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“An Indefinite Sentence”: A conversation with author and activist Siddharth Dube
On June 7, we hosted Calcutta-born author and activist Siddharth Dube for a conversation about his latest book, An Indefinite Sentence: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex. This talk took place in the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre and was presented in partnership with SFU’s Institute for the Humanities and Indian Summer Festival.
Dube is an esteemed writer and specialist commentator on topics such as poverty, public health, and development. He currently serves as a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York City, and previously he has worked and consulted for organizations such as the World Bank, UNICEF, WHO and most recently UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
During his talk, Dube read three passages from An Indefinite Sentence that brought to light his personal experiences of discrimination and his advocacy for the rights of sex workers in India. The entire book serves as both a memoir and a social history of LGBTQ and the rights of queer people and sex workers. His readings opened a window into what life was like for him as a gay man in India, as well as his commentary on India’s reaction and response to the AIDS epidemic as it broke out in the mid-1980s.
You can listen to Siddharth Dube’s talk in our A/V gallery or below:
Learn more about An Indefinite Sentence: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex here.
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