The World Making Words research network aims to generate new insights into the historical formation, contemporary condition, and future trajectory of literary production for, by and about women in South Asia and to innovate new methods for the study of gender, creativity, and culture more broadly in postcolonial contexts. Uniquely, it brings together researchers from across the arts, humanities and social sciences, with cultural industry professionals (editors, publishers, translators and more) and gender equality activists.

World Making Words: Connecting women’s literary agency, activism and enterprise in South Asia is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and led by Dr Madeline Clements and Dr Rachel Carroll of Teesside University.

Workshop 2: Kerala, November 2024

Ruchira Gupta presenting her keynote. Photo by Madeline Clements.

Workshop 2: G/local Culture, Rights, Development, Activism

27 November 2024, Kerala, India

World Making Words: Connecting women’s literary agency, activism and enterprise in South Asia: Workshop 2 on G/local Culture, Rights, Development, Agency, Technologies.

This second workshop explored the relationship of both global and local culture to the expression of women’s rights, development, and activism in South Asia, with a particular focus on the intersection between written word and visual art/image, and the exploitation of (new) technologies. It included a reading group discussion of Priya’s Shakti (Devineni and Goldman, 2014), an augmented reality graphic novel in Hindi/English promoted by the UN as a ‘Gender Equality Champion’.

Attending this workshop was not just a scholarly endeavour but also a profound reminder of the power of storytelling—across mediums, disciplines, and borders—to inspire change.

Read more about the day in the reflective report by PhD researcher and PGR bursary recipient, Navin Sharma.

About the event

Hosted in conjunction with Professor Meena Pillai of the Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Kerala, this event took place at the Mascot Hotel, Trivandrum, on 27 June 2024.

Contributors included T Amiya (PGR, Kerala University); Ruchira Gupta (Founder, Aapne Aap Women Worldwide), Navtej Purewal (Professor of Anti and Decolonial Politics and Praxes, University of the Arts, London), Kaoma Kaoma (Student at Risk participant, Zambia), Parvathy Salil (Postgraduate Researcher in English Studies, Teesside University), Navin Sharma (PGR, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna) and Pragya Sharma (Centre for Design History, University of Brighton).

Delegates were asked to read / view the multimedia project Priya’s Shakti in advance of the event.

Detail from Priya’s Shakti video, available at: Priya’s Shakti — Power of Priya

Programme

World Making Words Kerala 27 Nov 2024 Workshop Programme FINAL_14.11.24 Download

Student Workshop: Literature and Everyday Forms of Protest

A student-led workshop at the Institute of English, Kerala University, took place the day after our research networking workshop, on 28 November 2024, and was attended by an audience of staff, students and network participants. They spoke passionately about how studying and reading literature has transformed their everyday.