Triangulating Despair: Desi Cultures of Crisis and Care in Research Triangle, NC

Pavithra Suresh

Advisor: Roger N Lancaster, PhD, Cultural Studies Program

Committee Members: Alex Monea, Rashmi Sadana

Online Location, Zoom
June 26, 2024, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Abstract:

Using frameworks from queer studies and diaspora studies, this dissertation engages in a multi-modal ethnography of the South Asian (desi) community of Research Triangle, North Carolina. Emerging from a number of suicides in the community, the limited psychological literature that highlighted a high risk of suicidality among young South Asian Americans, and my own lived experience with suicidality and mental illness, I establish what I call ‘crises of despair’ and the cultural institutions that exacerbate them.

First, this project traces the history of the South Asian diaspora, accounting for norms around caste, class, gender, and nationalisms. I then introduce the imaginary of Uncle Swami (first introduced by Vijay Prashad, 2012) who I animate to encompass the machinations of Hindu nationalism, the violence of Brahmanical patriarchy, and the global expectations of neoliberal meritocracy; I then explore how Uncle Swami contributes to despair for young people in the community. Finally, I introduce Uncle Swami’s foil, the Conspiratorial Auntie, and looks at how she helps young people side-step his harm – while also exploring how the next generation has taken up the mantle and radicalized her. This work seeks to legitimize the causes of despair for South Asian Americans in the Research Triangle community, while also exploring the particularity of the protective measures that the community has produced to relieve them. Through this dissertation, readers can find alternative frameworks to understand the causes of despair in the community and can better locate the interventions happening to alleviate it.