Festival Celebrates South Asian Studies at Yale

March 31, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: Marilyn Wilkes 203-432-3413

Festival Celebrates South Asian Studies at Yale

March 31, 2005.  New Haven. – The South Asian Studies Council at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies has organized a nine-day festival beginning April 13 and running through April 21, 2005. The festival will celebrate a wide-range of scholarship in the region, including topics in political science, anthropology, religious studies, literature, women’s studies, archaeology, ethnicity, and migration. The highlight of the festival will be the “Knowing South Asia” workshop on April 15. Four highly acclaimed authors will reflect on South Asian authenticity, belonging, nationhood and diaspora.  The following events are free and open to the public:

April 13
4:00 – 6:00 PM.  Room 202, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue
Rustgi Annual Lecture
Sudipta Kaviraj, Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
“An Outline of a Revisionist Theory of Modernity”

April 14
4:00 – 6:00 PM.  Room 1, 51 Hillhouse Avenue
2004-2005 Tarak Nath Das Lecture
Upinder Singh, History, Delhi University
“The Discovery of Ancient India: Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology”

April 15
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM.  Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue
MG Vassanji, Samina Ali, Suketu Mehta, Meena Alexander, writers
“Knowing South Asia” Workshop

April 15 –17
Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue
“Manipulating Magic: Sages, Sorcerers, and Scholars”
Please call 203-432-3426 to register for this event by 4/8/05

Keynote: April 15, 4:00 PM.  Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue
Gregory Schopen, University of California, Los Angeles
“The Life and Travels of a Sanskrit Verse, or: Why We are All in the Same Room Today”

April 18
4:00 PM.  Luce Hall, RM 202, 34 Hillhouse Avenue
General Ven Prakash Malik, India’s Chief of Staff, Army 1997-2000
“A Security Perspective on India and the World”

April 21
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.  Room 1, 51 Hillhouse Avenue  Lunch provided
Ahmed Afzal, PhD Candidate in Anthropology
“The (Un)Making of a South Asian Aesthetic: The Circulation of Bollywood in Pakistan and amongst Pakistani Immigrants in the West”

For more information on any of the events, please contact south.asia@yale.edu or call 203-432-5596.

The South Asian Studies Festival is organized by the South Asian Studies Council.  Sponsors include the Departments of Anthropology and History, Council on East Asian Studies, Canadian Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies, Asian American Cultural Center, South Asian Graduate Students Colloquium.  The Council would like to thank the Rustgi Family Fund, Tarak Nath Das Fund, and the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund for their generous support.

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Contact Information:
Marilyn Wilkes
Yale Center for International and Area Studies
(203) 432-3413