In Conversation with Jaspreet Kaur

Together with the Centre for South Asian Studies and Girl Up Edinburgh, GENDER.ED is very excited to host this in-conversation event with Jaspreet Kaur, acclaimed author of Brown Girl Like Me, a manifesto that speaks to the experiences of South Asian women in UK today. This event will also feature Dr Kaveri Qureshi, Pooja Marwaha and Sharessa Naidoo as discussants, all of whom are based at the University of Edinburgh.

Speaker Bios:

Jaspreet Kaur, also known by her online handle 'Behind the Netra', is the author of Brown Girl Like Me and an award-winning spoken word artist, history teacher and writer from London. She is passionate about gender issues, taboo subjects and encouraging positive social change in both the Asian community and wider society. Her work tackles issues related to gender discrimination, mental health stigma, the postcolonial immigrant experience, and more. She is a regular on the BBC and Sunday Morning Live and worked with the UN on the 'HeforShe' campaign. In 2020 she was awarded the Ben Pimlott Writer in Residency at Birkbeck University as a Research Fellow with the Politics Department and was Artist in Residence with the Spine Festival, led by Apples and Snakes.

Dr Kaveri Qureshi is a Senior Lecturer in the Social Policy subject area. She works on intersectional inequalities and how race/ethnicity, class and gender shape experiences of health and intimate/personal life. She has written two monographs: Chronic illness in a Pakistani labour diaspora (2019) and Marital breakdown among British Asians (2016).

Pooja Marwaha is a Sociology PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Her research explores the personal relationships of South Asian women living in the UK. Pooja is passionate about advocating for minorities such as queer people, women, and people of colour.

Sharessa Naidoo is currently in her 4th Year studying Maths and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. She was born and raised in South Africa as a 4th generation South African of Indian origin. Much of her experiences as a South Asian woman are shaped by her South African upbringing and time spent in her Johannesburg-based all girls’ high school. She has served as Girl Up Edinburgh’s President at the University since 2020.

Register for tickets here.