The Sociology Faculty, Department of Social Sciences & The Queer Collective

Abstract: This lecture comes out of an ongoing project entitled 'Intimacy and Risk: Understanding Violence taking place through MSM (men who have sex with men) Dating Applications in Contemporary India'. The foremost concerns that this project addresses are, on the one hand, the relation between affective technologies, desire and violence that is particular to the MSM community, and on the other, the perception, articulation and mitigation of risk.In this lecture, I will share some of the data that my ongoing fieldwork in Calcutta, Hyderabad and New Delhi is revealing, along with some preliminary theoretical frameworks. Specifically, I will focus on four themes emerging from my ethnography. One, the way in which desire becomes a context for violence to take place. Two, the co-construction of risk and otherness, that is based on cultural and social proximity and legibility. Three, tracing the 'criminal' through police-work and queer digilantism. Four, methodological challenges that emerge while researching intimacy.

Bio: Chandan Bose is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. The bulk of his research work has focused on craft production in contemporary India, around which he has published a monograph, an edited volume, and several journal articles. His most recent research centers around the platformation of queer bodies and desires, for which he has received a Major Project grant by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).