We are now inhabiting an academic world filled with the prefix ‘post’- post-structuralism, post-modernism, post-colonialism, post-feminism… More than debating the various connotations of the prefix, scholars are now increasingly engaged in identifying the space offered by it in order to interrogate, negotiate and transform the movements defined by it. This book, Re-defining Feminisms, is one such attempt aimed at examining the process that paves way for re-definition of the different types of feminisms in the Indian context. The critical anthology is an outcome of the peer reviewed and revised papers presented at a national conference and a few invited contributions. While literature is the underlying matrix for the anthology, it covers diverse fields like Fine Arts, Creative Writing, Social Work, Activism, Media Studies and many more. The editors of the anthology have identified four stages to the process of re-definition, namely, Re-design, Re-think, Re-view and Re-mark. All the contributions have been arranged within the four stages, which appear as the four sections of the book. Altogether, the book provides a rich texturing of the subtle nuances of feminisms and interweave by counterpointing articles across the different sub-sections and finally across disciplines.
Ranjana Harish is Professor and Head of English Department at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. She is also the Director of the Reaney Canadian Centre and Chairperson of the Women’s Development Cell at Gujarat University. She had her education at universities of Gujarat, Ottawa and California. She had been a Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellow to the universities of Carleton, York, Western Ontario and Calgary. Her areas of special interest are gender studies and Indian and Canadian literatures. She has offered courses, guided research and published extensively in these areas. She has been a guest speaker at several national and international events. Presently, she is also a Syndicate and Senate member of Gujarat University.
V. Bharathi Harishankar is Reader in English at the Institute of Distance Education, University of Madras. Her research interests include post-colonial studies, literary theory, translation and web-based pedagogy. She has an impressive list of courses taught, research guidance and publications in these areas. She has received the Humanities Research Centre grant to visit Australian universities and has been nominated for a five-year term at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Canberra. She has also been a Visiting Scholar at the universities of Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand. Recently, she visited universities in Canada on a Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellowship.
