In this episode, Dr Shamira Meghani (Cambridge University) talks to me about queerness and caste, about how imperialism shapes gender, about why people associate Islam with unfreedom, and about how literature can help us understand more about all of these intersections. They also explain what sexual dissidence means and why a tabloid newspaper suggested that the university that started the first MA programme on sexuality in Britain needed to be ‘disinfected’… Fascinating stuff and lots to think about! Give it a listen!

Books, people and terms mentioned:

Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence (University of Sussex, founded in 1991)
Jonathan Dollimore’s Sexual Dissidence
Alan Sinfield
Anne McClintock’s Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest
Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World
Indian Penalty Code, 1860
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018
Hijra
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai’s Same-Sex Love in India: Readings in Indian Literature
Endogamy
B. R. Ambedkar
Bhramin
Dalit
Laws of Manu (Manu-smriti)
R. Raj Rao’s The Boyfriend
Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses
Ackley Bridge (Channel 4)
Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater
Ogbanje
Ben Okri’s The Famished Road
POSE
Mj Rodriguez

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Questions you should be able to respond to after listening to this episode:

1. What is sexual dissidence?
2. How does imperialism relate to gender and sexuality?
3. What does queerness have to do with caste? What is caste?
4. Which non-binary genders are mentioned in this episode?
5. Why can it be problematic to think of other groups of people as unfree? Please try to think of further examples for this harmful ascription.