In April, Maya M. Haidar presented a paper titled, "Colonial Vitalities in Domestic Manuals for Imperial Women (1880-1910)". The 20-minute paper was presented as part of a panel at the "Living Matters" international conference organised by the VALE research group at Sorbonne University in Paris.
Maya's paper explored a selection of domestic advice manuals written by and for imperial women of the British Raj. These texts were placed in dialogue with critical theories proposed by Jane Bennett on "thing power" as well as Nancy Armstrong's conceptualisation of the enmeshment of domesticity and femininity. The study sought to tease out colonial configurations of the non-human coming to life but also of the ideological force of instrumentalising Indian bodies.
More information on the conference panels can be found here.
Maya is a first-year student in the DTP, and we are very proud to share this wonderful achievement. We are confident Maya will have many more successes to come. Well done, Maya!
