They Still Call Us Witches
What drives societies to turn on women in their midst - with accusations, branding, persecution and often violence and death - in the name of witchcraft?
Witch hunting occupied a dark chapter in European and early American history, but variations of this brutal phenomena lives on in many parts of the world today.
Guest on today’s episode, multidisciplinary feminist research scholar Govind Kelkar, wrote a book called Witch Hunts: Culture, Patriarchy and Structural Transformation and in this hour we talk about Govind’s research into modern-day witch hunts in India and around the world - the surprising factors that drive it, how it unfolds in communities, why women are targeted, and what the practice tells us about men, women, and different kinds of power and powerlessness.
Episode Links
GenDev Center for Research and Innovation
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Credits
Host: Elle Kamihira
Produced by Elle Kamihira
Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio
Cover Art by Bee Johnson
Music by Beware of Darkness
Govind Kelkar
Feminist Scholar & Executive Director of GenDev Center for Research & Innovation
Govind Kelkar is a feminist scholar, PhD in Political Economy of China. She is the Executive Director, GenDev Centre for Research and Innovation, Gurgaon, India. She is a Professor at the Centre for Economics and Social Studies, Hyderabad; Visiting Professor, Council for Social Development and Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, India and was a Senior Adviser, Landesa, Seattle, USA (May 2013-March 2020). In her concurrent assignments, Professor Kelkar was the International Research Coordinator of ENERGIA International, The Netherlands and research lead on Gender and Energy at Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. She is a Distinguished Adjunct Faculty of Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. Professor Kelkar has the position of Honorary Professor in Institute of Ethnology, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, China.