GENDER STUDIES CELL

The Gender Studies Cell of St. Stephen's College is a society devoted to delineations of and discussions on various issues regarding gender and society. It acts as the UGC mandated ‘Women Development Cell’ body of the college as per Section 3.2 (15) of UGC Guidelines (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of women employees and students in higher educational institutions) Regulations, 2015. It seeks to foster a space to interact, engage, learn, unlearn and explore, via debate and dialogue.

The issues of gender justice in academic spaces require a perspectival shift, which the Gender Studies Cell aims to bring about through its sustained measures to educate, agitate and organise. The activities of the Cell include conducting talks and lectures, holding group discussions among the student body, publishing a bi-annual newsletter, and so on. It strives to be intersectional, reflecting the diversity of the student body. Moreover, it acts as a necessary voice of dissent against the ideals upheld by the rigid structures within our college community. GenCell, as it is popularly known, is equal parts solace and equal parts resistance.

The Let’s Talk session, as the name suggests, is an informal group discussion session that the society aims at holding frequently. The junior members of the college are invited to sit and talk, or just listen, about a relevant, need-of-the-hour topic/theme. The aim of the session is to charge conversations around topics of sexuality, gender, mental health, etc., discourses that are often hushed about or sidelined. The society even takes suggestions of topics/themes from the student body to know what kind of conversations they want to engage around. Some of the Let’s Talk Sessions previously held:

• “Fitting In” : Communities, Cliques and Hierarchies
• Transitioning Online
• Navigating College Spaces: Power Hierarchies and Marginalised Identities
• Sexism In College
• Lockdown, Pandemic and Online Education

• Lecture Series on an Intersectional Approach to Disability
• Talk with Yashica Dutt, author of “Coming Out as Dalit”
• Webinar Series on Visibilizing Caste

Our bi-annual newsletter, KÖN, invites entries from students in the forms of prose, poetries, photo essays, artworks, illustrations, etc. KÖN aims to convey stories and conversations from diverse perspectives, from the margins and the intersectional beyond, through the personal and political mediums of expressions.

So far, we’ve released three editions of KÖN:>

1. Queer Lives In Quarantine https://heyzine.com/flip-book/735fa999e4.html
2. Resistance And Beyond https://heyzine.com/flip-book/6a8ce9a1c0.html
3. Pandemic Of Inequalities: The Personal & The Political https://heyzine.com/flip-book/2b16b8284e.html#page/8

Reading Circles
The society also conducts reading circles on poetries, prose, and essays on a wide variety of topics surrounding gender, caste, and sexuality. For our upcoming reading circles sessions, we are introducing ‘Poetries From The Peripheries’ in which we will read myriad poetries written by poets from marginalized backgrounds.

Sarfarosh: The Annual Fest of The Gender Studies Cell
The annual fest, Sarfarosh, is a 2 day event, which hosts multiple sessions, ranging from talks, film screening, photo exhibitions, student conferences, open mic, etc.

Executive Council of the Gender Studies Cell for the Academic Year 2022-2023:
President: Aliya Khan (B.A. English Hons. III)
Vice President: Callistine Jude Lewis (B.A. Programme III)
Secretary: Shimaila Mushtaq (B.A. Programme III)
Academic Coordinator: Dipra Singh (B.A. English Hons. III)
Outreach Coordinator: Ishita Agarwal (B.A. English Hons. III)
Let's Talk Coordinator: Khushi Anupriya Dudi (B.A. Programme III)
Let's Talk Second Year Coordinator: Sakshi Sharma (B.A. History Hons. II)
Kon Editors-in-Chief: Himanshu Dutta (B.A. English Hons. II) Sanjana Raghunandan (B.A. Philosophy Hons. II)
Treasurer: Swara Mishra (B.Sc. Physics. Hons. II)
Publicity heads: Pakeeza Mehraj ( B.A. Programme II) Snigdha Adil (B.A. English Hons. II)