About

This summer I intend to live in India and conduct a study of Indian Cosmopolitan.  This project will help me place my honor’s thesis, focusing on the history of women’s magazines, specifically focusing on Cosmo, in the US, in a global perspective.  I will interview and collect information on corporate women’s magazines in India, such as Cosmopolitan, and then also work with local feminist publications, such as Manushi magazine, to gauge their perspective on the influence of media on the lives of Indian women from all classes. 

I am excited to have the opportunity to do this kind of research, because it is important for both women and men to understand Women’s magazines within the framework of gender construction and global consumerism. Consumers should be informed, so that they can actively engage with what they are reading. Mass media and women’s oppression are linked in very complex ways across the globe, and my research will contribute to more fully understanding this social issue. 

The relatively recent appearance of Cosmo in India, as well as India’s position in the global economy, makes India a fascinating place to do my research. Not only will I be looking at globalization, but also how gender is constructed in the media across cultures. I plan to conduct over three months (from middle of March to the first of July) of focused research in urban centers such as Mumbai and New Delhi.