Kassandra Neranjan

Gender Justice Advocate and Intersectional Feminist Researcher, McGill University JD/BCL Candidate

gender, gender justice, intersectional feminism, feminist policymaking, international relations, global affairs, refugee, Rohingya, gender and conflict

Media

How the Trudeau government is failing the world's most vulnerable despite its 'feminist' aid policy

A Lack of Logic: Cultural Genocide's Omission in International Law

by Kassandra Neranjan

Published by Intra Vires: University of Toronto Undergraduate Law Journal

Women and Covid-19 in Myanmar

by Kassandra Neranjan; Sakshi Shetty

Published by Tea Circle - An Oxford Forum for New Perspectives on Burma/Myanmar

In Myanmar, women face various obstacles as internally displaced peoples, garment workers, unpaid labourers, and victims of overarching conflict. Not only has COVID-19 affected these populations’ capacities to support themselves, the impact in these sectors serve to elucidate existing gender inequalities women face in Myanmar. This essay was written as part of an International Development Research Centre (IDRC)-funded project–a collaboration between the University of Toronto and the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security–on gender and decentralization in Myanmar. Drawing on some of the data collected in Myanmar from 2018 to 2019, this text will reflect on women’s vulnerabilities and resilience in the face of a global pandemic.

URL: https://teacircleoxford.com/2020/06/15/women-and-covid-19-in-myanmar/

From Encounter to Exodus: History of the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar

by Kassandra Neranjan; Sakshi Shetty

Published by Yale Review International Studies

According to the United Nations, the Rohingya are amongst the most persecuted minorities in the world. The Rohingya Muslims of Burma have been victim to ethnic cleansing and genocide for decades. Although Islam is practiced by four per cent of Myanmar’s population (most of these Muslims identify as Rohingya), the Rohingya Muslims have been deprived of citizenship rights and are denied recognition as a ‘national race’ based on their alleged “immigrant status”. The institutional and systematic discrimination of this population has raised concerns of how to best provide aid to this group. We intend to dig deeper and explore the intricacies of the complex history of this population, and trials that have arisen due to state prejudice. This essay analyzes this political puzzle through examining themes of Western intervention with Burma, processes of democratization, isolationist state practices of Burma, global norms and anti-norms of Islamophobia, and the capitalistic efforts to open Burma’s doors to trade regardless of human rights abuses.

URL: http://yris.yira.org/comments/2882

Women on the Move: Gendered Aid in the Rohingya Refugee Crisis

by Kassandra Neranjan; Sakshi Shetty

Published by Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy University of Toronto

Policy report based on primary research outlining recommendations for removing barriers and following best practices for gendered aid provision for Rohingya women and girls.

URL: https://womenotmove.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/women-on-the-move_policy-report_neranjan-and-shetty_final.pdf

Biography

Kassandra Neranjan is a BCL/JD candidate at McGill University Faculty of Law. She is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto having studied International Relations, Peace Conflict and Justice Studies, and French Literature. As a Gender Justice Advocate, Neranjan encourages critical discourse and debate with regards to social norms, public policy, lived realities, and considerations of research and academia. As an activist, Neranjan has engaged with her community for countless years speaking with politicians, public figures, the media, and her local community in settings such as the Toronto Women's March, the United Nations General Assembly, and more. Neranjan's first love has always been and will always remain research. She has conducted groundbreaking research on the Rohingya refugee crisis with the University of Toronto looking at gendered aid provision barriers and best practices. This culminated in a policy report, an essay published with Yale, and a CBC op Ed. She is presently focused on contributing to projects at the University of Toronto and McGill University assessing intersectional identities of gender.

Expertise

  • youth
  • gender
  • gender justice
  • intersectional feminism
  • feminist policymaking
  • international relations
  • global affairs
  • refugee
  • Rohingya
  • gender and conflict