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Reproductive Technology, Gender and Bereavement in Germany

Reproductive Technology, Gender and Bereavement in Germany

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Reproductive Technology, Gender and Bereavement in Germany
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<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium </strong> <strong>Dr. Karin Polit</strong> (South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany) a talk on <strong>Reproductive Technology, Gender and Bereavement in Germany</strong> Date : <strong>November 5, 2015 </strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> How are advancements in reproductive technology connected to gender roles and bereavement? In this talk I will show that modern medicine's promises, like enabling couples to control when and how they will be having children, to ensure painless births, and to make sure that the babies born are healthyare illusions that produce certain forms of bereavement in cases or reproduction going awry. In contemporary Germany, couples expect to successfully reproduce until they are middle aged. Public discourse, advertisements and the medical discourse that makes it into the public sphere seem to be making first pregnancies possible for women for a rather long time. Unsuccessful reproduction – voluntarily or involuntarily is absent in this public discourse. It seems that advancements in reproductive technology have increased the pressure on German women to reproduce. Accordingly treatment to assist reproduction is typically found to be practices on and in the female body. And it is the lifestyle of women that is criticized when a couple fails to reproduce leading to feeling of loss and failure that are connected to a certain morality produced by the very technology that claims to come to their aid. <strong>Bio-Data:</strong> Karin Polit is a social anthropologist and Margarete-von-Wrangell Fellow at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany. She has done extensive fieldwork on health, gender, inequality and cultural heritage in Uttarakhand North India and on education, stress and violence in New Delhi and other parts of North India. She has taught at the universities of Heidelberg and Münster and is currently involved in research on reproductive health and technology in Europe and India and violence, youth and mental health in Jammu and Kashmir. She has published widely on various topics such as ritual studies, heritage, Dalits in India, and medical anthropology, including her monograph on Dalit women in Uttarakhand "Women of Honour". Her current book, "When Gods set out to wander" deals with the politics of cultural heritage and performance as resistance in India.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.