Women’s studies degrees as “political”: Some reflections from the Indian context

ABSTRACT This article seeks to discuss how the idea of the “political” in its multiple and often contradictory manifestations pervades women’s studies as an academic field in general and degree programs in particular. It locates the dimensions of the political within the founding framework of women’s studies in India to highlight its interventionist character and problematize top–down institutionalization. Within this context, through the voices of contemporary students and teachers, the paper discusses the meanings of the political within academic degrees, based on fieldwork conducted in five women’s studies programs in northern and western India. It focuses on how instituting degrees in a field like women’s studies brings about overwhelming expectations of “teaching politics” and thus highlights the contradictions this produces within the space of an academic degree.