Join The Susan B. Anthony Institute for Sexuality, Gender, and Women's studies for our annual Rainbow Lecture, this year featuring Kareem Khubchandani. Parking is free in Library Lot after 4pm.

Auntologies: Queer Aesthetics and South Asian Aunties

The figure of the aunty is ubiquitous in South Asian public culture. Most recently, incumbent New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani repeatedly named the “aunties” that tirelessly supported his mayoral campaign. This is not an uncalculated mention and has many precedents. During Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential run, she described herself as “Auntie” on her Twitter profile and had a “chitthi brigade” of South Indian aunties supporting her campaign. In 2016 an Indian newspaper caused a national stir by labeling a politician “aunty national.” The mention of “aunties” in South Asian contexts is vexed, inviting both warmth and revulsion. This talk draws on the tools of queer studies to demonstrate how the study of aunties can elucidate important questions of gender, sexuality, and normativity. 

About Khubchandani:
Kareem Khubchandani is associate professor of theater, dance, and performance studies at Tufts University and F.O. Matthiessen visiting associate professor of studies of women, gender, and sexuality at Harvard University. He is the author of the award-winning books Decolonize Drag and Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife. He is also co-editor of the Lambda Literary-nominated Queer Nightlife, guest editor of Text and Performance Quarterly’s “Critical Aunty Studies,” and associate editor for GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. His new book, Lessons in Drag: A Queer Manual for Academics, Artists, and Aunties is now out from Brandeis University Press.