In this episode, I am joined by Kalpana Mohanty, writer, Ph.D. Candidate and Trudeau Scholar at Harvard University. She works on disability, colonialism, and gender in South Asia. Kalpana grew up in Portugal, Canada and India. Her proposed PhD topic focuses on the history of disability in India, particularly during high colonialism.
Inspired by her own lived experience as someone with chronic illness who lives with a disability, Kalpana is passionate about accessibility in all forms, whether that be making academic spaces accessible for all students or making scholarly work engaging and interesting for a non-academic audience. She is committed to using the rigorous framework and theory of academia to address wider cultural issues ranging from the serious to the trivial as a cultural commentator.
Kalpana reads and we discuss her incredible article, Beautiful Lies, where she asks why public discourse on beauty remains so shallow.
Kalpana's Links:
Twitter: @kalpanamohanty
Website: https://kalpanamohanty.squarespace.com/
Audio clips included:
Now This News: Sabrina Strings Explains How 'Fatphobia' is Rooted in Racism
Intersections of Disability Justice and Transformative Justice Ft. Elliott Fukui and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha by Barnard Center for Research on Women
Venmo: Elliot Fukui @elliottseiji
Buy Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's books here
Links Mentioned:
Beautiful Lies | Kalpana Mohanty
Mobeen Hussain is the Cambridge scholar who studies skin lightening in India.
Jaclyn Wong
Afghan Girl Portrait by Steve McCurry
Constant Cravings by Alice Wong
Book and other recommendations included:
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings | Thick: and other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom | Alok V Menon | The Age of Instagram Face by Jia Tolentino| Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun L. Harrison | Maybe Baby | Haley Nahman| The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan | What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon| Maintenance Phase Podcast | Perfect Me by Heather Widdows
Beautiful Lies Ft. Kalpana Mohanty