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Beyond Hijra: Politics of Respectability, Identity and Mythmaking in Kolkata’s Transgender Communities
No full textThis project is the result of an intensive exploration of the diversity of lived experience of transgender communities in India, for and by members of the transgender and non-binary communities in Kolkata, India. From May 2023 to July 2023, I sought and screened over forty transgender interviewees that I found through pre-established informal and formal networks in LGBTQ+ non-profit organizations in India. My research aimed to gain insight on the politics of language, identity and religion in the Hijra community of West Bengal. Through Zoom interviews, international phone calls, and second-hand information from volunteers and on-site coordinators, I found and screened over a hundred participants across five major Trans/Hijra communities and selected forty members from three transgender communities (each led and known by the head of that particular community): Anjali, Guru Ma, and Kusum, who opened up their lives and homes to my curiosity, my camera and the questions guiding my senior thesis research. In December 2023, I spent a month in Kolkata interviewing, observing, and filming three transgender communities to explore, through a multipart photography-documentary series focused on how trans individuals in the global south, particularly India, navigate complex socio-economic and cultural identities influenced by nationality and religious syncretism of Islam and Hinduism.
Over the course of the three months, my research endeavor culminated in a 21-minute documentary titled Beyond Hijra: Inside Kolkata’s Trans Communities, highlighting the lives, struggles, and social realities of twelve interviewees from the three distinct communities in West Bengal. It also resulted in an interactive community-wide photo exhibition at the Hamlin Creative Space of the Weitz Center for Creativity at Carleton College from April 5 to April 13, 2024.
This paper, written almost a full year after interview data collection (December 2023), in the early months of 2025, aims to complement the documentary and photographs produced from my research efforts by expanding on my methodology, filmmaking choices, filmmaker’s reflection, and thematic analysis. In what follows, I explain the term Hijra in relation to the term transgender and the contentions of Hijra and Transgender while contextualizing the socio-cultural location of West Bengal, India. In the same section, I introduce the three main communities interviewed and some selected members of those communities, further contextualizing what sets them apart. Next, I will explain my methodology: participant selection process, decisions involved in the interviewing, filmmaking, and production process. Next, I introduce the three groups through their leaders: Anjali, Guru Ma, and Kusum. Here, I highlight select conversations that complement and contrast the depth and diversity of the Hijra/Trans experience in Kolkata, India. I focus on the politics of the Hijra/Trans identity with respect to religion and profession in an increasingly right-wing (Hindutva), Hindu nationalist country like India, and how translation and transliteration shift and contort the Hijra/Trans identity. Finally, I end this paper with a self-reflection of what I have learned from conducting such comprehensive work, a conclusive note on future work, and the consequences of my research for the individuals interviewed
Race to the Market: Neoliberalism and Polarization in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic (1989-1996)
No full textThe American Prosperity Fund: How Sovereign Wealth Funds Impact Inequality
No full textSovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are an emerging form of national economic policy. SWFs vary in their purpose, however, they are generally used to further the national interest. In the American context, increasing attention has been paid to the notion that SWFs can be a useful tool domestically, rather than a foreign threat, by both Republican and Democratic Administrations. Most notably, President Trump signed an executive order early 2025 directing the Department of the Treasury to develop a plan to establish a SWF by the end of the year. Given the increasing national and international relevance of SWFs, I investigate how these vehicles may impact one key socioeconomic variable, Inequality as determined by the Gini Coefficient. Using a combination of nested multilevel regression models and random and fixed effect models, I show that a standardized fund size variable, when moderated with democracy score, seems to be negatively correlated with the gini-coefficient. This suggests Sovereign Wealth Funds Size, or other variables that are collinear with SWF size, may have an impact on inequality. Novel in its findings, similar questions have not yet been explored and merit further investigation. I conclude with suggestions for what an American Sovereign Wealth Fund could look like depending on policy goals–– a large public pension fund focused on the social safety net or a smaller strategic fund focused on developing national industry
Enhancing CAR-T Cell Therapy for Solid Tumors: Overcoming Tumor Microenvironment Challenges with SynNotch Receptors and PD-1 Blockades
No full textReimagining the City: From Segregation to Liberation—Black Thought and Radical Pathways in Urban Planning
No full textIs ADHD a Universal Disorder or Culture-Bound Syndrome? A Cross Cultural Review
No full textAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is widely recognized and potentially one of the most researched and diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) in children. Within clinical psychology, ADHD is considered a universal disorder, however, many have argued that ADHD may be influenced by cultural norms surrounding behavior rather than true biological changes. This led to the main research question regarding whether ADHD is a universal disorder or a culture-bound syndrome (CBS). This review aims to answer this question by examining ADHD prevalence rates across cultures, etiological factors, symptom presentation, recovery rates, and trends over time based on criteria that determine whether ADHD is universal or culture-bound. The review found data indicating that causal factors and recovery rates suggest ADHD is universal. In contrast, ADHD rates over time imply that the disorder is a CBS. Furthermore, prevalence rates and symptom presentation yield ambiguous results. Based on the findings within these studies, there still remains a question about whether it is appropriate to call ADHD universal. Suggestions for future research to examine ADHD from a cross-cultural perspective are offered in the conclusion
Linguistic Reform as Activism: Performative or Pragmatic
No full textThere is much debate about the use of person-first language (e.g. people with disabilities) versus identity-first language (e.g. disabled people). With conflicting calls from institutions like the American Psychological Association and disabled people themselves, it is important to determine whether language use can affect attitudes in a predictable way. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis provides a framework for answering this question, claiming that the underlying structure of language influences cognitive processes. Based on this claim, I developed a set of hypotheses that would need to be supported in order to show that linguistic change is a viable method for changing attitudes. These hypotheses were that using person-first language, both on an immediate scale and on a habitual scale, would positively affect attitudes towards disabled people, and that using identity-first language would not. In order to test the hypotheses, 66 participants were asked to type a passage that used either person-first language, identity-first language, or neither. Participants then completed the Attitudes and Perspectives toward Persons with Disabilities scale (APPD) and a survey measuring their typical language use. The data were submitted to a multiple regression model in which APPD score was predicted from condition, typical language use, and their interaction. Contrast analysis was also used to determine whether the data followed the predicted pattern. No significant effects were found. Thus, no evidence was found that either person-first language or identity-first language affects attitudes towards disabled people
