Summer 2006
June 26-29, 2006
Epidemics Then and Now: Infectious Diseases Around the World
A Workshop for Teachers
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies, the Graham School of General Studies, the Human Rights Program, the University of Illinois Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the East Asian, East European and Russian/Eurasian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern area studies centers at the University of Chicago
Intended primarily for elementary through community college educators (but open to all interested parties), this four-day workshop will explore epidemics and pandemics through a series of presentations, panel discussions, and small group activities. Area studies faculty, regional experts, and medical practitioners from the University of Chicago and partner institutions will lecture on the historical, cultural, scientific, and political issues surrounding the spread and impact of infectious diseases. Participants will receive print and digital curriculum resource materials.
Autumn 2006
October, 2006
Short Films by Yousuf Saeed
Screening and discussion with Delhi-based documentary filmmaker Yousuf Saeed
Sukhan: A film about the 13th-century poet Amir Khusrau.
Basant: A short film documenting a day in the life of Sufis and Qawwals at the tomb of the 13th-century Sufi Nizamuddin Auliya, celebrating Basant.
The Train to Heaven (Jannat ki Rail): A short musical video celebrating the spirit of popular Indian Islam, featuring devotional art and music.
In addition to many years of experience in TV and documentary production, Yousuf Saeed founded and maintains a website on the 13th-century poet-composer Amir Khusrau, and is the Project Director of the digital archive of South Asian visual culture Tasveer Ghar.
November 4, 2006
One Hundred Years of the All-India Muslim League, 1906-2006
A one-day colloquium, co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies Norman Wait Harris memorial fund and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies
In December of 1906, a group of nationalist Muslim leaders gathered in Dhaka, India and proposed a Muslim political association with three aims: to protect Muslim interests, to counter Congress influences, and to support the British administration. The first meeting of this new entity, named the All India Muslim League [AIML], was held in Karachi on December 20th, 1907. The next hundred years of the AIML, stretching from Dhaka to Karachi, can only be described as tumultuous. While the party and its ideologies gained significance in the Indian nationalist scene, it also underwent various evolutions as it struggled to represent the often dueling agendas and hopes for the millions of Muslims in India.
The focus of the colloquium will be squarely on the League itself. We seek an approach to topics such as Muslim nationalism in the early 20th c., the participation of landed elites in the League, Jinnah, the League's relationship with the Empire, Congress, religious institutions, etc., through the prism of the organizational and ideological setup of the Muslim League itself. The colloquium will consist of paper presentations and a keynote, as well as roundtable discussion throughout the day. The colloquium will also be the first step in the organization of a Digital Archive, consisting of primary resources and analysis, on the history and legacy of the Muslim League.
Keynote address: C.M. Naim, University of Chicago, "A Sentimental Essay in Three Scenes - with an Epilogue" (download video/audio)
David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University, "Law, Community, and Society: Writing the Histories of Muslim League" (download video/audio)
I.A. Zilli, Aligarh Muslim University, "Shibli and Early Years of Muslim League" (download video/audio)
In conjunction with the All-India Muslim League colloquium, South Asia Outreach organized an exhibition of artworks based on images of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Fatima Jinnah by the artist Lapata (Daisy Rockwell). The exhibition was on view in Foster 103 during the Autumn quarter and created the setting for the colloquium.
Winter 2007
January 13, 2007
The Politics of Love
A performance of three dance forms of India: Odissi, Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi
"The Politics of Love: A Dance Performance" featured an exposition of three dance styles performed by University of Chicago students Lynna Rasikant Dhanani, Shipra Avantica Mehrotra, and Rumya Sree Putcha. The performance was followed by a roundtable discussion among the dancers, moderated by COSAS associate member and scholar of dance, Joan Erdman. The event took place at International House, for a crowd of nearly 200 people.
Spring 2007
March, 2007
India's Spring Festival: HOLI in an Uttar Pradesh Village, 1951-79
An exhibition of photographs by McKim Marriott, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Chicago
The exhibition featured a set of panels showing the practice of Holi in a village in Uttar Pradesh where Professor Marriott lived during his fieldwork. The exibition also featured approximately 45 photographs showing the daily lives of the village people, from agricultural practices to wedding rituals and children at play, offering a rare view into life in rural India shortly after independence.
March-April, 2007
Traveling Film South Asia
Co-sponsored by Third-I Chicago, Chicago Filmmakers, and the Center for Asian Arts and Media at Columbia College.
South Asia Outreach presented a series of non-fiction films from South Asia, selected from Himal Association's biennial Film South Asia festival in Kathmandu. Introductions were given by the University of Chicago's Karin Zitzewitz, Rochona Majumdar, William Mazzarella, and Benjamin Schonthal.
Films included City of Photos (dir. Nistha Jain, India), Team Nepal (dir. Girish Giri, Nepal), The Life and Times of a Lady from Awadh: Hima (dir. Shireen Pasha, Pakistan), The Legend of Fat Mama (dir. Rafeeq Ellias, India), Dirty Laundry (dir. Sanjeev Chatterjee, South Africa), Teardrops of Karnaphuli (dir. Tanvir Mokammel, Bangladesh), The Great Indian School Show (dir. Avinash Deshpande, India), Girl Song (dir. Vasudha Joshi, India), Sunset Bollywood (dir. Komal Tolani, India), Lanka: The Other Side of War and Peace (dir. Iffat Fatima, Sri Lanka), Good News (dir. Altaf Mazid, India), and The City Beautiful (dir. Rahul Roy, India)
April 6-7, 2007
4th South Asia Graduate Student Conference
Inside/Outside: Between Text and the World
The first day of the 4th Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference featured general panels on South Asia and began with a rousing keynote talk by Biju Mathew of Rider University, entitled "Stars, Bhakts and Designer Intellectuals: An Anthropology of South Asian Academy in the U.S." Graduate student panels then explored dimensions of the conference theme, "Inside/Outside: Between Text and the World" on the second day. These panels initiated a dialogue across disciplines, historical periods, language specializations and even media -- the conference included a poster session and alternate media presentations. The eclectic weekend ended with a live demonstration/performance by the second keynote speaker, Sudipto Chatterjee, who integrated video, live music and dramatic dialogue with his talk.
Roundtable discussion featuring Biju Mathew, Boria Majumdar, Siddharta Deb, and Shekhar Krishnan, moderated by C.M. Naim: "Traveling between Two Worlds: The Public Intellectual in South Asian Scholarship" (download audio)
April 30, 2007
The Concept of Acting in Kathakali and Koodiyattam
A lecture by V. Kaladharan, Calicut University
Research Officer of Kerala Kalamandalam
Prof. Kaladharan will address the concept of acting in two dance forms from Kerala. Koodiyattam is among the oldest performing arts of India, performed in Sanskrit with live music and an all male troupe. Kathakali ("story-play"), is the classical dance-drama of Kerala and dates from the 17th century. It was born in the exclusive upper-caste and noble courts and draws its stories from Hindu mythology. Kathakali combines music, painting, acting and dance in the service of the complete expression of a single rasa (literally "flavor", but used in Sanskrit aesthetic theory to designate mood). There are no stage sets, and dancers use their stunningly colorful and large costumes with the accompaniment of drums and vocalists to create various moods. The dancers do not speak, but use a system of hand movements known as "Mudras" and unique facial expressions.
May 4, 2007
History Textbooks and the Profession: Comparing National Controversies in a Globalizing Age
A one-day conference, co-sponsored by the Department of History, Center for East Asian Studies, Center for International Studies, the Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine, and the Franke Institute for the Humanities
Featuring Neeladri Bhattacharya (Jawaharlal Nehru University), "The Politics of History Textbooks in India"
May 4-5, 2007
The First Biennial Norman Cutler Conference on South Asian Literature
Co-sponsored by the Franke Institute for the Humanities and the Center for Gender Studies
The Norman Cutler Conference on South Asian Literature (COSAL) honors the life and work of the late Norman Cutler, former Professor of Tamil in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations.
The purposes of the conference are:
- to create an expanded presence for South Asia in the fields of creative writing and comparative literature;
- to create an international forum for contemporary South Asian literatures;
- to encourage the interaction of scholars, translators, and U.S. readers generally, with South Asian writers.
The 2007 conference featured the work of the Tamil author “Salma” [R.A. Rokkiah, b. 1968], a Muslim woman who has recently catapulted into public controversy over her frank poetry on the female body.
Salma: Poetry reading (download video/audio)
Keynote address: A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Madras Institute of Development Studies (download video/audio)
Bernard Bate, Yale University, "Naaladiyar in the Bajaar: Protestant Textuality and the Tamil Public Sphere" (download video/audio)
Lakshmi Holmström, writer and translator, "The Tiger in the Picture: A Reading of Salma's Novel 'Irandaam Jaamangalin Kadai'" (download video/audio)
David Shulman, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "Beyond the Margin: On G. Nagarajan and 'Tomorrow is One More Day'" (download video/audio)
Salma: Prose reading (download video/audio)
All participants: Roundtable discussion (download video/audio)
May 8, 2007
Vishal Rawlley
Bombay-based artist Vishal Rawlley visited the University of Chicago where he gave a brown-bag talk, and gave a presentation of his work at Mess Hall as a part of the Chicago Arts and Labor Festival.
Rawlley works in film and video, print and web design, illustration, animation, installation, and more. Much of his work examines the experience of urbanity; the city of Bombay is a regular motif in his projects. Join us for a brown-bag talk with Vishal, in which he will discuss past projects such as TypoCity, his film Asian Vibes, and the audio archive Bombay Sonic.
Vishal holds a degree in film and video communication from St. Xavier's Institute of Fine Arts in Bombay. He has been awarded grants from the Daniel Langlois Foundation (Montreal), PUKAR (Bombay), and SARAI (Delhi). In March and April of this year he was a resident at OBORO in Montreal. Vishal's website is: www.bombay-arts.com.
South Asia Seminar series and Theory & Practice in South Asia (TAPSA) graduate student workshop, 2006-07:
Autumn 2006
- September 28: TAPSA: Jayson Beaster-Jones, Department of Anthropology
- October 5: South Asia Seminar: Stephen Phillips, University of Texas
"Liberation: Gangesa's mukti-vada and Nyaya on the Supreme Personal Good (paramapurusartha)"
- October 12: TAPSA: Shreeyash Palshikar, Department of Political Science
- October 17: South Asia Seminar: Piotr Balcerowicz, Warsaw University
"How Many Realities Are There? Jainas and Buddhists on the Complexity of What There Is"
- October 23: TAPSA: Arnika Fuhramnn, Department of South Asian Languages & Civilizations
- November 2: South Asia Seminar: Mark Siderits, Illinois State University
"Buddhist Paleo-Compatabilism" - November 10: South Asia Seminar: Tanika Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University
"The Fire Eaters: How to Think Widow Immolation in Early Colonial Times"
- November 16: South Asia Seminar: Sumit Sarkar, Delhi University
- November 30: TAPSA: Karin Meyers, the Divinity School
Winter 2007
- January 4: South Asia Seminar: Carl Ernst, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
"Muslim Interpreters of Yoga" (download audio)
- January 11: TAPSA: Rajeev Kinra, Department of History
- January 18: South Asia Seminar: Richard Hayes, University of New Mexico
"Self: Myth, Fiction, Delusion or Prerequisite?" (download audio)
- January 25: TAPSA: Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, Department of South Asian Languages & Civilizations
- January 26: South Asia Seminar: Awadhendra Sharan, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- February 1: South Asia Seminar: Ashok Aklujkar, University of British Columbia
"A Folding Chair, an Easy Chair, or a Director's Chair for Indian Philosophy?" (download audio)
- February 8: TAPSA: Namita Sugandhi, Department of Anthropology
- February 15: South Asia Seminar: Gayatri Reddy, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Hijras, AIDS, Cosmopolitanism and Questions of Izzat in Hyderabad"
- Feburary 19: TAPSA: James Vaughn, Department of History
- February 22: TAPSA: Jocelyn Marrow, Department of Comparative Human Development
- March 1: South Asia Seminar: Rama Mantena, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Language and Progressive Time: Conceptualizing Modernity in Late Colonial India"
Spring 2007
- March 8: TAPSA: Rachel Rinaldo, Department of Sociology
- March 26: South Asia Seminar: Christopher Minkowski, Oxford University
"Mangala Verses and the Cultural History of Mangala"
- March 29: South Asia Seminar: Gayatri Gopinath, University of California-Davis
"Queer Regions: Locating Lesbians in Liga Pullapally's 'The Journey'"
- April 5: TAPSA: Bertie Kibreah, Department of Music
- April 12: South Asia Seminar: Neeladri Bhattacharya, Jawaharlal Nehru University
"Beyond the Code: Custom, Law and Colonialism" (download audio)
- April 19: TAPSA: Blake Wentworth, the Divinity School
"I Dreamed Myself Anew: Some Thoughts on Love and Selfhood in South Indian Literature"
- April 26: South Asia Seminar: Philip Lutgendorf, University of Iowa
"The Persistence of the 'Mythological' in Hindi Cinema" (download audio)
- May 3: TAPSA: Jacqueline Jones, Department of Music
"Devotional Vernacular: Virtuosity and Genre in Varkari Performance Practice"
- May 10: TAPSA: Xi He, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
"Say It Again and Again: The Art of Repetition in the Lalitavistara" - May 18: South Asia Seminar: David Shulman, Hebew Univeristy of Jerusalem, and V. Narayana Rao, University of Wisconsin
"What Happens When a Poem Is Tranlated into a Poem? Srinatha's Telugu Naisadhamu and Sriharsa's Naisadhiya"
- May 24: South Asia Seminar: Gyan Prakash, Princeton University
"The Death of the Modern City: The Urban Discourse on Bombay/Mumbai"
Other Co-Sponsored Lectures and Events
With the Center for International Studies The World Beyond the Headlines series:
- Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago Law School, May 9, 2007 -- "The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India's Future" (download video/audio)
With the Nicholson Center for British Studies and the Franke Institute for the Humanities:
- Priya Joshi, Temple University, May 3, 2007 -- "The Social Lives of Institutions" -- and May 4, 2007 -- "Bollylite in America"