Madhavi Murty discusses economic liberalization and the “development story” in India

Drawing together work at the interface of media and women’s studies, on February 29 Madhavi Murty will speak about “The Development Story: Caste, Religion and Poverty in ‘New’ India”.  Madhavi’s research explores popular narratives of gender, caste, and religion in post-liberalization India. 

4.30pm • February 29 • Room 203, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

Madhavi notes the subaltern woman is often assumed to be absent in triumphalist narratives of liberalization that celebrate 1991 and its aftermath as a moment of national renewal, akin to the achievement of independence in 1947.  Yet, she argues, that the figure of the subaltern woman, whose marginality is intensified by the intersection of low caste status, minority religious affiliation, and poverty, is actually crucial to such narratives.   Her research demonstrates through analysis of film, news media, advertising, and popular non-fiction, that narrating liberalization relies on the remaking of subaltern women as emblems of modern subjecthood.   In her talk, Madhavi will explore in particular discourses of development through a focus on the issue of reservations and the political figure of Narendra Modi in news, popular culture, and film.

Madhavi holds a PhD from the Department of Communications at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her dissertation, “Tales of a Nation Unbound: Mass Media and the Remaking of Gender, Caste and Religion in Post-Reform India”, combines research interests in feminism and gender, cultural studies, popular culture and nationalism. She has authored and co-authored publications in Signs, Thirdspace:A Journal of Feminist Theory and Culture, and Popular Communication.In Spring 2012, Madhavi is offering two courses, Gender in a Transnational World and Gender and Media in India.