Image: Congratulations to Rumya Putcha for winning the prestigious Bernard S. Cohn Prize of the Association for Asian Studies! Rumya's book was a co-winner and the citation is here: Rumya Sree Putcha, The Dancer’s Voice: Performance and Womanhood in Transnational India (Duke University Press) Rumya Sree Putcha’s The Dancer’s Voice: Performance and Womanhood in Translational Perspective traces the shifting signification of the Indian dancer, focusing especially on Telugu dancers from “dominant caste” and “model minority” backgrounds. Combining ethnography with a transnational archive of film, legal documents, advertisements, performances, and family and personal memories, Putcha uses dance as a powerful entry point for understanding the interrelation between womanhood, caste, citizenship, and silence. As she demonstrates, the separation of the woman’s body from her voice is foundational to her citizenship. The book employs a sophisticated interdisciplinary methodology that offers fresh insights and perspectives to a wide set of audiences, as well as a welcome bridge between the studies of South Asia and its diaspora. This book should be read far beyond its immediate field. Read More: AAS Cohn Prize
