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Aishwarya Bhuta joined the Department of Geography in 2023 supported by an ESRC 1+3 White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership scholarship. Her research interests broadly revolve around gender and development. Prior to joining the Department, she has been a development sector professional researching issues related to gender in India. Her academic training is in the social sciences and her professional background is in policy research.

Interrogating NGO-isation, Rethinking Women's Empowerment: Case Studies from India

Aishwarya’s thesis will examine case studies of NGOs which have emerged from a history of women’s movements in India, from the theoretical lens of the capability approach and women’s empowerment. She will primarily use qualitative research methods including ethnographic fieldwork. The study will attempt to operationalise the capability approach in the context of NGOs and women participants of their interventions. Moreover, it will critique some of the dominant Northern framings of empowerment, and explore their alternative Southern feminist conceptualisations in the Indian context.

Supervisors: Prof Dorothea Kleine, Dr Sammia Poveda