Transformative Arts and Research Initiatives Fellowship

Transformative Arts and Research Initiatives Fellowship is the first fellowship of its kind in India, exclusively designed for early-career trans* scholars to pursue research at the intersection of art, law, policy, and culture. TAARIF funds two fellows annually and provides mentorship, a monthly stipend of ₹50,000, and a pathway to international publication.
Flagship Programmes

South Asia’s only trans* research fellowship

TAARIF hopes to think about trans* experiences in a capacious sense. The subcontinent is possessed of rich histories of gender and sexuality, cultures, and technologies that can transform the way we think about the world around us. We would like the Fellowship to lead to a piece of publishable research that explores the diversity of gender, sex and sexuality, feminist and trans* pedagogies, within South Asian contexts.

Our vision is to examine how trans* theorisation might emerge as a framework within which we can engage with issues of gender and sexuality in our time — and to publish cutting-edge research in transnational academic journals.

Broad Aims

01

To create a space for Indian early-career trans* scholarship

03

To strengthen research and writing skills for early-career scholars

02

To examine arts and policy, law and society, through trans* methods and methodologies

04

To publish cutting-edge research in transnational academic journals

Previous Cohorts

Our fellows and their research

2023

Shripad Sinnaakar

Subcategorization of Caste, Begumpura and Religion

Dipanwita Paul

Aesthetics of Funding: A Friendly Look at the Negotiations Between Trans Realities and Cis Expectations in Crowdfunding Campaigns

2024

Riza / Rahul V C

(Pseudo)Intellectualizing social conservatism: A critical account of anti-gender politics in Kerala, India

Simran Tapaswi

Reorienting Dysphoria: A Trans Phenomenology of Indian Trans and Non-Binary Experiences of Gender Dys/phoria and Dis/orientation

Aditya Vikram Srivastava

Whither Kothi: Kothi-ness (Dis)locates Trans Imaginaries in India

2025

Rana

Who is the Pregnant Person? Refusal, Care and Trans* Lens on Reproduction in India

Udhriti Sarkar

trans Uses of Instagram: How Indian People Reuse Instagram to Challenge Cisheteronormative Power Structures

Ansh / Qabeer

“Zyada feminine ban kar cruising spot par naa jaayein”: Some notes on embodied Trans Reflexivity