In this episode, I am joined by Kalpana Mohanty, writer, Ph.D. Candidate and Trudeau Scholar at Harvard University. She works on disability, colonialism, and gender in South Asia. Kalpana grew up in Portugal, Canada and India. Her proposed PhD topic focuses on the history of disability in India, particularly during high colonialism. Inspired by her own lived experience as someone with chronic illness who lives with a disability, Kalpana is passionate about accessibility in all forms, whether that be making academic spaces accessible for all students or making scholarly work engaging and interesting for a non-academic audience. She is committed to using the rigorous framework and theory of academia to address wider cultural issues ranging from the serious to the trivial as a cultural commentator. Kalpana reads and we discuss her incredible article, Beautiful Lies, where she asks why public discourse on beauty remains so shallow. ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? submit a voicemail here. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ASK Ayanda form here. Kalpana's Links:Twitter: @kalpanamohantyWebsite: https://kalpanamohanty.squarespace.com/ Audio clips included: Now This News: Sabrina Strings Explains How 'Fatphobia' is Rooted in RacismIntersections of Disability Justice and Transformative Justice Ft. Elliott Fukui and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha by Barnard Center for Research on WomenVenmo: Elliot Fukui @elliottseiji Buy Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's books here Links Mentioned:Beautiful Lies | Kalpana Mohanty Mobeen Hussain is the Cambridge scholar who studies skin lightening in India. Jaclyn WongAfghan Girl Portrait by Steve McCurryConstant Cravings by Alice WongBook and other recommendations included:Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings | Thick: and other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom | Alok V Menon | The Age of Instagram Face by Jia Tolentino| Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun L. Harrison | Maybe Baby | Haley Nahman| The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan | What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon| Maintenance Phase Podcast | Perfect Me by Heather Widdows
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