Advocating for a Queer-Friendly World

Fulbright-Nehru Fellow Shiv Datt Sharma is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Emory University. (Photograph courtesy Shiv Datt Sharma)

Shiv Datt Sharma became interested in gender and sexuality issues during his engineering studies at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra, driven by his passion for the humanities and critical thinking. “At college, on the one hand, I witnessed as well as experienced routine forms of sexist, misogynist and homophobic behaviors that I found deeply disturbing,” he says. “On the other hand, I felt dissatisfied by the general lack of interest, even ignorance, in engaging critically with the sociocultural and political world.”

Sharma met people from Delhi University and other campuses through online forums and began participating in queer feminist advocacy and organizing. He helped start the Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality (CSGS) at Ashoka University in 2015 and led many workshops on gender and sexuality. In 2018, Sharma was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship, and he pursued a degree in historical studies/gender and sexuality studies at The New School for Social Research in New York City. In 2021, Sharma returned to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Emory University.

Excerpts from an interview.

Can you share your experiences and achievements in queer politics, particularly during your time with the Delhi-based collective, Queer Campus?

During the years that I was an active part of it, Queer Campus provided both online and in-person spaces for people from various walks of life, and across age groups, to come together and discuss issues related to gender and sexuality from both personal and political standpoints. We organized meet-ups, workshops and events on subjects such as sex education, queerness, gender and sexual identity. For many, it was a platform to think through and find support in their personal struggles with gender or sexuality.

Tell us about the nationwide training program you facilitated for queer feminist workshop facilitators in India in 2020. What were the key topics you addressed?

While at the Young India Fellowship, I worked with two other fellows and with Professor Madhavi Menon to create the blueprint for the CSGS at Ashoka University. One of our core motives was to share groundbreaking ideas about gender and sexuality with a wide audience. As part of this mandate, I led a nationwide training program for workshop facilitators in 2020.

The purpose was to enable more people to carry critical, relatable and contextually informed conversations to various parts of the country on topics such as queerness, gender, sexuality, sexual harassment and consent, identity, desire, fantasy in relation to personal experience as well as history, culture, and social inequities. The goal was to build a vast network of workshop facilitators across India to make such conversations accessible, informed and, at the same time, enjoyable, free of stigma and shame.

What motivated you to pursue a Ph.D. in women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Emory University?

My time at Ashoka University heavily influenced my decision to pursue a Ph.D. Alongside working at the CSGS, I attended a range of classes like queer and feminist theory, and literary theory, all of which were eye-opening. They ignited a desire to pursue an academic career in the field of gender and sexuality/humanities. I realized the transformative potential of theory to alter for the better how we think and live on daily basis. Encouraged by my wonderful experience during my master’s at the New School for Social Research, I decided to apply for doctoral programs in the United States.

Could you briefly tell us about your research at Emory University and share some of the key insights you’ve gained so far?

I am still in the process of crafting my dissertation project, but broadly, I am examining the relationship between cinema and contemporary politics in India in relation to sexuality, using theoretical tools provided by psychoanalysis. It is a very interdisciplinary project. I am hoping to bring together discussions from postcolonial studies, queer and feminist theory, and film and media studies to help us understand how sexuality relates to the collective imagination, which is key to understanding today’s politics and culture.

How was your experience as a Fulbright-Nehru fellow, and what were your key takeaways?

I couldn’t have imagined a better way to experience education abroad. The Fulbright-Nehru fellowship allowed me to experience what we say about education, especially in the humanities, as being a holistic journey of constantly expanding our understanding of the world, and in the process, redefining who we are and how we relate to others around us.

Being part of a diverse cohort of fellows from different parts of the world was invaluable in itself, and I am still in touch with several of them. The program enabled me to also meet some inspiring people from a range of professions and cultural backgrounds.

Looking ahead, what are some of the challenges or goals you hope to tackle in your advocacy and research endeavors?

I think the biggest question facing any of us engaged in advocacy and research on gender and sexuality today is how to continue doing this critical work in times of increasing polarization in society, political conservatism, fundamentalism and orthodoxy. Social media, too, presents a unique challenge, as it is often mobilized by people in ways that are counterproductive to nuanced, patient thinking and sustained dialogue. How do we take the risk of saying things that need to be said, put forward bold ideas and advocate for social change? This is, I believe, something we urgently need to figure out collectively.

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