Cook/Gray Lecture Slated for Oct. 23

Amrita Basu, A&S ’75, the Domenic J. Paino 1955 Professor of Political Science, and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College, will deliver the annual Alice Cook/Lois Gray Distinguished Lecture on Oct. 23.

“Resisting Exclusion: Women’s Defense of Democracy in India” will be presented from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in 423 King-Shaw Hall, ILR Conference Center.  It can also be viewed on Zoom by registering here.

Professor Basu, who is also affiliated with the Amherst departments of Asian Languages & Civilizations, and Black Studies, has studied issues including the role of women’s movements in democracies, sources of political protest movements in different countries and connections between religion and state dynamics. Much of her work focuses on politics in South Asia.

Her lecture will address Muslim women’s resistance in the face of exclusionary state policies. The talk will focus on Muslim women in Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi, in 2019, and how marginalization can inspire demands for inclusive, secular, democratic citizenship rights.

Professor Basu obtained a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences before earning her master’s and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Her books include “Two Faces of Protest: Contrasting Modes of Women’s Activism in India” (University of California Press), “Community Conflicts and the State in India” (Oxford University Press), “Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India” (Cambridge University Press) and “Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms.” (Taylor and Francis)

The event is co-sponsored by Cornell’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Center for the Study of Inequality, Cornell Center for the Social Sciences, Cornell Population Center and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

The ILR annual lecture is named for deceased ILR faculty members Alice Hanson Cook and Lois Spier Gray and is held to advance their social justice and equality visions. Pamela Tolbert, the Lois S. Gray Professor of ILR and Social Sciences in the Department of Organizational Behavior, organized this year’s event.