Mayurakshi Dutta

Thesis Title: Silent Struggles, Resilient Voices: Examining the Continuum of Men’s Violence in Assam

My doctoral project examines the continuum of men's violence in the lives of Assamese women living in the Northeastern state of Assam, India, with a complex socio-political history marked by conflict, identity-based mobilisation, and state militarisation. While dominant discourses portray the region as progressive and relatively egalitarian for women, citing high rates of education, employment, and the absence of dowry, government data reveals persistently high rates of gender-based violence. These contradictions raise important questions about how violence is normalised, made invisible, or explained away in everyday discourse. Building on Liz Kelly’s concept of the ‘continuum of violence’, the study moves beyond specific categorisations of violence. Instead, it examines how various forms of men's violence intersect in women’s lives. Grounded in feminist epistemology and trauma-informed qualitative methods, the research centres the voices of Assamese women to explore how they experience, interpret, and resist such violence across spaces. The methodology consists of two parts: first, a content analysis of political, policy, and activist discourses that shape understandings of gender and violence in Assam to contextualise my project; and second, in-depth interviews with women who are victim-survivors of men’s violence, as well as formal and informal support providers which will form the core of my research. The study seeks to contribute to more contextually grounded, intersectional understandings of VAW in India and inform responsive systems of care and justice

Biography:

I am a PhD researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. My work is grounded in qualitative, trauma-informed approaches, with a broader interest in gender, violence, and social discrimination in India. My research is driven by a need to confront what is often denied, avoided, or normalised, particularly within spaces that claim to be progressive or neutral. I am interested in how silence functions as both violence and survival, and how people navigate systemic harm in their everyday lives. Before joining the PhD program, I worked as a Qualitative Researcher at Oxfam India, contributing to their flagship reports on inequality and discrimination. I have an MA in Social Science Research from the University of Warwick and an MA in Gender Studies from Dr B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi.

University of Warwick

Sociology

2023 Cohort

Email:

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Supervisory Team:

Professor Ravi Thiara

Professor Khursheed Wadia