Dr. Meena Dhanda is an Indian philosopher and writer, based in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. She is a Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Politics at the
University of Wolverhampton
The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mechanics' Institute founde ...
, and is internationally recognised as a leading academic in the development of
diaspora dalit studies. She conducts philosophy with a 'practical intent', and her work has confirmed existence of
caste discrimination in Britain in areas covered by the
Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed during the Brown ministry with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, that formed the basis of anti-d ...
, and pushed for more legal protections against caste-based discrimination.
Biography
Meena Dhanda arrived in the UK from Punjab, India in 1987 with an award of the
Commonwealth Scholarship
The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.
History
The plan was originally proposed b ...
for her doctoral work in Philosophy at
Balliol College
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...
,
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
. She was a
Rhodes Junior Research Fellow at
St Hilda's College, Oxford, before taking up a full-time lecturing position at the University of Wolverhampton in 1992, progressing to a Readership (Associate Professorship) in 2010. She was promoted Professor on September 17, 2018.
Dhanda has written about problems of racism within the field of philosophy, calling for more diversity within the field, and has spoken of the importance for her of doing "socially engaged philosophy."
She has been an active member of the UK branch of the
Society for Women in Philosophy for more than 25 years, and as of 2017, sits on the society's Funding Committee.
Main works
From September 2013 to February 2014 Dhanda led a project on 'Caste in Britain' for the UK
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), through which she produced two research reports – "Caste in Britain: Socio-legal Review", and "Caste in Britain: Experts' Seminar and Stakeholders' Workshop."
She has published numerous transdisciplinary papers on topics of caste and race, including 'Punjabi Dalit Youth: Social Dynamics of Transitions in Identity', (Contemporary South Asia, 2009); 'Runaway Marriages: A Silent Revolution?', (Economic and Political Weekly, 2012); 'Certain Allegiances, Uncertain Identities: The Fraught Struggles of Dalits in Britain' (Tracing the New Indian Diaspora, 2014); 'Do only South Asians reclaim honour'? ('Honour' and Women's Rights, 2014); 'Anti-Castism and Misplaced Nativism' (Radical Philosophy, 2015).
She has published two books: a monograph, ''The Negotiation of Personal Identity'' (Saarbrüken: VDM Verlag, 2008) and ''Reservations for Women'' (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2008).
Awards and honours
She was awarded a
Leverhulme Research Fellowship for a primary research project 'Caste Aside: Dalit Punjabi Identity and Experience' concluded in 2012.
Bibliography
Journal articles and reports
* Dhanda, M. (2009)
Punjabi Dalit Youth: Social Dynamics of Transitions in Identity, Contemporary South Asia, 17, 1: 47-64.
* Dhanda, M. (2013)
Caste and International Migration, India to the UK, in I. Ness (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. Wiley Blackwell.
* Dhanda, M. (2013) 'Certain Allegiances, Uncertain Identities: The Fraught Struggles of Dalits in Britain', in O.P. Dwivedi (ed.), The New Indian Diaspora. New York: Editions Rodopi, 99-119.
* Dhanda, M. (2015) 'Anti-Castism and Misplaced Nativism: Mapping caste as an aspect of race' ''Radical Philosophy'', 192, July-Aug, pp. 33–43.
* Dhanda, M., Mosse, D., Waughray, A., Keane, D., Green, R., Iafrati, S. and Mundy, J.K. (2014) Caste in Britain
Experts' Seminar and Stakeholders' Workshop Equality and Human Rights Commission Research Report no. 92. Manchester: Equality and Human Rights Commission.
* Dhanda, M., Waughray, A., Keane, D., Mosse, D., Green, R. and Whittle, S. (2014) Caste in Britain
Socio-legal Review Equality and Human Rights Commission Research Report no. 91. Manchester: Equality and Human Rights Commission.
* Dhanda, M. (2020) Philosophical Foundations of Anti-Casteism
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 120, 1: 71–96.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhanda, Meena
Living people
Indian women philosophers
British women philosophers
Scholars from Punjab, India
1987 births