Sahar Romani, Singh Postdoctoral Associate in South Asian Studies
Location: 10 Sachem, Room 105
Time: 12:00- 1:00pm
Title: “Being NGO Girls: Mobilizing Development Femininities in Kolkata’s Red-light Areas”
I examine the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a cultural and political force in shaping gendered and classed subjectivities of young women growing up in ‘red-light areas’ in Kolkata, India. I foreground the ways young women deploy NGO gender narratives to improve their everyday lives. Drawing on debates of NGOization, urban Indian femininities, and intersectionality, I demonstrate how several young women who grow up as ‘subjects’ of NGO development, mobilize, reject, and improvise contested NGO-inspired femininities for their everyday gain.
Sahar Romani is the Singh Postdoctoral Associate in South Asian Studies. Her research interests include development, poverty, NGOs, youth cultures, and city life in the South Asia. She received a masters at University of Washington and a doctorate in Geography from Oxford University.