Somya Dixit is a human rights activist and researcher. Her interest in intersex human rights and policy research developed when she was studying for her Master’s in International Human Rights Law from the University of Leeds. She wrote her master’s thesis on ‘Protecting Intersex: The Need to Recognize Intersex Status and Their Autonomy by Employing Substantive Equality.’ Her research revolved around intersex status in Australia and Malta.
She worked on various projects on women (IGNITE), children (MAD), and LGBTI (FLOYDING INDIA) rights when she was pursuing her Bachelor’s in Law. Somya has also worked on the issues related to migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in India for a brief period of period.
Somya commenced her 24-month Marie Sklodowska Curie fellowship at Dublin City University in Ireland in February 2022.
Outreach activities:
18 October 2022: Lecture at University of Malta
ESR4, Somya Dixit, presented an invited lecture on ‘intersex and intersectionality of inequality’ on October 18 from 12 PM to 2 PM at the University of Malta. The talk was well received by the postgraduate students of the gender and sexuality department of the University. This talk included a detailed introduction to the issues faced by intersex people and how intersectionality plays a major role in furthering the discrimination faced by them. The talk included intersex intersections from the perspectives of sexism, gender stereotypes, racism, and disability. It also included discussions on the current legal mechanisms in Malta that facilitate the rights of intersex people and to what extent they are brought into practice. The talk was very interactive and the audience brought in new parallels between discrimination faced by different vulnerable groups with that of discrimination faced by intersex people. The audience also discussed how various cultural practices also lead to discrimination against intersex individuals.
11 October 22: Lecture at University of Malta
ESR4, Somya Dixit, presented an invited lecture on ‘intersex and feminism’ on October 11 from 6 PM to 7 PM at the University of Malta. This talk included a detailed introduction to the issues faced by intersex people in their day-to-day lives and focused on seeing these issues from the lens of feminist theories such as the social construction of gender. The talk also included an interactive session on how sexism and gender-stereotype affect medical intervention on the bodies of intersex children. The talk further dealt with the current legal mechanisms in Malta that facilitate the rights of intersex people and to what extent they are brought into practice. The talk was very interactive and well received by postgraduate students of the gender and sexuality department of the University.
26 September 2022: Stakeholder Event at University of Malta, Valletta Campus
During the sixth INIA network event held at University of Malta, Valletta, INIA PIs and ESRs participated in a stakeholder conference. This was a very successful event attended by approximately 40 people from the University of Malta and from the Maltese government. The programme for the event can be found here.
Dissemination activities:
1 February 2024: Expanding intersex studies, Brussels, Belgium
For more information about this final INIA conference and programme: https://intersexnew.co.uk/expanding-intersex-studies/
ESR Somya Dixit gave a presentation titled: Intersex Peoples’ Human Rights and Medical Realities: Exploring Lived Experiences in Ireland and Malta