TRASAL Talks Episode 3: Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9698230848?pwd=LEQZQKYZ5yyJKzvAwBOYlJA8FIFImH.1
Join us for the third episode of TRASAL Talks, our virtual conversation series that brings leading voices in literature, scholarship, and culture into dialogue with our community.
In this session, we welcome Elora Halim Chowdhury, Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, to discuss her book Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh.
Through the lens of cinema, feminist theory, and human rights advocacy, Chowdhury examines how stories of war, violence, and resistance are told and remembered. The book explores the ethical and political stakes of representing trauma, gendered violence, and collective memory in the context of Bangladesh’s history and its global resonances.
The conversation will be moderated by Poornima Janakiraman, who will guide a discussion on transnational feminism, storytelling, and the role of cultural narratives in shaping how we understand justice, memory, and solidarity.
Speaker
Elora Halim Chowdhury
Elora Halim Chowdhury is Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UMass Boston. Her teaching and research focus on transnational feminisms, violence and human rights advocacy, narrative, and film with an emphasis on South Asia. She is the author of Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh (2022) and Transnationalism Reversed: Women Organizing Against Gendered Violence in Bangladesh (2011), which received the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize from the National Women’s Studies Association.
Moderator
Poornima Janakiraman
Entrepreneur and community leader with experience in program leadership at Microsoft and Amazon. Poornima is actively engaged in literary and cultural programming in the Seattle area and frequently moderates TRASAL conversations.
About TRASAL Talks
TRASAL Talks is a virtual conversation series that brings writers, scholars, and thinkers into dialogue around South Asian histories, politics, culture, identity, and diaspora.
These events are designed as thoughtful and accessible spaces where readers, scholars, and community members can engage deeply with ideas, literature, and contemporary cultural conversations.
📅 Wednesday , April 15
⏰ 6:00 PM Pacific
📍 Virtual on Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9698230848?pwd=LEQZQKYZ5yyJKzvAwBOYlJA8FIFImH.1