Irawati Karve (1905-1970) is known in India as the first woman to become a professor of sociology and anthropology, as well as for her feminist writings on culture and philosophy.
What is less well known is that she trained at the infamous Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics in Berlin in the late 1920s - a center for eugenics and racial anthropology. There she not only learned about racist theories and practices, but also questioned them.
The book, written by the writer Urmilla Deshpande and the anthropologist Thiago Pinto Barbosa, combines archive material with personal stories in "Iru" and thus traces Irawati's remarkable life - starting with her formative, yet difficult relationship with German anthropology.
"Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve" (2024) has been nominated five times for the Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award, including the prestigious New India Foundation and Indian Express Group awards.
- The book launch will be followed by a discussion with Lisette Jong, moderated by Manuela Bauche.
about the speakers:
Urmilla Deshpande is a writer based in Tallahassee, USA. Her works include "A Pack of Lies", "Slither: Carnal Prose" and "Body and Blood: Stories on Breaking the Ten Commandments".
Thiago Pinto Barbosa is a Brazilian anthropologist based in Leipzig and Berlin. His academic work includes the book "Racializing Caste" (2024) and explores the relationship between science and power, particularly in relation to racism and ecological issues.
Lisette Jong (University of Amsterdam) has researched the persistence of race in contemporary biological anthropology. She is currently working on the intertwining of the history of science and colonialism through the study of animal remains in natural history collections.
Manuela Bauche is a historian specializing in the history of the life sciences. She is the director of the Ihnestraße memorial site at Freie Universität Berlin, a permanent exhibition that critically examines the history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics at its former location.
An event organized by Freie Universität Berlin, Goethe University Frankfurt, Leipzig University and the FHXB Museum.
The primary event language is English.
Additional information
Dates
September 2025
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