Recent Events

The Center for South Asian Studies sponsors a number of public events throughout the year, including an annual Spring Symposium and various colloquia during the fall and spring semesters. Below are summaries of recent CSAS events.

Ø     Nov. 15, 2007: Prof. Asha Sen, of the Department of English, University of Washington at Eau Claire, presented a paper titled, Feminist Ethnographies of Desire and Resistance in Lalithambika Antherjanam's 'The Goddess of Revenge' and Ismat Chugtai's 'Lihaaf'. Her presentation was organized by the UHM Department of English and co-sponsored by the CSAS.

Ø     Oct. 24, 2007: CSAS Fall Semester Get Together. Student, faculty, and friends at UHM enjoyed samosas, halva and conversation. We celebrated the publication of a special issue of Cultural Dynamics inspired by the 23rd Annual CSAS Spring Symposium and co-edited by Prof. Monisha Das Gupta. Click here to view the flyer.

Ø     Oct. 22, 2007: Prof. Sukrita Paul Kumar, author of Narrating Partition, led a panel discussion. She hails from Zakir Husain College, University of Delhi. Prof. Kumar's talk was co-sponsored by the UHM Department of English and the Manoa Journal.

Ø     Sept. 14, 2007: Dr. Arfa Sayeda Zehra, Chair of the Government of Pakistan's National Commission on the Status of Women, gave a talk titled, Laws, Customs and Reality: The Case of Pakistani Women, which focused critical attention on practices that coerce, dishonor and degrade women and that are customary in some tribal areas of Pakistan. She addressed the commitment of the state to redress these issues through legislation and support of international conventions. Dr. Zehra has been a Professor for thirty-six years. She received her doctorate in History from the University of Hawai'i in 1983 and was a fellow at the East-West Center between 1978 and 1983. The Department of Women`s Studies organized her colloquium presentation. It was co-sponsored by the Matsunaga Institute for Peace, The Program on Conflict Resolution, and the Center for South Asian Studies. Click here to read the abstract.

Ø     Sept. 10, 2007: CSAS Co-Sponsored Lunch and Program at the Imin International Conference Center with Ambassador B.S. Prakash, Consul General of India in San Francisco.

Ambassador Prakash delivered a talk titled, The Changing Profile of India and the Impact on US-India Relations, in which he argued that India's transformation into a "knowledge superpower" and its rapid economic development have made relations between the United States and India increasingly prominent. The event was co-sponsored by the East-West Center, Friends of the East-West Center, Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, and the UHM Center for South Asian Studies. Click here to view the flyer.

Ø     April 22-23, 2007: Dr. Jael Silliman, author of Jewish Portraits, Indian Frames: Women's Narratives from a Diaspora of Hope, Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Iowa, and Program Officer with the Ford Foundation, led two colloquia and receptions for graduate students and faculty of UHM's History Department and Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies Programs. She also met to discuss funding initiatives with senior UHM administrators. Her visit was made possible in part by funds from the CSAS' Rama Watumull Collaborative Lecture Series program.