Vinay Gidwani, Professor of Geography and Global Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and Priti Ramamurthy, Professor of Gender, Women  & Sexuality Studies, University of Washington, Seattle discuss their collaborative book project, “The Country and the City: For a Poetics of Informal Economies in Contemporary India.”

During 2016-17, Ramamurthy and Gidwani conducted research on the experiences of urban migrants in the informal economy in two Indian cities, Hyderabad and Delhi, through a set of interrelated ethnographic methods: oral histories and participant observation and key informant interviews. At this event, they will share stories from the rich trove of over a hundred and fifty they gathered and reflect on “practicing the humanities now” as a series of intellectual, methodological, and institutional collaborations and negotiations. In the process, questions of representation, translation, accountability, and, inevitably, politics will be discussed.

The Country and the City project is funded by an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Collaborative Research Fellowship (2015-17) and American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Research Fellowships.

The Simpson Center series Practicing the Humanities Now provides opportunities for University of Washington scholars to discuss how the practice of the humanities is adapting to changing conditions and times.

Join us for the final event in this series, "The Politics of Yoga," featuring Christian Novetzke and Sunila Kale, on Wednesday, May 17, 3:30-5 pm, at the Simpson Center.