People
Dr. Nayantara Sheoran Appleton
Kia ora Tautou,
Ko Himalaya te Maunga
Ko Nun te Awa
Ko Neelum rāua ko Raj ōku mātua
Ko Nayantara tōku ingoa
Above, I have spoken of the Himalayan mountain and Nun river in India as places where I trace my genealogy, alongside recognising my parents Neelum and Raj.
My name is Nayantara and I have begun my introduction by greeting you in two languages – Te Reo, the language of the ancestors and people on whose lands I currently live (Aotearoa); alongside English.
Identifying as tauiwi, I am constantly learning more about Aotearoa everyday and hope to contribute to conversations on how to respect the Tiriti as an immigrant on Indigenous lands.
I am currently a Senior Lecturer at the interdisciplinary School of Science in Society, Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Trained as a feminist medical anthropologist and STS Scholar (with a PhD in cultural studies) I has co-edited (w/Bennett) Methods, Moments, and Ethnographic Spaces in Asia (2021) and (w/ Van Hollen) A Companion to the Anthropology of Reproductive Medicine and Technology (2023). I have a forthcoming manuscript Demographic Desires, Mediated Medicine, and Emergency Contraception in India. I have published in leading academic journals on the politics of reproduction (Anthropology and Medicine, American Anthropologist, Economic and Political Weekly, to list but three) and non-academic public facing news platforms on how population and reproduction logics impact the everyday (The Hindu, The Wire, The Citizen, Spinoff, and Stuff).
My most recent project, Social Lives of Sex Hormones, funded by a Marsden Fast Start is in many ways a continuation of my previous research on hormonal contraception, but with a new focus on hormonal management and women’s changing biologies in light of the environmental crisis.
You can read more about my research and publications here: https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/nayantara.s.appleton
You can email me at: nayantara.s.appleton@vuw.ac.nz
Dr. Adelyn Lim
I'm Adelyn - a Singapore-born anthropologist and ethnographer of gender and sexuality. My academic path took me from Sydney to Canberra, where I completed my PhD in Anthropology at the Australian National University in 2010. My first fieldwork took place in Hong Kong, where I later returned for a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures (2011–2012).
I’m currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and a Research Associate at the Centre for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore. My research explores intersectional and transnational feminisms, cultures of fatherhood, and reproductive health. I also sit on the editorial board of Women’s Studies International Forum, where I contribute to conversations in global feminist scholarship.
I’ve written a book, Transnational Feminism and Women’s Movements in Post-1997 Hong Kong: Solidarity Beyond the State, and published articles in journals like The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology and Asian Studies Review, mostly focused on women’s movements in Hong Kong. More recently, I’ve been looking at Confucian masculinity as a form of hegemonic masculinity in Singapore, with articles in Men and Masculinities and Women’s Studies International Forum. My current project extends this line of inquiry to hegemonic femininity, specifically through the lens of assisted reproductive technologies and elective egg freezing in Singapore.
You can read more about my research and publications here: https://discovery.nus.edu.sg/6107-adelyn-lim/about
Curriculum Vitae
You can email me at: adelynlim@nus.edu.sg