Welcome to the Inaugural Virtual Discussion of our monthly events! We are happy to announce that our Working Group will continue to function during the academic year 2026-27.
Through our Inaugural Talk, we decided to celebrate August as the Vimukta (Liberation) Month alongside millions in South Asia and beyond marking both the World Indigenous People's Day and the abolition of "Criminal Tribes Laws," a draconian colonial law in the subcontinent that declared generations of nomadic-indigenous people as "hereditary criminals". Titled: Anti-Caste Praxis and the question nomadic-indigenous communities, our talk brings into conversation two incredible speakers. Our event is scheduled to take place on 10 AM EST/ 7:30 PM IST—Friday 28 August, 2026. You will receive a zoom link once you submit your response below.
Registration Link: https://bit.ly/GlobalAntiCaste
Our Speakers are
Sujatha Surepally
For over three decades Prof. Sujatha Surepally has been working at the intersection of scholarship and grassroots struggle. As Professor and Dean of Social Sciences and Head of Sociology at Satavahana University, Telangana, India she brings academic rigor to the fight against caste and gender oppression — while remaining, alongside the communities through various grassroots based interventions. She founded the Dalit Women's Collective, Tangedu Mahila Sagam, and the Saavithri Bai Phule Knowledge Center, and co-founded the National Council of Women Leaders. Undeterred by trolling, threats, and institutional pressure, she continues pushing for a Dalit feminist standpoint — insisting that justice, not comfort, is the real measure of activism.
Ethel Brooks
Prof. Ethel Brooks is an Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Sociology at Rutgers University, whose research spans London, Istanbul, Dhaka, San Salvador, and beyond. She is the author of the award-winning Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women's Work, and her scholarship on labor, empire, and diaspora has appeared in leading journals and edited volumes. A prominent Romani feminist scholar, Brooks is currently writing two books examining Romani land tenure and cultural production amid rising violence against Romani communities worldwide. In 2011, she held the Fulbright-University of the Arts London Distinguished Chair, lecturing in partnership with the Tate Gallery.
The event is hosted by the Global Anti-Caste Thought Graduate Working Group, Global Asias, Rutgers University and co-hosted by Rutgers Anti-Caste Collective, previously referred to as Fatima Ambedkar Birsa Periyar Phule Savitribai Students and Workers Association, Rutgers University.