Chayanika Shah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forum Against Oppression of Women
Forum Against Sex Determination and Sex Preselection (FASDSP)We and Our Fertility: The politics of technological intervention No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy (Zubaan Books)
Space, Segregation, Discrimination: The Politics of Space in Institutions of Higher Education (Yoda Press)Chayanika Shah | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | IIT-Bombay |
| Organization(s) | LABIA – A Queer Feminist LBT Collective
Forum Against Oppression of Women Forum Against Sex Determination and Sex Preselection (FASDSP) |
| Known for | Work and activism at the intersection of science, feminism, and queer rights. |
| Notable work | Bharat ki Chaap
We and Our Fertility: The politics of technological intervention No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy (Zubaan Books) Space, Segregation, Discrimination: The Politics of Space in Institutions of Higher Education (Yoda Press) |
| Movement | People’s science movement, Feminist and queer rights movement, Feminist science studies, Women in STEM |
Chayanika Shah is a queer feminist, activist,[1] educator involved in various women's rights movements in India since the late 1970s. She is known for her work in feminist science studies, initiating courses where science is explored using the lens of gender. Shah's work in science, feminism and queer rights, has involved a critique of science's control over women's bodies and sexualities. Shah has published several essays and publications on topics of gender, science and feminism and is a contributor in the field of feminism, queer rights and science.[2][3]
Shah was one of the earliest members of the Forum Against Oppression of Women, Forum Against Sex Determination and Sex Preselection (FASDSP),[4] a coalition of women's organisations. She is one of the founding members of a queer collective called LABIA – A Queer Feminist LBT Collective in 1995.[5][6]
Shah grew up in Nagpur (now a part of Maharashtra) in the 1960s-1970s. In 1977, she entered IIT-Bombay to earn a master's degree in physics, and receiving her PhD in 1986.[4][7] She published her dissertation titled "Many Body Effects in Homogenous and Inhomogenous Electron Systems" in the mid-1980s, followed by a stint at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, where she attended summer school for researchers from developing countries.[4]
She was one of the 70 women on IIT campus amongst 3000 men at a time when sexual harassment from colleagues and professors was rampant, despite efforts to make the campus a safe and equitable space.[8] Shah, along with other women on campus, campaigned to rename the "Ladies’ Hostel" as "Hostel Number 10."[9][4] In tandem, she helped reform the hostel's regulations as they restricted women.[10]
In 1980, when the National Forum Against Rape (which later became the Forum against Oppression of Women) was set up in response to the Mathura rape case, Shah was among 200 women who attended the forum's first conference to discuss the importance of drafting laws for women.[11] Around the same time, the Emergency, the Bhopal Gas tragedy and the heavily contested Sardar Sarovar dam Project were raising questions about technological progress in India. Scientists and activists around the country started organizing under the banner of People's Science Movement (PSM) and questioning science's emancipatory versus oppressive potential. As part of PSM, Shah volunteered for the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme[12] which encouraged children to step outside the classroom and get their hands dirty. The idea was to inculcate “learning by doing” and deploy science in pursuit of social justice.[4]
