Talk:Gowri Vijayakumar

By Sachi Anjunkar

Gowri Vijayakumar is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, as of October 2022. Her research interests include Gender, Sexuality, Social Movements, Development, Politics, Feminist and Postcolonial Theory, Global and Transnational Sociology, Labor, HIV/AIDS, Ethnographic and Interview Methods, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa.

As per her bio, she has published no books, papers, or research pertaining to Hindus, the rights of Hindus, the impact or relationship between Islam and Hinduism / Hindutva, India, or the Indian Government in the context of BJP Government.

In 2021, she endorsed the "Dismantling Global Hindutva" conference and made the allegation

"the current government of India [in 2021] has instituted discriminatory policies including beef bans, restrictions on religious conversion and interfaith weddings, and the introduction of religious discrimination into India’s citizenship laws. The result has been a horrifying rise in religious and caste-based violence, including hate crimes, lynchings, and rapes directed against Muslims, non-conforming Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, adivasis and other dissident Hindus. Women of these communities are especially targeted. Meanwhile, the government has used every tool of harassment and intimidation to muzzle dissent. Dozens of student activists and human rights defenders are currently languishing in jail indefinitely without due process under repressive anti-terrorism laws."

Publications related to India

1. Vijayakumar, Gowri. At risk: Indian sexual politics and the global AIDS crisis. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2021.
2. Vijayakumar, Gowri. "Just work: Sex work at the intersections." Political Power and Social Theory 37. (2020): 135-154.
3. Vijayakumar, Gowri. "Sexual laborers and entrepreneurial women: Articulating collective identity in India's HIV/AIDS response." Social Problems 67. 3 (2020): 507–526.
4. Vijayakumar, Gowri and Maich, Katherine. "Politicizing gender: Feminist movements." The Social Life of Gender: From Analysis to Critique. Ed. Jennifer Carlson, Abigail Andrews, and Raka Ray. New York: Sage, 2018
5. Vijayakumar, Gowri. "Collective demands and secret codes: The multiple uses of "community" in "community mobilization"." World Development 104. (2018): 173-182.
6. Vijayakumar, Gowri. "Is sex work sex or work? Forming collective identity in Bangalore." Qualitative Sociology 41. 3 (2018): 337-360.
7. Vijayakumar, Gowri, Chacko, Shubha, and Panchanadeswaran, Subadra."As human beings and as workers": Sex worker unionization in Bangalore, India." Global Labour Journal (2015).
8. Vijayakumar, Gowri. "I'll be like water": Gender, class, and flexible aspirations at the edge of India's knowledge economy." Gender & Society 27. 6 (2013): 777-798.