The Dāmal Fellowship is a nine-month long program that fosters deeper critical understanding of caste, class, gender and sexuality. It is specifically designed for Dalit women who have already stepped into the world of activism and wish to further hone their critical thinking and storytelling skills.
This program offers intergenerational and interdisciplinary learning, in-person seminars and community collaborations engendering a ‘sikne-sikaune’ spirit – this ensures that members of our faculty and team will not just teach and support our fellows but also learn alongside them. As such, our fellows will have the chance to work with renowned thinkers like Shailaja Paik, Sarita Pariyar, Lucinda Ramberg, Uma Chakravarti, Tri Ratna Manandhar, Anna Stirr, and many others.
This fellowship takes its name from the term ‘Dāmal’, a historical system of caste and gender-based punishment enacted by the 1854 Muluki Ain. We hope to resignify this term in a platform that can create new narratives on dignity, justice, and inclusive democracy.
