Collective for Women Philosophers in India (CWPI) is a platform for women philosophers in India, working towards addressing the gender gap present in the academic and non-academic spheres of Indian philosophy.

 

Pertaining to the academic sphere, we hope to draw attention to the lesser proportion of women lecturers and professors as well as the lack of recognition of scholarship by Indian women philosophers at a national and global scale. In sectors belonging to the non-academic sphere (including public research initiatives, think-tanks, public policy institutions, not-for-profit organisations), women are rarely treated as serious public philosophers and efforts are seldom made to understand their public work in light of their philosophical positions.  

To address these issues, CWPI organises and conducts academic as well as non-academic projects. Academically, we undertake research initiatives belonging to varying philosophical domains, to study and understand diverse aspects of the situation. Currently, Dr. Richa Shukla, an epistemologist of gender in CWPI, is guiding a research group on various philosophical aspects of the phenomena. For more details, please check here. We encourage and invite women philosophers to reach out to us and lead research groups on their areas of research interest. We also regularly hold seminars and workshops where women philosophers present their research work. Such academic events, CWPI hopes, would constitute a safe space for collaborative projects amongst women philosophers, which would further contribute to the larger philosophical canon of Indian academic philosophy. Our non-academic measures to address the above mentioned issues include public seminars and talks to showcase and spread awareness about the works of women philosophers. 

 

Over the coming years, CWPI looks forward to undertaking research projects to  organise and document works by historical and contemporary Indian women philosophers. We also hope to explore possibilities of memorial lecture-series, dedicated to Indian women philosophers.