Historian Shailaja Paik has been honoured with a 2024 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for her pioneering research that explores the complex intersections of caste, gender, and sexuality, focusing on the lived experiences of Dalit women in modern India. Her work offers a fresh perspective on the historical structures of caste oppression, demonstrating how gender and sexuality have been wielded to deny Dalit women their dignity and agency. This was stated in a report by Scroll.in.
In addition to working with English, Marathi, and Hindi-language sources, Paik is building a new archive based on her interviews and fieldwork with contemporary Dalit women.
Scroll.in reported that this fellowship identifies exceptionally creative individuals who have demonstrated excellence in their field and possess the potential to make a meaningful impact on society through their innovative work.
Paik will receive $800,000 over five years, disbursed in quarterly installments.
Paik's first book, Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination (2014), highlights the dual struggles faced by Dalit women in their pursuit of education and self-determination in colonial and modern Maharashtra. Based on oral histories from three generations of Dalit women, Paik reveals the complex challenges they faced, caught between two conflicting forces of oppression.
Her most recent work, The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India (2022), delves into the lives of Dalit women performers of Tamasha, a bawdy folk theatre that has historically been performed by Dalits in Maharashtra. This book further examines the tensions between the state, anti-caste reformers, and the agency of Dalit women.
In a critique of Dr BR Ambedkar’s call for Dalit women to reject sexualised performance as a means of self-liberation, Paik argues that these women have navigated a "double bind".
Following this, drawing on previously overlooked Marathi historical records and oral testimonies, she shows that Dalit women in Tamasha used public performance as a strategic tool for asserting their agency, despite societal constraints.
Currently, Paik holds the position of Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati, where she is also affiliated with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, as well as Asian Studies.
