Kavita Dattani

Thesis title:

Sexuality and the Digital City: seeking pleasure in middle-class Mumbaikers’ every-day lives

Abstract:

Building on literature on gender and sexuality in South Asia, and moving beyond hegemonic narratives that have dominated this literature focusing largely on violence, disease and reproduction, this thesis seeks to understand the ways in which digital technologies are mediating middle-class sexualities in Mumbai, for women and gender expansive individuals in three ways. First, it examines how location-based dating applications and visual media platforms and their users mediate middle-class urban imaginaries of sexuality. Second, it examines the ways in which location-based dating applications and visual media platforms facilitate experiences of urban sexuality in Mumbai, asking how these experiences are being transformed from previously mediated urban sexualities. Third, observing the work of local activist groups, it seeks to understand how networked media is leveraged as a part of gender-and-sexuality focused urban activist campaigns.

First supervisor:

Kavita Datta

Pathway:

10 – International Development, Conflict & Human Security

Cohort:

2017-18