Summer 2007
June 25-28, 2007
Best Practices: What U.S. Educators Can Learn from India
SALAC was invited by the U.S. Department of Education and the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) to host a four-day orientation program for U.S. high school teachers as they were heading to India for a Fulbright-funded study tour organized by USIEF. The group of sixteen teachers, selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, attended the orientation in Chicago.
The theme of the teachers' study tour in India was "Best Practices: What U.S. Educators Can Learn from India" and focused on the fields of math and science. They visited a number of schools, NGOs and other sites of interest as they visited several cities in India, beginning in Delhi and stopping in Varanasi, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Cochin, and Mumbai. Upon their return, the teachers created curriculum modules that incorporated what was learned from their Indian colleagues. Many are posted on Outreach World.
September 8, 2007
"New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India" Educators' Workshop
Join us for an Educator’s Workshop on the exhibition, “New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India" at the Chicago Cultural Center. A partnership between the University of Chicago South Asia Language and Area Center and the Chicago Cultural Center’s Education Division, the one-day workshop will provide context for high school and college educators to use works of art to understand contemporary India. The workshop is designed to introduce educators without previous background on India, to subjects including religion, politics and gender, with contemporary visual art forming the focus of the discussion.
About "New Narratives":
The exhibition features works by 18 living artists, all created in the 21st century, and includes paintings, watercolors, sculptures, installations and video. It is the first exhibition in Chicago to include works from the studios of contemporary artists in India as well as from private collections and galleries in the United States and India. Approximately 60 objects that have been created since 2000, comprising the work of 24 artists, have been selected to represent art-making in India today.
About the Workshop:
Following an introductory gallery talk with the exhibition curator, three specialists on Indian culture (the University of Chicago's Laura Desmond, Rochona Majumdar, and Karin Zitzewitz) will lead sessions on specific works of art. Oak Park/River Forest High School's Nell Crawford will lead break-out sessions to plan curriculum development using contemporary Indian art. Educators will leave the exhibition with a notebook of teaching and resource materials based on those pieces. CPDU credits will be available.
Autumn 2007
October 1-6, 2007
Fourth International Workshop on Classical Tamil Poetics
During this week-long workshop, the research group of Sascha Ebeling (University of Chicago), Jean-Luc Chevillard (CNRS-Paris), Thomas Lehmann (University of Heidelberg), Ulrike Niklas (University of Cologne), Takanobu Takahashi (University of Tokyo), and Eva Wilden (EFEO-Pondicherry) worked on an annotated translation of the Tamilneri vilakkam, a medieval Tamil treatise on poetics. The translation will be published in 2009. The group has been meeting regularly since 2003, with the long-term goal of re-assessing the entire tradition of classical Tamil poetics by producing critical studies and annotated translations of the key texts.
November 6, 2007
Indian Theatre at the Crossroads of Globalisation
A lecture by Habib Tanvir, Bhopal-based dramatist, poet, journalist, producer, and director of Naya Theatre.
Habib Tanvir (1 September 1923 – 8 June 2009) was one of the most popular Urdu and Hindi playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor. He is the writer of plays such as, Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor (1975). A pioneer in Urdu and Hindi theatre, he is most known for his work with Chhattisgarhi tribals, at the Naya Theatre, a theatre company he founded in 1959 in Bhopal. (reprinted from Wikipedia)
November 5-16, 2007
We Are Not Flowers, We Are Flames!
Traveling photography exhibit, co-sponsored by the School of Social Service Administration
SALAC organized an exhibition of photographs by Raghu Rai and Maude Dorr of the aftermath of the 1984 gas tragedy in Bhopal, India -- what is often referred to as the worst industrial disaster in human history. Rai's photographs were taken in the recent aftermath of the disaster and show the devastating impact on those who were exposed to the chemical spill. Dorr's photographs were taken more recently, and show both the continued impact of the contaminated site on local populations as well as the struggle for justice by affected community members and activists. The photographs were on display in the lobby of the School of Social Service Administration (SSA) building.
Related event: Screening of Bhopal: The Second Tragedy (1995, Dir. Mark Tully)
November 7, 2007
Q2P
Screening and discussion with filmmaker Paromita Vohra
Co-sponsored by DePaul University and the University of Illinois at Chicago
The documentary Q2P investigates the question of why there is always a line at women's public restrooms, but never one at the men's. Q2P is a contemplative study of how gender and class inequalities are revealed through toilets, something we normally take for granted. Set in Mumbai, India, where women going to the loo alone is stigmatized, the film looks at who has to queue to pee, and how urban design becomes gendered by this social prohibition.
November 8, 2007
Comics and Chai
Amar Chitra Katha tells stories from great Indian epics, mythology, history, folklore and fables, all in comic book form. Created by Anant Pai in 1967 in order to teach Indian children about their cultural heritage, the series has sold more than 90 million copies. Bulbul Tiwari, Ph.D candidate in the Department of South Asian Languages & Civilizations, gave an introduction to the history of the comic books, and attendees were free to ask questions, hang out and read the comics.
November 14, 2007
Roots in the Sand
Co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies
The documentary Roots in the Sand is a multi-generational portrait of pioneering Punjabi-Mexican families who settled in Southern California's Imperial Valley in the early 1900s. The film was introduced by Mauricio Tenorio, Professor of History, University of Chicago.
Winter 2008
February 25-29, 2008
Displacement Week
Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Program, Chicago Studies Program, Center for Latin American Studies, South Side Solidarity Network, Center for International Studies, Students for Human Rights, and Students Organizing United with Labor
Displacement Week was a week-long series of events intended to engage the University of Chicago, and the Hyde Park, Kenwood and Woodlawn communities with issues surrounding the displacement of people for economic development. Through a series of public lectures, panel discussions and film screenings, the connections between displacement caused by global and local economic development processes were examined, including the proliferation of Special Economic Zones and the rapid expansion of gentrification. The week culminated with a bus tour to relevant sites in Chicago.
Displacement Week included two events focusing on India. Neera Adarkar, praciticing architect, urban researcher and one of the conveners of the Girangaon Bachao Andolan (Save Girangaon Movement), gave a World Beyond the Headlines lecture on displacement of mill workers in Girangaon, Mumbai. Asha Hans, doctoral student in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, gave a brown-bag talk on dams and displacement, using Narmada dam as a case study.
Spring 2008
April-May, 2008
India Blooms in Chicago
In conjunction with the Chicago Opera Theater's production of John Adams' "A Flowering Tree", based on a Kannada folktale that had been collected and translated by A.K. Ramanujan, folklorist and University of Chicago faculty member for 30 years, SALAC, COSAS, the Graham School of General Studies, and the Chicago Opera Theater presented a series of events entitled "India Blooms in Chicago".
- Stories Spun (Part I): HipHopistan: Artist conversation
Assistant Professor of Music Kaley Mason in conversation with artists Yogi B & Natchatra, Chee Malabar, MC Kabir and Abstract/Vision, University of Chicago - Stories Spune (Part II): HipHopistan: Concert
Performance featuring Yogi B & Natchatra, Chee Malabar, MC Kabir and Abstract/Vision, University of Chicago Laboratory School - Stories Spun (Part III): Putting theory to practice
Hands-on hip-hop workshops, Northwestern University - Stories in Motion: Narrative dance in India
Dancers Rumya Putcha (Kuchipudi), Shipra Mehrotra (Odissi), and Kiran Chouhan (Kathak) with commentary by Professor Wendy Doniger, International House
(download video) - Stories Told: "A Flowering Tree" and other women's tales from India
Discover the tale and traditions that inspired John Adams' newest operatic masterpiece with Professor Wendy Doniger, University of Chicago Gleacher Center - Stories on Screen: I for India screening, examining the Indian diaspora
Through cine-letters one family shares their experience migrating from India to the UK in the 1960s, followed by discussion on Chicago's Indian diaspora by Padma Rangaswamy of the South Asian American Policy and Research Institute, Columbia College Film Row Cinema - Stories Psychoanalyzed: A flowering of opera and the mind
John Adams is joined by C.G. Jung Institute analyst Dr. Sue Rosenthal and Chicago Opera Theater Director Nicola Raab as they delve into the inner layers of his new opera "A Flowering Tree", University of Chicago Gleacher Center - Stories Alive: Ethnic neighborhoods tour
Members of the Indo-American Heritage Museum give an insider's view of Chicago's Devon Avenue neighborhood - Stories Heard: Musical narratives from India
Understand the integral role music plays in telling stories - from classical Indian musical styles to Bollywood films - with University of Chicago ethnomusicologist Kaley Mason, Chicago Cultural Center
April 11-12, 2008
5th South Asia Graduate Student Conference:
New Perspectives in South Asian Research
Keynote address: Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University: "Marxism in Translation: Critical Reflections on Radical Thought in India"
Visiting scholars: Robin Jeffrey, Australian National University, and David Arnold, University of Warwick
The aim of the 5th annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference was to encourage discussion regarding the current state and future trajectories of South Asian studies, particularly in the wake of interventions made by the Subaltern Studies group.
Is there any underlying unity to the kinds of questions being asked by students in the field? What kinds of new questions regarding South Asia might animate discussions in the years to come? For instance, what kinds of connections exist between the knowledge systems and societies of pre-colonial and post-colonial South Asia, and how might such continuities most profitably be explored? Or, how might one locate particular histories of domination, acquiescence and resistance in a broader global context of social processes beyond South Asia? And, ultimately, how might the next generation of South Asianists incorporate the provocative lessons of Subaltern Studies in their research without being constrained by some of its more extreme positions?
April 17-19, 2008
HipHopistan
Co-sponsored by Northwestern University, the Chicago Opera Theater, and the Assocation for Asian American Studies
HipHopistan, a 3-day series of events exploring the role of South Asian in global hip-hop culture, invited artists of South Asian heritage to the city of Chicago for performances, lectures and discussions. This unique collaboration explored the linguistic and pan-ethnic expressions of various South Asian and South Asian-American hip-hop artists. It also examind how hip-hop culture now includes an international and multi-racial body of artists who utilize this relatively young form of expression.
Malaysian artists Yogi B & Natchatra, originators of Tamil hip-hop, joined solo US-based artists Chee Malabar, Abstract/Vision and MC Kabir and renowned club artist DJ Rekha, for concerts at the University of Chicago Laboratory School and the Hyatt Regency, McCormick Place.
May 13, 2008
China in Tibet
A teach-in on the current crisis, featuring Q&A with Ngawang Jorden, Tibetan lecturer in the Department of South Asian Languages & Civilizations
South Asia Seminar series and Theory & Practice in South Asia (TAPSA) graduate student workshop, 2007-08:
Autumn 2007
- September 27: South Asia Seminar: S.R. Walimbe, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute
"Demography of Ancient South Asian Populations" (download audio) - October 4: South Asia Seminar: A conversation with the 4th International Classical Tamil Poetics Workshop
"What Is and Why Should One Study Classical Tamil Poetics?" - October 18: South Asia Seminar: Muraleedharan Tharayil, University of Calicut
"National Interests, Regional Concerns: Historicizing Malayalam Cinema" (download audio) - October 25: TAPSA: Jayson Beaster-Jones, Department of Anthropology
"Indexing the Past, Selling the Future: Tata-AIG and the Tree of Love" - October 30: South Asia Seminar: Pervez Hoodbhoy, Quaid-e-Azam University
"The Talibanization of South Asia: Can It Be Stopped?" (download video/audio) - November 15: South Asia Seminar: Christopher Pinney, Visiting Crowe Professor of Art History, Northwestern University
"Photography as Prophecy: India, 1839-1900" (download audio) - November 29: TAPSA: Spencer Leonard, Departments of History and South Asian Langauges and Civilizations
"When Empires Meet: The East India Company and the Mughal Empire, 1761-64"
Winter 2008
- January 10: South Asia Seminar: Durba Ghosh, Cornell University
"'Bhadralok Detenus': Prisons and Detention Camps in Interwar Bengal" (download audio) - January 24: South Asia Seminar: Craig Jeffrey, University of Washington
"Til Class Do Us Part: Youth and the Politics of Waiting in India" (download audio) - January 31: TAPSA: Brian Collins, the Divinity School
"Sexual Fluids and Incontinence in the Matricide Episode of the Parashurama Cycle" - February 7: South Asia Seminar: Leslie Orr, University of Concordia
"Imagining Inscriptions: Epigraphy and the Construction of Indian History" - February 14: TAPSA: Alicia Turner, the Divinity School
"Education, Democracy and the Sasana: Misunderstanding Buddhist Movements in Contemporary Burma" - February 21: South Asia Seminar: Sunil Kumar, University of Delhi
"Kingship, Courts and Capitals: Sultanate Delhi in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries" (download audio) - February 28: TAPSA: Xi He, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
"Depicting the Boddhisatva in Long Compounds: The Prose VarNaka in the Lalitavistara" - March 6: South Asia Seminar: Monica Juneja Huneke, Emory University
"Moments of Self-Portraiture in Mughal Painting" (download audio) - March 13: South Asia Seminar: Margrit Pernau, University of Bielefeld
"The Language of Global History: Ashraf, Middle Classes and Buerger - Examples from Delhi in the Nineteenth Century" - March 18: South Asia Seminar: John Brockington, University of Edinburgh
"Ganesa versus Kusilavau: Myths and Reality of the Oral Composition of the Sanskrit Epics" (download audio)
Spring 2008
- April 10: TAPSA: Urmila Nair, Department of Anthropology
"To Be and Not To Be: On the Tibetan Buddhist Rite of Self-Generation as a Deity, within the Nechung Propitiation Ritual" - April 17: South Asia Seminar: Robin Jeffrey, Australian National University
"Testing Concepts about Print, Newspapers and Politics: Kerala, 1800-2007" - April 24: TAPSA: Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
"Puranization and Parbatiyazation: Redefining the Local in a Hindu Text in Eighteenth Century Nepal" - April 23: TAPSA: Nusrat Chowdhury, Department of Anthropology
"The 'Phulbari Movement' and the Value of Politics in Bangladesh" - May 8: TAPSA: Liza Weinstein, Department of Sociology
"Democratizing Development? Participation, Negotiation and Co-optation in Mumbai's Mega-Project Development" - May 15: South Asia Seminar: Suhas Palshikar, University of Pune
"Making Sense of Caste-Politics Interaction in Contemporary India" - May 22: TAPSA: Mona Mehta, Department of Political Science
"From Gandhi to Gurus: The Paradox of Deliberative Democracy in Gujarat, India" - May 29: South Asia Seminar: Saurabh Dube, El Colegio de Mexico
"Conversion and Life-Histories in Colonial Central India" - June 5: TAPSA: Bulbul Tiwari, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
"Three Men and a Baby: Raja Ravi Varma, Dadasaheb Phalke, Anant Pai and Popular Indian Mythology"
Other Co-Sponsored Lectures and Events
With the Center for International Studies The World Beyond the Headlines series:
- Pervez Hoodbhoy, Quaid-e-Azam University, October 30, 2007 -- "The Talibanization of South Asia: Can It Be Stopped?" (download video/audio)
- Ayesha Siddiqa, Islamabad-based author and analyst, February 1, 2008 -- "Military, Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy" (download video/audio)
- Neera Adarkar, Mumbai-based architect and activist, February 27, 2008 -- "One Hundred Years, One Hundred Voices" (download video/audio)
- Shabnam Hashmi, Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), Delhi, March 4, 2008 -- "The Sixth Anniversary of the Gujarat Riots" (download video/audio)
- Ahmed Rashid, Lahore-based author and journalist, June 10, 2008 -- "Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation-Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia" (download video/audio)
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence A. Klimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages & Civilizations, and the College, January 17, 2008 -- "Empire, Ethics, and the Calling of History" (download audio)
With the Chicago Council on Global Affairs:
- Luncheon with His Excellency Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, June 21, 2007
- Panel featuring The Honorable Robert Oakley, the National Defense University, The Honorable Husain Haqqani, Boston University, and Mary Anne Weaver, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, November 26, 2007 -- "Crisis in Pakistan: The Most Dangerous Place in the World?"
- Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, January 22, 2008 -- "Creating a World without Poverty"