NEWS: The Center for South Asian Studies welcomes the UH-Manoa community back for Fall 2009!


Featured News:

*Dr. Sonia Nishat Amin, Professor in the Department of History at the University of Dhaka, has arrived and is the current Arthur Lynn Andrews Chair. She is teaching a 300-level course in the Department of History entitled "India and South Asia Since the 1700s." Her research focuses on the development in Bengal of middle-class women's identities in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In addition to teaching one course, Dr. Amin will also deliver at least two public lectures, to be announced shortly.

* 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.

Fall 2009 Colloquium Series: Upcoming Talks

* Thursday, October 29:
Dr. Matthew LoPresti, currently a Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Hawaii Pacific University, will deliver a talk that closely examines a chapter and verse in the Bhagavadgita that is widely perceived as expressing an inherently pluralistic view of other religion traditions. 3:00-4:30pm, Sakamaki C, Room 308.

* Wednesday, November 4:
A talk by Dr. Sonia Nishat Amin, the current Arthur Lynn Andrews Chair and Visiting Professor in the Department of History at UH from the University of Dhaka.  In this talk she explores the creation of the British home in Bengal during colonial rule, examining the role of domestic space in maintaining not just the European lifestyle in the colony, but also the ideology of empire. 3:00-4:30pm, Tokioka Room, Moore 319.

Please visit again for upcoming talks in our series.

* 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