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SAC presents: Kalpana Ram

204 Maxwell

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Kalpana Ram, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Macquarie University 

The Nature of the Complaint: In the Court of the Goddess in South India

In his final work, Maurice Merleau-Ponty develops the image of a chiasm or fold, through which we and the world are intertwined in a carnal embrace. Based on ethnographic work in Tamil Nadu, Ram argues that this vision gives us a way of understanding deep seated notions of justice that underlie the complaints of suffering brought to the goddess, particularly by women. While not denying the need for multiple visions of justice, this presentation will reverse the usual direction of questions and ask: how does the justice meted out by the goddess help us address the blind spots in modern political traditions?​

Open to the public.

Sponsored by the South Asia Center at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Department of Anthropology, and Women's and Gender Studies.


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To mark our centennial in the fall of 2024, the Maxwell School will hold special events and engagement opportunities to celebrate the many ways—across disciplines and borders—our community ever strives to, as the Oath says, “transmit this city not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.”

Throughout the year leading up to the centennial, engagement opportunities will be held for our diverse, highly accomplished community that now boasts more than 38,500 alumni across the globe.