Dr. Sanjam Ahluwalia

WGS 601: Sex, Politics and Reproduction is a class that I’ll be offering after a gap of 3 years, so the readings are updated and I am using many recent feminist publications. I am looking forward to reading some of the new texts along with the students this coming Spring!

I enjoy teaching most all my classes, but if I were to pick a couple of favorites I would say WGS/HIS 355: History of Feminisms and Feminist Historiographies; and WGS 601: Sex, Politics, and Reproduction.

My research has focused on different aspects of repro/sexual history and politics. My first book focused on the history of birth control in colonial India history, which I situated within a wider global context. I am completing my current monograph on the history of sexual sciences, which maps global discourses on sex and pleasure through a close reading of The International Journal of Sexology, that was edited by A.P. Pillay from Bombay. While completing my monograph, I am researching various documentaries on family planning and population control that were produced, commissioned, and distributed by the Government of India since independence in 1947. I am also publishing short editorial pieces for a more public facing audience. I co-published an essay with my colleague on Universities as Women Serving Institution. I have another co-authored piece on the politics and discourse of reproductive rights and justice within contemporary post-Roe US. Across all my writings, I draw comparisons with histories and politics elsewhere to better illuminate the parochiality of our national and local conversations.

I am working to complete my monograph titled: Sex from the Margins: Sexual Science and the Global Discourse on Sexuality from Twentieth Century Bombay, 1930s-1950s.

I enjoy interacting with students outside the classroom, and student clubs provide a perfect forum for this. I currently serve as faculty advisor for two student clubs namely: The Planned Parenthood Generation Club (PP Gen) and The Period Club.

Interns to Scholars (I2S) and the Hooper Undergraduate Research Award are wonderful opportunities for undergraduate research in partnership with NAU faculty. Within WGS/HIS 355 class I have offered students opportunities to work on publishing their final research project. In the past I have also offered two separate research opportunities through the I2S program.

I enjoy gardening and long walks with my daughter! It gives me true joy to track (and taste) local fruit trees! Who would’ve thunk that the city of Flagstaff is dotted with a variety of apple, pear, plum, cherry, apricot, peach, and mulberry trees! My phone camera is also filled with pictures of glorious blooming peony bushes in my neighborhood and on NAU campus!