Lauren Wilks

Name: Lauren Wilks
Title
Organisation: School of Social and Political Science University of Edinburgh
Address: Edinburgh UK
Telephone
E-Mail: L.Wilks @ sms.ed.ac.uk
Research Interests: Domestic labour, care, gender, class, social inequality, migration, mobility, commuting, family and personal relationships, South Asia
URL: http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/gradschool/community_and_representation/research_student_profiles/sociology/lauren_wilks

PhD Title

Domestic Work and Daily Commuting in West Bengal, India (working title)

Research Overview

Funded by the ESRC, my research explores the everyday lives and experiences of domestic workers who commute to and from the city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in eastern India.

Supervisors

Dr Julie Brownlie & Dr Hugo Gorringe

Publications

Journal Articles

2011. 'Missionary medicine & the "separatist tradition": an analysis of the missionary encounter with leprosy in late nineteenth-century India,' Social Scientist, 39 (5-6): 48-66.

Book Reviews

2017. Book review of Samita Sen and Nilanjana Sengupta’s Domestic Days: Women, Work, and Politics in Contemporary Kolkata (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016), Contemporary South Asia, 25 (1): 110-111.

2016. Book review of Svati P. Shah's Street Corner Secrets: Sex, Work, and Migration in the City of Mumbai (Durham: Duke University Press, 2014), Sociology, 50 (4): 825-829.

Media Publications

I have written about my research interests for various media publications, including Thomson Reuters Foundation, The Huffington Post, The Observer, and The Guardian.

2015. 'The Indian Elite Has a Toilet Problem it Doesn't Want to See,' with Joyeeta Dey. The Wire. 2 December.

2015. 'India's Domestic Workers Need a Break.' The Guardian. 10 June.

2014. 'World Cup 2014: Is Brazil's Sex Industry Crackdown a Threat to Human Rights?' for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The Guardian. 14 February.

More here: www.laurenwilks.wordpress.com

Conference Presentations

2016. ‘Everyday Violence and Resistance in the Personal Lives of Women Engaged in Daily Commuting and Domestic Work in West Bengal, India.’ Modern Matters: Negotiating the Future in Everyday Life in South Asia, 20-22 September, Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET), University of Lund.

2016. ‘Madhobi and Kobita: A Discussion of ‘Honour’ and Violence in the Personal Lives of Women Domestic Workers in West Bengal.’ Annual Meeting of the South Asia Anthropologists’ Group (SAAG), 12-13 September, Department of Anthropology, University College London (UCL).

2015. ‘Gender, Migration, and Domestic Work in West Bengal, India.’ (En)gendering Migration: Narratives from South Asia and Beyond, 20 February, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK).

2013. ‘Forced Marriage in Scotland: Contesting Cultural Narratives and Reconceptualising Agency.’ New Directions, 18 April, University of Edinburgh.

2012. ‘Missionary medicine and the “separatist tradition”: an analysis of the missionary encounter with leprosy in late nineteenth-century India’ (adapted from undergraduate dissertation). The Delhi University Research Scholars’ Workshop: State, Economy & Society, 26-28 April, Department of History, Delhi University.

Research Projects & Experience

2014. Policy Assistant at the Carnegie UK Trust, Dunfermline

2011- 2012. Historical Research Assistant at the Carnegie UK Trust, Dunfermline

2011. Research Assistant at the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh (under the supervision of Professor Crispin Bates)

Tutoring

2016/17. 'Sociology 1B' (SCIL08005), School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh.

Other Activities

2016 to present. Committee Member of the SSPS PGT Peer Mentoring Scheme, a new initiative in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.

2014. Editor at Routes, a collaborative blog based at the University of Edinburgh.

2014. Contributor/panelist at the Innovative Learning Week event, 'Understanding and Working with the Media' (20 February), University of Edinburgh

2014. English Language Tutor at The Welcoming Association

2013. Student Fellow at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

2012-2013. Assistant Editor at The South Asianist

Grants & Awards

2012-2016. 1 + 3 Award, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

2015. Tweedie Exploration Fellowship, University of Edinburgh

2013. Amnesty International Student Human Rights Reporter Award, Amnesty International UK in partnership with NUS, the Observer and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

2011. Annabella Kirkpatrick Prize Scholarship in History, University of Edinburgh

2011. Rafe Bullick Scholarship, University of Edinburgh

Qualifications

2013. MSc by Research in Sociology, University of Edinburgh (Distinction)

2011. MA (Hons) in History, University of Edinburgh (First Class)