Laura Teresa Murphy
Loyola University, New Orleans (New Orleans, LA 70118-6143)
FZ-266824-19
Public Scholars
Research Programs
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[Grant products][Media coverage]
Totals:
$60,000 (approved)
$60,000 (awarded)
Grant period:
9/1/2019 – 8/31/2020
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Freedomville: The Story of a 21st-Century Labor Revolt in India
Research and writing leading to publication of a book documenting the after-effects of a 2002 labor revolt in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Freedomville tells the story of how a small group of impoverished, malnourished, and transgenerationally-enslaved men and women fought to liberate themselves from their overseers, wrest control of the rock quarry in which they worked, and become masters of their own fates. A closer look at Freedomville, however, also reveals that grassroots freedom struggles, compelling as they may be, are often haunted by the unsustainability of freedom in the current economy. Activists fight to maintain their grasp on freedom after liberation without the literal and figurative tools or the elite connections necessary to run their own businesses, develop their towns, and improve the opportunities available to their children. Employing in-depth interviews the people of Freedomville over the course of fourteen years, this book zooms in on the way local organizing efforts address the deep economic and cultural structures that make slavery possible.
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