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ABSTRACT
Existing scholarship on knowledge mobilities tends to focus on the largest metropolitan centres as loci of education and employment and as desirable destinations for knowledge migrants. This paper draws attention to the ways in which the spaces of learning in non-metropolitan locations intersect with circulations of disciplinary knowledge and aspiration to generate opportunities for social and spatial mobility. It is premised on the idea that the experiences and situated knowledge of those engaged in women’s studies in Tier II cities are apposite starting points for a critical reflection on non-metropolitan locations as brokers of student mobilities. Focusing on two government-funded Women’s Studies Centres in universities in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, I explore the transformations catalysed by these mobilities and discuss the politics of the personal – by rethinking the notions of home and alienation, and reflecting on the re-imagination of futures that Women's Studies (WS) has permitted.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 In using the term largest metropolitan centres I refer to the top eight cities in India that are classified as category X cities (population of over 5 million) based on the 2011 census. These are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. Conversely, by non-metropolitan locations, I mean smaller cities that come under category Y (population between 500,000 and 5 million). This classification is done by the Seventh Pay Commission (which stipulates the salaries of government employees) based on population and economy.
2 Not only is Women's Studies a fairly new discipline, it was also initially defined as an approach, a critical perspective rather than a ‘discipline’. Furthermore, it continues to be an academic subject with strong activist potential.
3 SNDT University, Bombay.
4 The statutory body set up by the Indian government and charged with coordination, determination, and maintenance of standards of higher education in India.
5 http://www.tn.gov.in/department/12 website of the Government of Tamil Nadu (accessed 15 January 2016).
6 Though I did not particularly ask my research participants about their caste identity, some of them brought it up while identifying themselves and some others brought it up in relation to the discrimination they faced as a result of their caste identity.
7 NPE identified WS as ‘a critical instrument of social and educational development’. Further it said, ‘Women’s Studies 1’ will be promoted as part of various courses, and educational institutions encouraged to take up active programmes to further women’s development.
8 University of Madras is a public-funded State university in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest universities in India.
9 http://www.bdu.ac.in/about-bharathidasan-university.php (accessed 15 January 2016).
10 http://www.b-u.ac.in/university/about.html Official website of BDU (accessed 15 January 2016).
11 A subject that deals with household management, particularly culinary skills. Historically, many WS departments in regional universities were born out of what were once Home Science departments.
12 Only 3 of the 30 research participants were male.
13 Self-chosen political name of castes in India which are considered and treated as untouchable.
14 Traditionally, the highest ranking caste.