I am new to the listserv. I research on issues of post colonial theory, feminist legal theory and human rights, with a specific focus gender, sexuality and the rights of religious minorities. I also work on issues of secularism and religious majoritarianism in in postcolonial and liberal democracies.
My book interrogates the claim that human rights are axiomatic with freedom it builds on the critique of this mainstream and official position on human rights, drawing attention to how human rights have been deployed to advance political and cultural intents rather than bring about freedom for disenfranchised groups. Its approach is unique insofar as it focuses on queer, feminist and postcolonial human rights advocacy, exposing how such interventions have at times advanced neo-liberal agendas and new forms of imperialism and enabled a carceral politics rather than producing freedom for its constituencies. Through a focus on campaigns for same-sex marriage, ending violence against women, and the Islamic veil bans in liberal democracies, human rights emerge as forms of governance that operate through normative prescriptions, which bind even as they purport to free and establish a hierarchy of the human subject: who is free and who is not free; who qualifies for rights and who does not.
Gender, Alterity and Human Rights lays bare how human rights emerge as a project of containment and unfreedom rather than meaningful freedom. I provocatively argues that the futurity of human rights rests in turning away from liberal freedom – that is - freedom in a fishbowl, and towards non-liberal registers of freedom. In offering reflections on Foucault’s turn to political spirituality and the revolutionary potential of Shia Islam; Sedgwick’s engagement with Mahayana Buddhist epistemology; Shirin Neshat’s representation of Sufism's ecstatic registers, and Adi Sankara’s discourses on non-dualism, Gender, Alterity and Human Rights identifies radical and audacious new ways of seeking freedom beyond the narrow confines of the liberal fishbowl.
Individuals can order a copy of the book with a 35% discount (discount code: VIP35) throughout the month of August. A complimentary book can be sent to reviewers. They simply need to send an email to [log in to unmask] (or [log in to unmask] for the US). Include the relevant info (name of publication and address to send the book) and the publisher will arrange for a complimentary review copy to be sent out. The book is available in Harbookmand E-book version.
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