Featured News:

* Please note: the deadline for the 2010 J. Watumull Scholarships for the Study of India has been extended to February 12, 2010.  Please ignore any dates to the contrary. Click here to view scholarship information.

* Introducing our Spring 2010 Rama Waumull Distinguished Visiting Scholar Dr. V. Sanil!

Dr. Sanil is Professor of Philosphy at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He was Charles Wallace Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool, U.K. and Directeur d'etudes Associes, at des sciences de l'homme, Paris.  Dr. Sanil received his degree in Engineering and a PhD in Philosophy. His research interests lie in Philosophical issues in Cinema, Philosophical Aesthetics and Philosophy of Technology. He works on art and technology in Classical India, Asian Cinema, Indian Theatre, Colonialism and Philosophy and Phenomenology.  Besides publications in English, Dr. Sanil writes in Malayalam on 19th and 20th Century social movements, secularism and culture.

CSAS Spring 2010 Colloquium Series

Throughout the University of Hawaii, faculty and students are doing exciting work related to South Asian culture and societies.  The CSAS Colloquium Series helps us, as a community, to showcase some of the especially interesting work we are doing, and to learn collectively from one another.

We are currently putting together our colloquia schedule for the Spring 2010 semester and welcome presentation proposals from any faculty or graduate students currently doing work related to South Asia.

If you are interested in participating in the Spring 2010 Colloquium Series please forward a brief abstract to this e-mail address along with contact information and a very short biography.

* The CSAS 2009 Spring Newsletter is available on the web. Click here to download the pdf file.

* The CSAS would like to congratulate the winners of the 2009 J. Watumull Scholarships for the Study of India, Amy Donohue and Cary Hitchcock. Click here to view scholarship information. Check back with us for information about the recipients.


Recent and Upcoming CSAS Events


                  CALL FOR PAPERS

The Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Hawai'i invites paper and panel proposals on aspects related to its

27th Annual Spring Symposium:

"Violence and 'Terror' in South Asia"

Conference Dates: April 14-16, 2010, in Honolulu, Hawai'i

The symposium will address contemporary forms of violence in South Asia as well as locate discussions in a deep historical context. The following suggestions are meant to be illustrations. We invite a variety of approaches and themes. Please write to us with any ideas you might have:

  • Interrogating notions of "terror" and "terrorism" in South Asia
  • How has "terrorism" been represented in literature and film?
  • Theorizing violence and "terror" through alternative philosophies (for example, Buddhist)
  • Gender and Violence
  • Is there a difference between social violence and political violence?
  • What is the relationship between violence and history? Violence and culture?
We are pleased to announce that discussions will be anchored by Invited Lectures from the following distinguished scholars:
  • Veena Das, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on sectarian violence, looking particularly into questions of social suffering and subjectivity. She has also written extensively on feminist movements, gender studies, and post-colonial and post-structural theory in South Asia and Europe.
  • Asoka Bandarage teaches at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute, where she specializes in comparative politics, South Asia and conflict analysis and resolution. She is the author of several books that deal with the history and politics of the separatist conflict in Sri Lanka.
  • V. Sanil, professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. His areas of interest include continental philosophy, hermeneutics, art and technology.
Deadline to submit proposals: January 15th, 2010

Please send 200 word abstracts for individual papers by email to csas@hawaii.edu. If proposing an entire panel, please also include a paragraph-length rationale and a proposed title for the panel. We invite a broad range of topics, attitudes and approaches on all aspects of violence and "terrorism" in South Asian contexts.

A limited amount of free lodging will be available to participants.


South Asia Related Courses at UH

The following courses are being offered in Spring 2010:
(go to MYUH to register)

ASAN 312    Asian Civiliations      TR      1200-0115p    Sharma

ASAN 463    Gender Issues in        T         0300-0530p    Sharma
                      Asian Society   

ENG 780N    Postcolonial Theory  W        0330-0600p    Shankar

ES 390           Gender & Race in     MWF  0930-1020a    Das Gupta
                       US Society

HNDI 102      Elementary Hindi    MTWRF 0330-0420p Bhatawad

HNDI 202      Intermediate Hindi   MTWRF 0430-0520p Bhatawad

HIST 297C    Islamic History          TR      0900-1015a    Khan (offered at LCC)

HIST 452D    History and Film       M        0330-0630p   Bertz

PHIL 730       Islamic Philosophy    R        0330-0600p    Albertini

REL 356        Women and Religion W      1230-0300p    Bloomer

REL 480        Field Methods in        M       0100-0330p   Bloomer
                       Religion

SNSK 182     Introduction to            TR    0900-1015a     R Sharma
                       Sanskrit

SNSK 282     Intermediate                TR    1030-1145a    R Sharma
                      Sanskrit

SNSK 382    Third-Level                 TR    0300-0415p     R Sharma
                      Sanskrit


* The Center for South Asian studies has developed a new website, Caste in South Asia: A Gateway to Internet Resources, to introduce junior and non-specialist members of the UH and broader research community to the notion of 'caste' as a critical and contested concept. Click here to visit the site.

Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa
1890 East-West Road, Moore Hall 416, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822
Phone: (808) 956-5652, Fax: (808) 956-6345, Email: csas@hawaii.edu