Research: Menstrual activism in India: rendering visible the blood through visual arts (Provisional title)
Research: Menstrual activism in India: rendering visible the blood through visual arts (Provisional title)
Valeria Giampietri, Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia Curriculum, 39th Cycle
Abstract of the research project:
Within women’s movements and feminisms, menstruation has become a site of reflection, confrontation, and activism; this is because, although it constitutes a normal biological event experienced for much of their lifespan by female persons, it tends to be culturally stigmatized.
In the context of contemporary India, menstruation is still perceived as dangerous, impure and polluting; this causes the exclusion of women from religious, social and cultural life and, in some cases, their separation from male family members. At the same time, however, since the mid-2000s, the menstruating body has begun to redefine the limits of bodily materiality by becoming the site where gender agency and mobility are articulated. The general objective of the project will therefore be to identify and analyze the artistic representations focused on the menstrual cycle created in the context of the Indian subcontinent, understanding how artists create spaces for action and reflection within the same public sphere that continues to stigmatize the menstrual cycle.
Research interests: menstrual studies, gender studies, politics of representation, visual arts, contemporary South Asia
Curriculum Vitae:
11/2023 - today: PhD student in Asian and African Civilizations at the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies (ISO), Sapienza University of Rome
Project Title: Menstrual activism in India: rendering visible the blood through visual arts
10/2019 - 03/2022: Master's Degree in Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Sapienza University of Rome
Hindi language curriculum
Thesis title: Menstrual taboos in contemporary Nepal
10/2016 - 09/2019: Bachelor's Degree in Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Sapienza University of Rome
Hindi language curriculum
Thesis title: Homosexuality in Indian literature: the case of the short story Lihāf