【共催セミナー】南アジア研究センター・セミナー: Dr. Meenakshi Thapan (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), “Location, Home, Rupture: Punjabi Migrant Women's Quest for Independence”

日時/ Date: 2026年11月5日（木曜日）18:30-20:00/ 5 November 2026 (Thursday) 18:30-20:30

場所/ Venue: 東京大学駒場Iキャンパス14号館4階407号室（ハイフレックス）/ Room 407, 4th Floor, Bldg No.14, Komaba Campus, The University of Tokyo/ Zoom*

＊オンライン参加をご希望の方は、 11月 3日（火）までに下記のサイトからご登録ください。対面でご参加の方は登録不要です。/ If you wish to participate online, please register by 3 November (Tuesday) at the website below. Registration is not required for those attending in person.

登録サイト/ Registration site:  https://forms.gle/Qq7TVsC7nhZnm2ff8

報告者/ Speaker:

Dr. Meenakshi Thapan (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), “Location, Home, Rupture: Punjabi Migrant Women’s Quest for Independence”

要旨/ Abstract:

Based on interview material with young Punjabi women migrants and fieldwork in the Emilia Romagna region in northern Italy, this presentation  emphasises the importance of location and space in shaping women’s agency. I argue that place is not a mere geographic space, but a process constructed by gender and identity. Focusing on the home as the significant safe space of migrant women’s lives, the presentation argues that rupture in the home, due to a breakdown in marital relations, or conflict within the family, entails a movement away from that safe space of the home. This movement is characterised by trauma, trepidation and courage in seeking an independent life. The role of the larger family, community, and welfare services is indispensable in this process.                   

Freedom and autonomy in the pursuit of modernity, we may argue, is not something that emerges from the utopian immigrant dream of attaining economic goals alone. It is about recognising the values that frame human relationships, and the conflicts these give rise to, both within the home as well as in the public sphere. The Punjabi young woman is caught between not just two worlds or two cultures but in the midst of her own shifting and moving desires, and an ambivalence in her self-definition to be an independent, ‘free’ young woman and simultaneously maintain the persona of the ‘good’ Punjabi girl. I conclude with an effort to understand how agency plays out in the most difficult of circumstances, through individual initiative, and familial and state support.

共催：環インド洋地域研究プロジェクト東京大学拠点（TINDOWS）、東京外国語大学南アジア研究センター