The Program in Critical Theory Welcomes Nivedita Menon

November 2, 2023

The Program in Critical Theory is pleased to announce that Nivedita Menon will visit UC Berkeley during the fall 2023 semester. Please join us the week of November 16 to hear Menon speak at a variety of events on Berkeley’s campus.

Nivedita Menon, Professor at Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, is the author of Seeing like a Feminist (2012). Her new book, Secularism as Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global South is forthcoming in 2023 (Permanent Black) and 2024 (Duke University Press). Apart from research papers in Indian and international journals, her previous books are Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law (2004); and (co-written) Power and Contestation: India after 1989 (2007/2nd Edition 2014). She also has two edited volumes Gender and Politics in India (1999) and Sexualities (2007); and a co-edited book Critical Studies in Politics. Exploring Sites, Selves, Power (2014).

Menon is a regular commentator on contemporary issues on the collective blog kafila.online (of which she is one of the founders), and active in democratic politics in India. She also has translated fiction and non-fiction from Hindi and Malayalam into English, and from Malayalam into Hindi, and received the AK Ramanujan Award for translation instituted by Katha.


Upcoming Events with Nivedita Menon

For full details about events on UC Berkeley’s campus, please visit our events page.

These events, as part of a week-long residency, are presented by the Program in Critical Theory in collaboration with the Office of the Dean of the UC Berkeley Division of Social Sciences and the Institute for South Asia Studies. Thanks to cosponsorship from the Department of English, the Travers Department of Political Science, the Social Science Matrix, the Center on Contemporary India, the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, and the Center for Race and Gender.

The Saffron And The Star: Scripting Hindutva In Bollywood (The 6th Bhattacharya Lecture On The “Future Of India”)
November 14, 5 – 7 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley

370 Dwinelle Hall is ADA-accessible. For more access information about Dwinelle Hall, please see here. If you require an accommodation for effective communication or information about mobility access features, please contact Puneeta Kala at pkala@berkeley.edu.

Book Talk | Secularism As Misdirection: Critical Thought From The Global South
November 15, 5 – 6:30 pm
820 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley

Please register your attendance by filling out this form (https://tinyurl.com/menontalk).

820 Social Sciences Building, Social Science Matrix is ADA-accessible. Matrix is wheelchair accessible via the east entrance of Social Sciences Building and Elevator 2, which goes directly to the 8th floor. If you require an accommodation for effective communication or mobility access features, please contact Patty Dunlap at pattydunlap@berkeley.edu.

Questions? Please reach out to critical_theory@berkeley.edu.