Join us online on Tuesday 15 November 2022 at 12pm for the third Research Lunch of the term!
Register to attend the webinar.
We will have three speakers sharing their research:
- Pooja Marwaha, University of Edinburgh - “Moving beyond blood ties”
- Elena Nowacki, Sorbonne Université - “Women’s bodies as Property - Marital rape in light of Western visual culture’s abductions”
- Sara Vakili, University of Tübingen - "Queering Rumi: A phenomenological Approach"
Speakers:
Pooja Marwaha, “Moving beyond blood ties”
This presentation introduces my PhD project, which focuses on lesbian and bisexual South Asian women and examines the topic of personal and intimate relationships for these women as they come out and or explore their sexuality. Little research has been carried out on LGBT+ people of colour and it has very rarely focused on South Asian women. This presentation will be primarily focused the existing literature and where my research will fit into it.
My project proposes to interview queer south Asian individuals as well as their parents and siblings to gain a better insight into their relationships with their families of origins after coming out or questioning their sexuality.
My primary motivation for pursuing this PhD research is to open up and add to the discussion around queer South Asian women and start a dialogue going with the more mainstream LGBT+ organisations. This will in turn aim to create an awareness and more resources for lesbian and bisexual south Asian women living in the UK and helping them feel accepted in a community dominated by White LGBT+ individuals and an ethnic culture that is inherently masculine and heteronormative.
Elena Nowacki, “Women’s bodies as Property – Marital rape in light of Western visual culture’s abductions”
TW: mentions of rape and depictions of sexual violence
‘In preparation of a thesis project, this preliminary research intends to analyse one of the major motifs of Western visual culture as an example of rape culture’s mechanisms. It discusses how the motif of abduction persisted in pictorial representations, and seeks to demonstrate that it participated in the construction of a visual habit. Through its strong presence in our visual landscape, it contributed to shaping our contemporary understanding of marital relationships. Therefore, a parallel is drawn between this motif and marital rape and duty. Indeed, this research supports that abductions in Western visual culture are partly responsible for the enforcement of a strong reifying ideology over women’s bodies. This, having consequences up to contemporary partnerships (especially in heterosexual settings).
Sara Vakili, "Queering Rumi: A phenomenological Approach"
Queering Rumi considers how Rumi negotiates queer, mystic conduct in order to create an identity constantly in transformation. In this article, I examine (some) aspects of Rumi’s thinking and life: his mysticism as a mode of resistance and as “a way of life”; his phenomenology in terms of his mystical experience; his subjectivity as a form of becoming. These aspects of his life and thought invoke possibilities for the body to experience the divine in queer ways. Doing so, I demonstrate how the divergence of his desire toward the divine is perceived as queer desire – a desire that cannot be realized in the straight time and place.
There will be time for questions after the panel.
For further information, please contact Alice Parrinello alice.parrinello@stx.ox.ac.uk.
Queer Intersections Oxford
