WEBINAR- Unpacking and Retooling Criminology of Mobility: Epistemologies of Intersectionality

Criminology of Mobility as a discipline is rooted in the intersection of mobility and crime. Its understanding has been deepened by intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality etc. There has been limited but important work which foregrounds intersectionality in  criminology of mobility; particular mention must be made of Gabriella Sanchez’s work amongst others where she unpacks the identity of the ‘smuggler’ through an intersectional perspective. Alpa Parmar’s work looks at intersectionality in the context of policing migration. There is much scope for widening the epistemological depth and breadth of criminology of mobility and one of the ways is to integrate both the ‘knower’ and what is to be ‘known’ from the global South as an intersection. The ‘research subject’ and the ‘researcher’ from the global South needs to be another spoke that drives the wheel of knowledge production in criminology of mobility at the epistemic level. 

To discuss issues of intersectionality in criminology of mobility, I draw on my research with Bangladeshi women in prisons in India. I am not using this research to talk about how I used intersectionality in my research but how this research can be an intersection in understanding of criminology of mobility itself. The Bangladeshi women then become not just those who are known but also those who contribute to building knowledge around borders, mobilities and incarceration. The politics of my role as a researcher and as one who is representing the voices of the Bangladeshi women in prisons in India will also be discussed. 

What are the ways in which voices from the global South can claim an epistemic agency within criminology of mobility? What kind of retooling may be required for criminology of mobility to view itself as a discipline from an intersectional perspective? 

Bio

Dr. Rimple Mehta has previously worked at the School of Social Work, Tata Institute for Social Sciences, Mumbai and School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She has studied Sociology, Social Work and Women’s Studies. Her doctoral work centered around the experiences of Bangladeshi women in Correctional Homes in Kolkata, India. She was a recipient of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) for the same at Jadavpur University. Her research and field engagements broadly focus on women prisoners, refugee women, and trafficking. She also engages with questions of borders, citizenship and criminology of mobility. She adopts an intersectional feminist perspective with a strong emphasis on questions of epistemology, therefore viewing ‘reality’ from intersecting positions of marginality. Her paper titled "So Many Ways to Love You/Self: Negotiating Love in a Prison" won the 2013 Enloe Award and was published in the International Journal of Feminist Politics. Her monograph titled "Women, Mobility and Incarceration: Love and Recasting of Self across the Bangladesh-India Border" was published by Routledge in 2018. She has worked with women prisoners in Mumbai, Kolkata and The Netherlands and with organisations such as Swayam and networks such as Maitree against violence on women in West Bengal.

Please use the form here to sign up for the event on 6th November 11:30am – 1:00pm GMT.