Highlights of Recent Events
Papers given at the 2006-07 South Asia Seminar
- October 5, 2006 : Stephen Phillips, University of Texas
- October 17, 2006 : Piotr Balcerowicz, Warsaw University
- November 2, 2006: Mark Siderits, Illinois State University
- November 16, 2006: Sumit Sarkar, Delhi University
- January 4, 2007: Carl Ernst, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
----Audio: "Muslim Interpreters of Yoga"- January 18, 2007: Richard Hayes, University of New Mexico
----Audio: "Self: Myth, Delusion, Fiction, or Prerequisite?"- January 26, 2007: Awadhendra Sharan, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- February 1, 2007: Ashok Aklujkar, University of British Columbia
----Audio: "A Folding Chair, an Easy Chair, or a Director's Chair for Indian Philosophy?"- February 15, 2007: Gayatri Reddy, University of Illinois at Chicago
- March 1, 2007: Rama Mantena, University of Illinois at Chicago
- March 26, 2007: Christopher Minkowski, Oxford University
- March 29, 2007: Gayatri Gopinath, University of California-Davis
- April 12, 2007: Neeladri Bhattacharya, Jawaharlal Nehru University
----Audio: "Beyond the Code: Custom, Law, and Colonialism"- April 26, 2007: Philip Lutgendorf, University of Iowa
----Audio: "The Persistence of the 'Mythological' in Hindi Cinema"- May 17, 2007: Christopher Pinney, Northwestern University---CANCELLED
- May 24, 2007: Gyan Prakash, Princeton University
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Educators' Workshop on New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India
September 8, 2007
9:30am - 4pm
The Chicago Cultural Center
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. New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India will open at the Chicago Cultural Center, a landmark Chicago center for the arts, on July 20, 2007. It will be 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. By making “now” the curatorial priority, the exhibition will have a perspective that has been missing from most previous exhibitions of 20th-century art from India, where the focus has been older, established artists of the mid-century.
About the Workshop
Following an introductory gallery talk with the exhibition curator, the Workshop will select 7-10 pieces from New Narratives that highlight aspects of Indian culture and history. Three specia lists on Indian culture will lead sessions on specific works of art.
Religion scholar Laura Desmond will discuss how artists have drawn upon the rich narrative tradition associated with Hindu religious practice. Her presentation will reflect upon interpretations of myths, emphasizing how particular stories are told and re-told in different contexts in India.
Gender historian Rochona Majumdar will use contemporary art objects as a starting point for discussing the everyday lives of women in India. Her presentation will address how social changes have confronted women with new possibilities that have also presented challenges to historical forms of social life.
Karin Zitzewitz, anthropologist of art, will draw upon several exhibition works to discuss the social and political place of contemporary art in India. Her presentation will show how artists participate in a public conversation about issues of the freedom of expression and social and cultural change.
Nell Crawford, World History and Asian Studies teacher at Oak Park River Forest High School, 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.
Registration
The workshop is free for educators and interested members of the public, but registration is required. Seating is limited; please register early. The deadline for registration is Monday, August 27.
New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India will be on view at the Chicago Cultural Center July 21 - September 23.
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Tuesday, May 8
Noon
Foster Hall 103
Bombay-based artist Vishal 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 (www.typocity.com), 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.
He will also present on his current work at Mess Hall in Rogers Park on Wednesday, May 9 at 7pm as part of the Chicago Arts and Labor Festival.
Vishal Rawlley's visit is made possible by the South Asia Language and Area Center.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------COSAL
May 4 and 5, 2007
http://cosal.uchicago.edu**Complete video and audio now available for download!**
at http://chiasmos.uchicago.edu/events/cosal.shtml
**COSAL 2007 Pictures**The First Biennial Norman Cutler Conference on South Asian Literature (COSAL) will honor the life and work of the late Norman Cutler, Professor of Tamil in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. The purpose of the conference is: to create an international forum for contemporary South Asian literatures; to encourage the interaction of scholars and translators as well as a more general audience in the United States with South Asian writers; to create an expanded presence for South Asia in the fields of creative writing and comparative literature.
The first occasion of COSAL in 2007 will feature the Tamil author “Salma” [R.A. Rokkiah], a young Muslim woman who has recently catapulted into public controversy over her frank poetry on the female body. COSAL will also sponsor the screening of a new documentary film on Salma and three other female poets, SheWrite (dir. Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar, India 2005).
The 2007 COSAL will also include the eminent Tamil cultural historian and literary scholar A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies in Chennai (India). Prof. Venkatachalapathy is the foremost scholar of Tamil literature in the subcontinent, and has lectured widely in the U.S. and Europe. Additionally, the conference will feature Lakshmi Holmstrom, recently of the University of East Anglia, a renowned translator of Tamil fiction currently finishing a translation of Salma’s first novel, Late Night Story, and Bernard Bate of Yale University, graduate of the University of Chicago in Anthropology, specialist in language, politics, and gender, and former student of Norman Cutler. COSAL will also feature faculty member Sascha Ebeling and visiting professor David Shulman (Hebrew University), with contributions from organizers Valerie Ritter and Yigal Bronner.
The 2007 COSAL is co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Committee on Southern Asian Studies, South Asia Center, Franke Institute for the Humanities, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, Gender and Sexuality Studies Center, and South Asian Students Association.
For any questions, please contact Valerie Ritter at ritter@uchicago.edu.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------April 6th and 7th, 2007
Swift Hall Common Room and Ida Noyes Hall, University of Chicago
**Audio now available for download!**
--Roundtable: "Traveling Between Two Worlds: The Public Intellectual in South Asian Scholarship", featuring C.M. Naim (moderator), Siddhartha Deb (Columbia), Boria Majumdar (independent scholar), and Biju Mathew (Rider)
The Fourth Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference will be held on April 6th & 7th, 2007. It will be in two sessions, one on each day. Session One will be open to any scholarly work on South and Southeast Asia, and will include traditional panels on subjects such as Literature, History, Philology, Anthropology, History of Religions, Film Studies and so on.Session Two, on this year's conference theme, is entitled, “Inside Outside: Between Texts and the World” and will explore the oscillating dance of the world, the text and its critic—as Edward Said put it. The goal of this session is to analyze the myriad ways in which a scholar of South Asia conceives of her place betwixt text, the academy and the world at large.
With these questions in mind, the goal of this conference is to initiate a dialogue across disciplines, historical periods, language specialization and even media, in order to extend our understanding of the relationship between a text, the world and its critic in South Asia. This conference will feature both a video panel and a poster session.
Sponsored by The Committee on Southern Asian Studies, The Division of the Humanities, and The Division of the Social Sciences
Program, participants, and abstracts available at:
http://sagsc.uchicago.edu---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
South Asia Outreach presents:
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
On view in Foster Hall through April 2007.
Persons with disabilities who require assistance are requested to contact 702-8635 in advance of the event.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Traveling Film South Asia
University of Chicago's South Asia Outreach, in partnership with Third-I Chicago, Chicago Filmmakers, and the Center for Asian Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago, presents a festival of non-fiction films from South Asia, selected from Himal Magazine's biennial Film South Asia festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The festival provides a platform for exhibiting new works and promoting a sense of community among filmmakers. Started in 1997, FSA is the only event solely dedicated to showcasing contemporary South Asian non-fiction films.
All screenings are free and open to the public.
PROGRAM:
Chicago Filmmakers
Friday, March 23
7pmCity of Photos (60 min)
India, 2005, dir – Nistha Jain
Special Commendation at FSA '05
The film explores the little known ethos of old neighborhood photo studios in a variety of Indian cities.Team Nepal (37 min)
Nepal, 2005, dir – Girish Giri
A passionate team of Nepali footballers, representing a youth club from the Nepali border town of Birgunj, travel to Sonpur, Bihar in India to play in a tournament there.Karin Zitzewitz, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, University of Chicago, will discuss the films and answer questions from the audience.
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Chicago Filmmakers
Sunday, March 25
7pmThe Life and Times of a Lady from Avadh: Hima (135 min)
Pakistan , 2005, dir – Shireen Pasha
This documentary, on 90 year old Hima, traces history, Hima's life, and her relationship and letters with her renowned talukdar writer father.C.M. Naim, Professor Emeritus of Urdu Language and Literature, University of Chicago , will discuss the film and answer questions from the audience.
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Columbia College Center for Asian Arts and Media
Thursday, March 29TWO PROGRAMS:
5:30pm reception, 6pm screening
The Legend of Fat Mama (23 min)
West Bengal/India, 2005, dir – Rafeeq Ellias
This is a bittersweet story of the Chinese community in Calcutta intertwined with the nostalgic journey in search of a woman who once made the most delicious noodles in the city's Chinatown district.Dirty Laundry (42 min)
South Africa, 2005, dir – Sanjeev Chaterjee
More than a hundred years after Gandhi left South Africa to pursue a life of Indian nationalist politics, South Africans of Indian origin continue the quest to define themselves and who they are.7:30pm screening
Teardrops of Karnaphuli (60 min)
Bangladesh , 2005, dir – Tanvir Mokammel
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is home to twelve predominantly Buddhist ethnic groups who are collectively known as the “Jumma” nation. These hill people suffered a crisis in 1979 when the government brought plain land Bengalis from various districts and settled them in CHT.The Great Indian School Show (53 min)
Maharashtra/India, 2005, dir – Avinash Deshpande
The film explores a school in which the management has installed 185 closed circuit televisions to monitor its students and every inch of the premises.William Mazzarella, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College, will discuss the second film and answer questions from the audience.
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Columbia College Center for Asian Arts and Media
Thursday, April 5TWO PROGRAMS:
6pm screening
Girl Song (29 min)
West Bengal/India, 2003, dir – Vasudha Joshi
The film enters the life of Anjum Katyal, blues singer, poet and mother, capturing her voice as she performs the blues in her home city of Kolkata.Sunset Bollywood (54 min)
India, 2005, dir – Komal Tolani
In Bombay 's glamorous celluloid world, failure is not an option. The film follows three actors on their journey to the heights of fame and back again.Rochona Majumdar, Assistant Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, will discuss the films and answer questions from the audience.
8pm screening
Lanka: The Other Side of War and Peace (75 min)
Sri Lanka , 2005, dir – Iffat Fatima
Structured as a travelogue, the film traverses the northern and southern landscape of Sri Lanka, spanning the history of last three decades of violence in Sri Lanka.----------------------
University of Chicago BSLC
Friday, April 136pm
Good News (17 min)
Assam/India, 2005, dir – Altaf Mazid
A writer looks for a bit of good news in the days of the Assam Movement (1985-1990).The City Beautiful (78 min)
Delhi/India, 2003, dir – Rahul Roy
Sunder Nagri is a small working class colony on the margins of India's capital city, Delhi. The City Beautiful is the story of two Sunder Nagri families struggling to make sense of a world which keeps pushing them to the margins.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Committee on Southern Asian Studies, South Asia Outreach and International House Global Voices Performing Arts Program present:
The Politics of Love
A dance performance
Three Dance Forms of India:
Odissi
Bharata Natyam
Kuchipudi
Performed by:
Odissi: Shipra Avantica Mehrotra
Bharata Natyam: Lynna Dhanani
Kuchipudi: Rumya Sree Putcha
Moderated by Professor Joan Erdman, Columbia College Department of Anthropology and Cultural Studies
Following the performance, the dancers will discuss each dance form. The conversation will focus on the controversial inclusion and exclusion of the sringara rasa—the erotic sentiment of love and longing—in each style.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
7pm
International House – Assembly Hall
University of Chicago
1414 E. 59th Street
This event is free and open to the public.
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One Hundred Years of the All India Muslim League, 1906-2006
A Colloquium
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Location: Foster Hall 103, The University of Chicago
Time: 9:30 am - 6:00 pm
Cost: Free!**Video and audio now available for download!**
---C.M. Naim, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago, Keynote address: "A Sentimental Essay in Three Scenes - With an Epilogue"
---David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University, "Law, Community, and Society: Writing the Histories of Muslim League"
---I.A. Zilli, Aligarh Muslim University, "Shibli and Early Years of Muslim League"
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 importance of the AIML to the anti-colonial movement in India is thus readily apparent. It trained and groomed generations of Muslim leaders on local, national and international scales as it played pivotal roles in the two partitions of India and the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh. In that regard, no history of nationalism in India can be written without due attention to the Muslim League. However, the history of AIML is of even more relevance in today's world. The oft-heard refrain about the lack of democracy and democratic practices in the Muslim world fails utterly to account for institutions like the Muslim League—an erasure which deserves a sustained critique through renewed attention to this organization's history of charted and documented practice of Muslim democracy 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.
All Inquiries can be directed to Manan Ahmed
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, the Center for International Studies Norman Wait Harris Fund, and the American Institute for Pakistan Studies.
For more information, participants, and schedule, please visit:
2005-06 Events |
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