In Conversation with Shilpa Phadke

Shilpa is a Professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is co-author of the critically acclaimed book, ‘Why Loiter: Women & Risk on Mumbai Streets’ (Penguin-Random House) which examines women’s access to public space. She is co-director of the documentary, Under the Open Sky (2017). She has published widely both academically and in popular media. Her areas of interest include cities and public spaces, middle-class sexuality, practices of consumption, feminist pedagogy, feminist mothering, young women’s relationship with feminism, online public spaces.

Recorded online in March as a part of the speaker series for our latest issue on gender and development, Shilpa spoke to the cohort about the women’s right to loiter and its neglect in urban policy. This lecture was conducted in collaboration with the Women in Public Policy group at ISPP.