We are honored to present Episode 23 of the Bangladesh Feminist Oral History Project, an initiative of the Bangladesh Feminist Archives dedicated to documenting the voices, struggles, and legacies of Bangladeshi feminists across generations.
In this episode, we speak with Professor Elora Halim Chowdhury, a feminist scholar, educator, and human rights advocate whose work engages transnational feminism, gender-based violence, development, and visual culture.
Dr. Chowdhury is Professor and Chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she also directs the Human Rights Program. Her work bridges feminist theory and human rights with a sustained focus on Bangladesh and South Asia. Before academia, she worked in development and media in Bangladesh, including with BRAC and The Daily Star.
Her book Transnationalism Reversed examines feminist organizing in Bangladesh and challenges dominant development narratives, while Ethical Encounters explores memory, war, and feminist ethics through cinema, particularly in relation to 1971.
Across her work, she challenges simplified representations of women in the Global South and foregrounds feminist knowledge that is political, situated, and accountable.
Topics Discussed:
-Early life and feminist formation
-Development work and gender politics
-Feminist organizing and gender-based violence
-Transnational feminism and development critique
-Representation and global narratives
-Cinema, memory, and 1971
-Feminist ethics and knowledge production
-Teaching and intergenerational feminist futures
About the Project:
The Bangladesh Feminist Oral History Project is a living archive of interviews with Bangladeshi feminists, activists, artists, organizers, and scholars, whose stories offer insight, courage, and memory across generations.
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Bangladesh Feminist Archives 