SAGSC: South Asia Graduate Student Conference

Foundations for the Study of South Asia

South Asia Graduate Student Conference VI

April 17^th and 18^th, 2009

University of Chicago

Friday, April 17^th, 2009: Swift Hall, Common Room

845-900: Opening remarks and acknowledgments

900-1015: Space
Chair: Professor John Kelly, Anthropology, University of Chicago

At the Fringes: The French Settlements in India, c.1900-1954
Akhila Yechury, History, Cambridge University

Mapping the Mughals in Sanskrit Literary Culture: Cross-Cosmopolitan Encounters in Siddhicandra’s Bhanucandraga ṇicarita
Audrey Truschke, MEALAC, Columbia University

Urban Ecology and Crises of Space in South Asia
Esha Sanyal, Sociology, Social Anthropology and Social Work, Kansas State University

1015-1030: Break

1030-1145: Time
Chair: Assistant Professor Kaley Mason, Music, University of Chicago

Remembering the Time of the Mughals: Muslim Artisans and the Importance of Zikr
Mira Mohsini, Anthropology, SOAS

Reassessing the Shift from Muslim to Hindu Dominance in North Indian Classical Music
Justin Scarimbolo, Ethnomusicology, UC Santa Barbara

The Necessary Incompletion of “Progress”: Epistemology, Temporality, and Subjectivity
Tina Virmani, Political Science, York University

1145-115: Person
Chair: Assistant Professor Rochona Majumdar, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Death of a Mazdur: Force, Respect, and Atonement in Proletarian Delhi
Shankar Ramaswami, Anthropology, University of Chicago

The Construction of Male Colonial Modernity in the Urdu Literature and Public Realm of the Late Nineteenth Century
Soofia Siddique, School of English Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Research, University of Kent

115-230: Lunch for conference participants (Foster Hall room 103)

230-345: Thing
Chair: Professor Mauricio Tenorio, History, University of Chicago

The Coming of the Thali: Metaphoric Interpretations of Objects in the Production of
Meta-Narratives of Ancient Indian History
Mudit Trivedi, Anthropology, University of Chicago

Woven Stories and Dyed Motifs: Indian Textiles in Colonial Mexico
Meha Priyadarshini, International and Global History, Columbia University

Visualizing Masculinity: Men and Masculinity in Tamil Visual Culture, 1870-present
Samuel Ostroff, MEALAC, Columbia University345-400: Break

400-530: On the Usefulness of the Concept of the Modern (Swift Hall, 3rd floor lecture hall)
Chair: Associate Professor William T.S. Mazzarella, Anthropology, University of Chicago

A round-table panel discussion with Steven Collins (Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities, University of Chicago), Wendy Doniger (Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School, University of Chicago), and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair of Indian History, UCLA)

530-700: Dinner (Swift Hall, Common Room)

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Saturday, April 18th, 2009: Swift Hall, Common Room

900-1015: Action
Chair: Professor Leela Gandhi, English, University of Chicago

The “Value” of Action: Money and Morality in Phulbari, Bangladesh
Nusrat Chowdhury, Anthropology, University of Chicago

Disability in India: Neoliberal State and Personhood
Vandana Chaudhry, Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago

Crossing the Street with Devadatta
Sonam Kachru, Philosophy of Religion, University of Chicago Divinity School

1015-1030: Break

1030-1145: Representation
Chair: Professor Muzaffar Alam, South Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Chicago

Religion, Territory, Language: Aspects of Identity and Politics in the Deccan Sultanates
Roy Fischel, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Pastor’s Power: Writing Life’s Labor in Colonial Orissa
Siddharth Satpathy, South Asian Languages and Civilizations and English, University of Chicago

Prostitution in Nepal and North-Eastern India: Discourses around Gender, Self-Perception and Sexuality
Lisa Caviglia, Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University

1200-115: Knowledge
Chair: Professor Gary Tubb, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Myth and Anti-Myth in European and Indian Scholarship on the Licchavis of Vaiśālī
Charles Preston, History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School

Translating Knowledge: Indo-Persian Awareness of Vernacular Language and Culture
Arthur Dudney, MEALAC, Columbia University

The Early History of the Unspeakable
Jessica Nauright, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

115-300:Lunch for conference participants (Foster Hall room 103)

300-400: Keynote Address:

Connecting the Dots: Some Ways of Reframing South Asian History
Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair of Indian History, UCLA