Corroded Lives Rebuilt Through Art and Activism

• In Event: Feminist Transgressors: Activist Art as Feminist Research

Abstract

19th century artists Gustave Courbet and William Morris believed art is inextricably linked in social context, and that political activism forms a legitimate part of an artist’s practice. This paper demonstrates a personal engagement as an art-activist conducting a five-year research study on acid violence and female acid survivors of Bangladesh, and an ongoing study on rural Indian feminism focusing on the Pink Sari Gang. Questioning how feminist research givens way to activism and social justice in communities deluged in crime and poverty, it revels problems that emerge through this engagement in South Asia, and success stories of changed lives.

Presenter

• Pallavi Govindnathan, Texas Woman's University