Join us for a fascinating panel discussion that will explore the issues faced by Australian women with Indian heritage. What are the roles and expectations of women in India and how do these play out among the Indian diaspora in Australia?
The panel includes the editor of Growing up Indian in Australia, Aarti Betigeri, and selected contributors from the book. Growing up Indian in Australia is a compilation of stories reflecting the diversity and experiences of Australians with Indian heritage.
Entry is free to this event but bookings are essential. A book signing in the Foyer will follow this event.
The event will be available to view live online via the Library's Facebook and YouTube pages. You do not need to book a ticket to watch the event online.
About the Panellists
Aarti Betigeri
Aarti Betigeri is a journalist, writer and editor from Naarm but currently living on Ngunnawal land, Canberra. She is a former television and radio news presenter and producer with SBS and the ABC, and a former foreign correspondent based in India. Currently she works as a journalist and advisor focusing on international relations.
Sharon Verghis
Sharon Verghis is a senior research and content manager and journalist whose work has appeared in The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Good Weekend, TIME magazine, The Guardian, BBC.com, SBS and many others. She recently completed a law degree and is of Malaysian-Indian background. Storytelling is her passion.
Rachael Jacobs
Rachael Jacobs lectures in creativity and arts education at Western Sydney University. She has a PhD and conducts research into racial justice education and language development through the arts. As a community artist, Rachael has facilitated projects in community settings all over Australia, mostly working in migrant and refugee communities. She has contributed as a consulting researcher with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to the development of the Sustainable Development Goals and to UNESCO’s International Commission on Futures of Learning. Rachael is also a community activist, aerial artist, South Asian choreographer and she runs her own intercultural dance company. Rachael was a founding member of Teachers for Refugees and is on the boards of climate action organisation, Sweltering Cities, and youth theatre company, PYT Fairfield. She is a fellow of the Centre for Western Sydney and a mentor to racial justice organisation, Democracy in Colour.
Zoya Patel
Zoya Patel is an author and editor based in Canberra. Zoya has published two books, No Country Woman (Hachette, 2018) and Once A Stranger (Hachette, 2023), and is currently completing a Master of Fine Arts with New York University. She writes regularly for The Guardian, The Age, and more, and co-hosts the Margin Notes podcast. Zoya was a judge of the 2020 Stella Prize, and Chair of the Stella Prize 2021 Judging Panel.
Meera Ashar
Meera Ashar is an Associate Professor of History at the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University. She is a historian of ideas. Her research analyses the ineffectiveness of existing concepts and modes of representation used to understand South Asian societies, and aims to set the stage for a framework more grounded in the lived historical experience of the people of South Asia. Her work, published in top-tier journals in the field, makes critical contributions to history and South Asian studies and to pressing debates on the enduring effects of colonialism, the postcolonial state, democracy and nationalism. Her ongoing work on the social history of colonial Gujarat examines the region through the lens of a controversial 19th-century novel, Saraswatichandra, its author and its audience. She has previously worked as Director of the South Asia Research Institute at The Australian National University, as an Assistant Professor at the City University of Hong Kong and has been the LM Singhvi Fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge. Meera has scripted an award-winning documentary film and is working on a book of short stories. She reads and writes in several South Asian languages and in a couple of European ones.
Type
Talks / Lecture
