They say, “Gaining knowledge is the first step to wisdom. Sharing it is the first step to humanity.” Keeping the idea at its core, Alliance School of Liberal Arts organized a two-day National Seminar on Gaze (online) in collaboration with Minorities and Philosophy International (MAP) on 24^th-25^th April 2023. With the aim to address structural injustices and minorities topics in academic philosophy and to remove barriers that impede participation in academic philosophy for members of marginalized groups, the two-day seminar invited various academics and speakers proficient in diverse fields to share their perspectives from various aspects of gaze. The seminar also delved into the discussion upon why and how it is crucial to investigate upon gaze to understand the structural hegemony prevailing in the society.

Lectures covered the topics such as patriarchal and male gaze in translations of various literature and systemic absence of female’s perspective; the aesthetics of street art in the city; gaze from the approach of female intersectionality; the cosmopolitan gaze in Angelo da Fonseca’s paintings; the idea of narcissistic gaze in early modern poetry and art; phenomenological male gaze in Sankhya school of Indian philosophy; female gaze in cinema; the gaze of purity to investigate in caste and gender; the notion of gaze through veil for Muslim women; the post-political gaze in understanding the Russia-Ukraine war; and the relevance and ethical implications of gaze in our everyday life to our spiritual and philosophical life.

Some of the invited speakers were:

• Sholeh Wolpe (Writer-in-residence, University of California, Irvine)
• Dr. Omkar Bhatkar (Co-Founder and Head of St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts, Mumbai)
• Dr. Lallan Singh Baghel (Chairperson, Department of Philosophy, Panjab University, Chandigarh)
• Dr. Indoo Pandey Khanduri (Professor, Department of Philosophy, HNB Garhwal University)
• Dr. Reetu Jaiswal (Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi)
• Dr. Hina Mushtaq (Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Aligarh Muslim University)
• Dr. Richa Kela (Assistant Professor, SPM College, University of Delhi)

The seminar helped us to understand that these gazes are a by-product of society’s hierarchal structures, they mimic and propagate each other in arts, cinema, literature, power, politics as well as in our daily lives. We covered the topic of gaze from various disciplines like philosophy, sociology, psychology, art & literature, critical theory, film theory to explore the research avenues. Through these various topics and followed discussion, the aim to bring forth as many standpoints for a diverse understanding of the nuances and operation of ‘gaze’, has been covered but at the same time, it stimulated us to delve deeper into the topic.