School of Social and Political Science

Description

As courtrooms become sites of sexual freedom through fighting colonial era laws or seeking same sex marriages rights, and this which is often presented as a decolonial moment/movement, I want to remind you that it is far from it. In its moment of glory, it erases violent caste histories that continue to characterize South Asian queer lives in India and amidst diasporas. It produces what it believes is the queer subject. In its attempt to present a homogenous queer figure that fights the British colonial pasts, it resorts to entrenched and everyday caste violence to sustain itself.  It brings to surface a celebration of past which is also a celebration of caste. From how desires are themselves coded and practiced in everyday - from streets, homes, dancefloors, and dating Apps; what assimilative practices are demanded from us, the ‘others’? What happens to the Dalit queer lover and their desires? And can a project of decolonizing sexualities ever be complete without simultaneously de-brahmanising it? This presentation builds on everyday embodied practices of survival and deploys storytelling as a decolonial praxis. I wed stories from England and Dalit queer experiences in India to showcase the continuity of coloniality through practices of caste - in hope for a collective challenge, and for change. Towards a de-colonial praxis of hope and healing.

Organised  by the Geographies of Social Justice Research Group, co-badged by GENDER.ED.

Registration for this event is not required, all welcome. Spaces will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Bio: Dhiren Borisa is a Dalit queer activist, poet, and an urban sexual geographer. He is currently employed as Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law school, India and is presently visiting University of St Andrews as a Global Fellow (Education) at the School of International Relations. He was previously an Urban Studies Foundation International fellow and a visiting researcher at University of Sheffield and also an honorary visiting fellow at the School of Geography, Geology, and Environment at the University of Leicester, UK. He  attained his Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi on Queer Cartographies of Desires in Delhi. His research primarily focuses in studying caste and class dynamics in sexual mappings and makings of cities from an intersectional and decolonial lens both among queer spaces in India and in diasporic queer worldings.