Namrata reviews Teaching/Writing Resistance- Women’s Studies in Contemporary Times by Panchali Ray and Shadab Bano (Orient Blackswan, 2024) calling it a Call-to-Action.
Teaching/Writing Resistance: Women’s Studies in Contemporary Times by Panchali Ray and Shadab Bano is a powerful and incisive exploration of the complex and evolving landscape of women’s studies in India. It provides a deep, reflective dive into the trajectory of this radical discipline, tracing its roots to the women’s movement of the 1970s while addressing its current challenges in a rapidly shifting academic and sociopolitical environment. The book serves as both a tribute to the pioneers of women’s studies and a critical examination of its limitations, making it an essential contribution to the field.
Ray and Bano bring together a diverse set of essays that examine women’s studies not only as an academic discipline but as a site of resistance, transformation, and introspection. Emerging out of the struggle for social, economic, and sexual justice, women’s studies challenged entrenched norms and brought forth a new interdisciplinary approach grounded in feminist theory and praxis. This collection meticulously documents the impact of these early efforts, showing how they reshaped not just academic discourse but also public conversations around gender, identity, and power.