Ahalya Ganesh – Women Deliver

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2020

Ahalya Ganesh

  • Age: 26
  •    |   They/them/theirs

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Oppression often goes unnoticed because of the ways it has been normalised. Let us form solidarities across borders to interrogate, address, and challenge everyday normalcies that keep the many shackled and subdued in the interest of the few.

- Ahalya Ganesh

Bio

Ahalya Ganesh is a feminist researcher working on understanding how fibromyalgia is managed, experienced and advocated for by different stakeholders in the Finnish healthcare context. They are currently employed as a doctoral researcher at Tampere University, Finland in an Academy of Finland and Kone Foundation funded project called Gendered Chronic Disease, Embodied Differences and Biomedical Knowledge. They are passionate about gender justice, queer liberation and about forging solidarities across caste, class and racial lines.

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What ignited your pursuit for gender equality?

Growing up, I saw how ideals of equality were undercut everyday in the ways that people treated my female peers and me differently than our male peers. This pushed me to become more observant of the troubling ways gender norms could cause damage. I began my journey toward gender equality.

Please share your biggest wins as an advocate for gender equality.

I founded Saga, a queer-friendly space, at my alma mater when I noticed how queerness was belittled. After the first meeting where we collaboratively came up with ways of normalizing queerness on campus, two peers remarked how they had never before felt so seen. That is my biggest advocacy win!

Outside of your gender equality advocacy work, what do you enjoy doing?

I enjoy watching sitcoms and reality tv shows, being active on social media and singing for pleasure.

Languages Spoken:

  • English (Advanced/Native)
  • Hindi (Advanced/Native)
  • Tamil (Advanced/Native)
  • Malayalam (Intermediate)
  • Finnish (Elementary)
  • Telugu (Elementary)

Publications:

Speaks On:

  • child sexual abuse
  • invisible GBV
  • sexuality and gender identity

Past Awards, Certifications, or Fellowships:

  • Tampere University Academic Excellence Scholarship (2020)
  • Kone Foundation grant for doctoral research (2024-2025)
  • Academy of Finland funding for doctoral research (2021-2024)
  • JN Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians (2019)
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