Home / Lectures / Ram Mahalingham, UM Barger Leadership Institute

“Dirty work,” Invisibility and Dignity: An Intersectional Exploration of Janitors in India, US and South Korea

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Ram Mahalingham, UM Barger Leadership Institute

Description

Semester:

  • Winter 2019

Speakers:

Ram Mahalingham

Lecture Time:

Fri, February 1, 2019 @ 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

Lecture Location:

R0220 Ross School of Business

Speaker Webpage(s):

https://lsa.umich.edu/bli/People1/people/RamaswamiMahalingam.html

Introduced By:

Tangier Davis

Abstract

My research explores “dirty work” and dignity, based on my comparative work of Janitors in the US, South Korea and India. Using an interdisciplinary framework, my talk will focus on how intersections of caste, gender, social class, age and ethnicity shape the invisibility of janitors in the workplace in culture-specific ways. Using qualitative interviews, social media analyses and ethnography, my research documents various dignity injuries experienced by janitors in these three cultural contexts. My talk will also present how Janitors also actively restore their dignity and infantilization of their labor in these three cultural contexts. I will discuss the relevance of intersectional framework to study dignity in workplace

Recording & Additional Notes

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No additional notes available.