By Koki Kapoor ’21
This summer, because of the Brace Center for Gender Studies, I had the opportunity to research and analyze queer identity in Pre and Post-colonial India and look at how the British Colonial Regime worked to colonize sexuality and enforce heteronormative ideals through legal instruments such as Section 377 of the British-introduced Indian Penal Code as well as a reconstructed education curriculum. Throughout the research process that took place during the end of Spring term and the start of summer, I was intent on creating a bibliography that centered South-Asian voices.
Alongside reading gender theory by Western academics such as Michael Foucault and Judith Butler, I read theory by South-Asian Post-Colonial scholars such as Gayatri Spivak. However, finding and accessing the works of South-Asian academics was not the easiest task. But with the help of OWHL, specifically Ms. Goss, as well as Dr. Vidal and Ms. Driscoll, I was able to scourge through the depths of JSTOR, Internet Archive, Amazon, Hathi Trust, etc. to find books and articles that emphasized the South Asian voices that have been trampled over by the world of Western academia and colonization and highlight them in my bibliography. Though this process was difficult, I never once had to worry about being unable to access any resource and I’m so grateful to everyone at the Brace Center for making me feel seen as a South Asian woman of color in academia.
Brace Center for Gender Studies 