Miami to Mysore

As a researcher interested in the ways culture and sexuality inform health disparity outcomes, I often

follow media coverage examining violence against women globally. I was particularly affected by the  
December 2012 attack against of a 23- year-old Indian female student in southern New Delhi. This
woman was beaten and gang raped in on a private bus while travelling with a male friend; she later
died from her injuries. While similar incidents occur in other nations on a daily basis, the intense 
global media coverage and responses from the victim’s and perpetrators’ families, community circles,
justice system, and government highlight the ways in which violence against women is culturally and
contextually defined. This lead me to wonder about the ways in which caste, class and other cultural
cues inform young adults perceptions of women, sexuality and violence against women in India.

 

Wanting to expand upon my U.S. -focused intimate partner violence (IPV) research , I applied for and was awarded a Global Health Equity Scholar Fellowship (GHES) to explore these issues. Through this program I am seeking to identify the cultural norms shaping Indian young adults' qualitatively unique meanings about dating relationships and IPV specifically, and violence against women generally.  Dr. Purnima Madhivanan founded and directs from Miami the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI) of India, the site where I am based in Mysore. Further, the GHES fellowship provides me with the means, time and support to work closely with colleagues in India; these are established researcher institutes and community partners already addressing IPV perpetration and victimization across diverse communities in Mysore. These include the Public Health Research Institute of India (PHRI) and the Samruddhi Foundation, among others.