Dr Asha Achuthan | Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dr Asha Achuthan

Assistant Professor
Mumbai Campus, Advanced Centre for Women's Studies, School of Development Studies

Qualification

M.B.B.S., D.O., M.Phil. in Women's Studies (Calcutta), Ph.D. (Manipal)

Contact

asha.achuthan[at]tiss[dot]ac[dot]in

asha.achuthan [at] tiss.edu, asha.achuthan@tiss.ac.in

Asha presently teaches at the Advanced Centre for Women's Studies, TISS, and is currently Chair, Women and Gender Development Cell. She was initially trained in medicine from Calcutta University, and went on to work on an Mphil in Women's Studies from Jadavpur University, and thereafter completed PhD in Cultural Studies from Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore. Her current work explores the contexts of gender and biomedicine, with a focus on feminist epistemological critiques of the same. She has published in the areas of gender diversity in science institutions, feminist standpoint methodologies, interdisciplinarity in higher education, sexuality and the nation.

Asha was recently Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow at the King's India Institute, London, UK, working on research related to the status of the dai or midwife in colonial contexts. Her book on this work is currently in press.

Asha recently concluded a multi-sited study on the appearance and journey of gender-sexuality as a metaphor in medical text and practice, that also explored changing terms of legibility and entry of persons of gender-marginal lives and experiences into contemporary healthcare spaces in India.

Asha is member, Indian Association of Women's Studies.

Exploring responses to science from a gender perspective.
Feminist queer politics and the question of subjectivity.
Exploring trajectories of women-centred childbirth practices and their positioning vis-a-vis modern medicine.
Histories of technology, including digital technology, policies, and critiques in the Indian context.
Exploring new developments in biomedical research with the coming of digital technologies.
Feminist ethics in the clinic.

RECENT -

Asha Achuthan (2021) Gender-affirmative technologies and the contemporary making of gender in India, Economy and Society, 50:3, 423-447, DOI: 10.1080/03085147.2021.1883322

Elise Klein, China Mills, Asha Achuthan & Eva Hilberg (2021) Human technologies, affect and the global psy-complex, Economy and Society, 50:3, 347-358, DOI: 10.1080/03085147.2021.1899658

“Looking for the lesbian: some notes for a lesbian feminist politics in the time of the girl child.”. In N. Banerjea, K. Browne, E. Ferreira, M. Olasik and J. Podmore (Eds.), Lesbian Feminism: Essays Opposing the Global Heteropatriarchy, London: Zed Press, 2019. [ISBN: 978-178-6995-32-2]. 2019.

BOOK

The Dai and the Indigenous: Notes on the Appearance and Disappearance of a Figure in the Therapeutics of a Nation. ISBN 9780367424282, available at https://tinyurl.com/b6a9vtys

BOOK CHAPTERS -

"Feminism and science: Present-day notes for a feminist standpoint epistemology." In Krishna, Sumi, and Gita Chadha, eds. Feminists and Science: Critiques and Changing Perspectives in India. Vol. 2. (1st ed., Vol. 2, pp. 147–174) SAGE Publishing India, 2017.

“Integration and Interdisciplinarity: some thoughts on an experiment”, in Dhar, Anup, Tejaswini Niranjana, and K. Sridhar. Breaking the silo: Integrated science education in India. Orient Blackswan Private Limited, 2017.

“Health, New Technologies and Bioethics”, in Dhar, Anup, Tejaswini Niranjana, and K. Sridhar. Breaking the silo: Integrated science education in India. Orient Blackswan Private Limited, 2017.

MONOGRAPHS -

Achuthan, Asha. "Re: wiring bodies." Bangalore: The Centre for Internet & Society. (2011).

Achuthan, Asha, Ranjita Biswas, and A. Dhar. "Lesbian standpoint." Kolkata: Sanhati (2007).

SPECIAL ISSUES [CO-EDITED] -

Feminist Science Studies: Intersectional Narratives of Persons in Gender-Marginal Locations in Science, Economic and Political Weekly, 52 (17), 33–36, 2017. (co-author) [ISBN: 2349-8846]

JOURNAL ARTICLES -

“Where are we with the body? Questions between domains and philosophies”, in Indian Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 1-4, January-december, 2014, published in January 2016.

"Whither Feminism… wither Marxism?: Some Questions on Standpoint." In The Rise of Young Feminist Power in Asia, 19-24, 2005. 5, 2005.

"Darmiyaan… search for an in-between." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 3, no. 3 (2002): 419-436.

OCCASIONAL PAPER -

“A Feminist Response To Medical Technology In The Indian Context: Some Reflections On Methodology”. 2011. Jadavpur University.

RECENT BOOK REVIEWS -

Achuthan, Asha. “Politics of the Womb” – Review of Solid: Liquid: A (Trans)national Reproductive Formation by Kumkum Sangari, Tulika, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 51, Issue No. 26-27, 25 Jun, 2016.

Achuthan, Asha. “Gender Journeys” - Review of No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy, by Chayanika Shah, Raj Merchant, Shals Mahajan, Smriti Nevatia, in The Book Review, Volume XL No. 7 - JULY 2016.

OTHER WRITING -

Achuthan, Asha. “Between Culture and Science: Notes Towards A Politics Of The Present”, in Selected Swakanthey, Sappho for Equality. 2016.

ORCID - 0000-0002-4269-0877

Recent research projects -

ONGOING -

Co-PI on a collaborative project with Jadavpur University and Queen's University, Belfast.

Project tile: Counter-stories of author-ity in transition: Women in the Indian Academy.

“An Exploratory Study of Discriminations based on Non-normative genders and sexualities”. Supported by FORD Foundation. Report available at https://tiss.edu/view/6/mumbai-campus/school-of-development-studies/advanced-centre-for-womens-studies/research-32/

Completed -

Recently Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow at the King's India Institute, London, April-June 2015. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/kii/Partnerships-Support/CWIT-profiles.aspx

Women's Writings Across Contexts: Cognitive and linguistic universes - a one year project with the support of the Research Council, TISS. Research paper submitted.

Campus Conversations: Gender and Sexuality in the everyday of Higher Education.

Presently teaching -

MA in Women's Studies

Feminist Science Studies – a 2 credit course in the M.A. Programme of Women's Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Feminist Approaches to Disciplines and Methodologies - a 2 credit course in the MA Programme.

Women, desire and sexualities - a 2 credit course in the M.A. Programme.

Queering Feminism - a 2 credit foundation elective in the M.A. Programme.

MPhil in Women's Studies [till 2022]

Feminist Approaches to Disciplines, Methodologies, Methods and Tools– a 4 credit course in the Mphil programme in Women's Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Co-taught.

Reading, Writing and Interpreting: Texts and Contexts, a 2 credit seminar course in the Mphil programme in Women's Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Co-taught.

Social Science discourse and the feminist engagement, a 4 credit course in the Mphil programme in Women's Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Co-taught.

Technology and women's bodies: revisiting the lived experience debate, a 2 credit optional course in the Mphil programme in Women's Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Independently taught.