumultuous Path to Stree Shiksha” Feminism in India, 12 March 2026. https://feminisminindia.com/2026/03/12/sarala-ray-the-tumultuous-path-to-stree-shiksha-indianwomeninhistory/
• "Uncovering the Gendered Understructure of Instagram." Feminism in India, 6 November 2024. https://feminisminindia.com/2024/11/06/uncovering-the-gendered-understructure-of-instagram/
• "Challenging the Dichotomy: A Critical Inspection of Durkheim’s Sacred-Profane Binary." The Sociology Group, 11 October 2024. https://www.sociologygroup.com/challenging-dichotomy-critical-inspection-durkheims-sacred-profane-binary/#google_vignette
Sandhya Gawali
• “Women in Agriculture: From Recognition to Structural Issues”, Social Action Volume 75, October 2025 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397653919_Women_in_Agriculture_From_Recognition_to_Structural_Issues