Table of Contents Front Cover Photo Credit: Dilshanie Perera (Bicycles in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2019) Photo Credit: Grant Watson (Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, 2018)
Director’s Note 4 Welcome to CSA Faculty 6 Recent Faculty Publications Highlights 8 Covid Fund 10 Understanding India’s Covid Surge Annual Lecture 11 Contextualizing the Conflict in Afghanistan Arts and Justice Series 12 Student Awards 14 Student Funding Recipients 16 Global Internship Grants 18 The SASS at CSA 20 Our Graduates The South Asian Studies Minor SASSpod SASS Tube
22 23 24 25
Programming 26 Lecture Series SGS Film Festival: Aamis South Asia Working Group Graduate Student Workshop Future Programming How to Give Alumni Perspective
28 30 31 32 33
Connect with Us 34 LEADERSHIP Jisha Menon, Faculty Director (2017-2021) Anna Bigelow, Faculty Director (2021- ) Lalita du Perron, Associate Director Yasmin Deosaran (2018-2020) and Simrath Matharu (2020-), Program Coordinators
resources to Stanford both in person and virtually. We collaborated with units from departments across campus such as the Stanford Arts Institute, Humanities Center, Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Walter Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, among others. We started this annual report to keep you abreast of our endeavors in the Center. In the process, we built a collaborative, interdisciplinary community of scholars that has enriched the University and beyond.
Director’s Note Dear CSA friends, As I step down as faculty director of CSA, I am grateful for your support and friendship over the past four years. It has been a tremendous honor and joy to serve in this role, and one that I will treasure for years to come. It has been truly gratifying to watch the Center evolve into a dynamic hub of intellectual activity on campus. Our programs aim to cultivate a deep and textured understanding of the rich and diverse regions of South Asia, including its history, its cultures, its politics, and its arts. To that end, we made astonishing progress in making CSA a highly visible facet of intellectual life at Stanford. We provided forums for students and faculty to convene and bring their research expertise to a wider community. We supported a range of research projects and fostered community engagement through travel grants, internships, research fellowships, conferences, and lecture series. We started numerous outreach initiatives, including our Alumni Spotlight, Lunch, Learn, Lead professionalization series, and the Arts and Justice series, supported by the Kohler Fund, that brought invaluable perspectives and
4
The past year has left an indelible mark on us all; it has strained us to the limit. The pandemic curtailed our ability to convene in person, but it also opened up new opportunities by bringing together distant speakers and audiences via Zoom programs, panels, and events. The pages that follow will provide a glimpse into the extraordinary productivity, creativity and dynamism of our colleagues and students over the past year. We hope to continue to draw inspiration from lessons learned at this inflection point in time. As we emerge from the pandemic to convene again in person, we are grateful to our medical community, to our University leadership, and most of all to friends and colleagues, for your unwavering commitment, resilience, and cheer during these challenging times. I wish Anna Bigelow, associate professor of Religious Studies, best wishes in her role as incoming faculty director of CSA. I have no doubt that under Anna’s able leadership, CSA will soar to ever greater heights. Please join me in extending a warm and heartfelt welcome to Anna. Sincerely, Jisha Menon, Faculty Director (2017 - 2021) Associate Professor, Theater and Performance Studies and by courtesy, Comparative Literature FORTHCOMING BOOK Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India (Northwestern University Press, 2021) Photo Credit: Michael Byun; Background Photo Credit: Byron Gray (Cattle egret in Gorai, Mumbai, India, 2020)
Introducing incoming Faculty Director, Anna Bigelow, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University More about Professor Bigelow >>
5
CSA welcomes two new faculty PARTHA PRATIM SHIL Assistant Professor in the Department of History
Shil is an historian of modern South Asia, specializing in nineteenth and early twentieth century eastern India, whose work is located at the intersection of the fields of histories of state formation and labor history. MORE ABOUT PROFESSOR SHIL >>
July 2021 Anna Bigelow
Recent Faculty Publications MORE ABOUT THE PUBLICATIONS >>
6
MUDIT TRIVEDI
Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology
Mudit Trivedi is an archaeologist with interests in religious subjectivity, materiality, craft, and historical anthropology. MORE ABOUT PROFESSOR TRIVEDI >>
October 2020 Priya Satia
7
October 2020 Usha Iyer
Highlights “From disseminating clear Covid information to offering small Covid emergency grants to continuing with our Arts and Justice series, the Center for South Asia was able to respond to our community’s needs for guidance, financial help, and ongoing academic programming.” - Lalita du Perron, Associate Director MORE ABOUT OUR MISSION >> Photo Credit: Vanessa Veak (Ellora Caves in Aurangabad, India, 2020)
8
Covid Fund In response to the devastating effect the Delta variant had on our students, their families, and loved ones in South Asia, we instituted the Covid Emergency Relief fund in May 2021 to cover Covid related emergency expenses. All Stanford students were eligible to apply. Would you like to help students in times of crisis? Reach out to Lalita du Perron (lalita@stanford.edu) to find out what your gift can mean to our students. MAKE A GIFT >>
Understanding India’s Covid Surge On April 28th, 2021, Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Stanford University Medical Center and Center for South Asia faculty, Dr. S. V. Mahadevan presented at a webinar, where he addressed questions from the audience. Dr. Mahadevan explained that when earlier in the year Covid had seemed somewhat under control in India, restrictions had started to become more relaxed and people once again began to join larger group gatherings and engage in 10
“high-risk behaviors”. Dr. Mahadevan insisted that even though people were nervous about going out, getting the vaccine was always going to be the best strategy against serious illness and hospitalization. He also explained the benefits of continued mask-wearing. WATCH THE WEBINAR WITH DR SV MAHADEVAN ON THE SASS TUBE >>
“Being Muslim: Ghalib’s Poetic Illuminations in Post-1857 Delhi” 2020 Annual Lecture Ayesha Jalal, Professor of History at Tufts University By Mejgan Massoumi
Opening her talk with the perennial question, “who is a Muslim?”, Professor Jalal shed light on the ways in which being Muslim was defined by the religious categories of the modern bureaucratic state. To unpack this discussion and explore the implications of the 1857 rebellion against British rule in India, Professor Jalal presented some of the writings of the preeminent Urdu and Persian poet, Mirza Muhammad Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869). MORE ABOUT THE ANNUAL LECTURE >>
Contextualizing the Conflict in Afghanistan Days after the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, we hosted a panel to contextualize the crisis and conflict, which was moderated by Mejgan Massoumi and featured Halima Kazem-Stojanovic and Ahmad Rashid Salim. We plan to host an ongoing conversation on Afghanistan in the 2021-22 academic year. We are also actively involved in raising funds to sponsor Scholars-at-Risk (SAR) from the region. If you are interested in supporting SAR, please contact Lalita du Perron (lalita@stanford.edu). 11
Arts and Justice Series LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ARTS AND JUSTICE SERIES >>
NANDINI SUNDAR
Justice as Art, as Artifice and as Advertising Billboard February 17, 2021
TM KRISHNA Just Music March 5, 2021
12
ATHER ZIA
URVASHI BU
Ghostly Pasts a Speculative Fut March 10, 2021
NAEEM MOHAIEMEN
UTALIA
and tures
13
NASEERUDDIN SHAH
An Evening of Poetry, Politics, and Performance May 8, 2021
NAYANIKA MOOKHERJEE
‘Traitors’ of Justice and Graphic Ethnography May 6, 2021
Student Awards Stanford’s Center for South Asia provides funding opportunities for Stanford students. Continue to view the 2021 funding recipients. MORE ABOUT CSA FUNDING OPTIONS >> Photo Credit: Parwana Fayyaz (Darul Aman Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan 2016)
14
Graduate Student Research Fellows SUHAILA MEERA
Graduate Student in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies
Meera’s dissertation “Playing Children: Statelessness and the Performance of Childhood,” considers how contemporary theatrical and cinematic texts are reclaiming the figure of the stateless child.
NATALYA RAHMAN
Graduate Student in the Department of Political Science
Rahman’s project, “Showing up is half the battle: Candidate strategy and vote choice in Pakistan”, explores which Members of Parliament (MPs) in Pakistan choose to interact with their constituents and why.
16
ship Recipients EMILY RUSSELL
Graduate Student in the Department of Political Science
Russell’s project, “The Indian Security Force Database (ISFD)”, began with fieldwork and archival research in 2019, tracing the long-run evolution of security forces and capacity within India, from 1949-2019.
SARAH THOMPSON
Graduate Student in the Department of Political Science
Thompson’s project, “Roadblocks Remain: Constraints to Women’s Political Participation and Mobility in Pakistan”, presents a novel predictor of women’s political participation: constraints to movement. 17
Wisch Fellowship Recipient SABAUON NASSERI
Graduate Student in the Department of History
Nasseri’s dissertation, “The Red Flower of Life: The Afghan Left and the Cold War”, shows how South Asia, Iran, the USSR, Europe, the US, and elsewhere served as the political stage for Afghan intellectuals to explore leftist ideologies, and traces their contributions to both national and transcontinental struggles over the politics of radical resistance. MORE ABOUT NASSERI’S PROJECT AND THE WISCH FELLOWSHIP >>
MINHA KHAN
The Citizens Foundation Karachi, Pakistan
“Through this internship, I’ve been able to continue my work on the mother tongue based multilingual education (MTB MLE) project with The Citizens Foundation.” 18
Global Internships KARUNYA BHRAMASANDRA India Literacy Project Hyderabad Telangana, India
“I’ve always known that a social media presence was imperative for any organization doing important work, but this internship has really shown me how it boosts morale and pride and reminds both the organization and its followers what has been done - and what is left to be done.”
AMITA GONDI
Pratham Education Foundation New Delhi, India
“Comparative education has been an interest of mine for a while, and it’s been fascinating to understand the multitude of factors that are at play for even a well-established organization like Pratham to break ground into new territory.” 19
The SASS at CSA The South Asian Studies at Stanford (SASS) at the Center for South Asia includes our minor, podcast, and event recordings. Photo Credit: Vanessa Vaek (Hawa Mahal, Jaipur, India, 2020)
20
Our SASS Graduates MUSKAN SHAFAT
2021 South Asian Studies minor recipient
“I enjoyed classes on poets of South Asia like Iqbal and studied the political history of Kashmir. These settings gave me the space to explore my own identity and my own history but also share my insights with peers.” MORE ABOUT SHAFAT’S EXPERIENCE >>
AYUSHI TANDEL
2021 South Asian Studies minor recipient
“Leaving Stanford, I have a deeper understanding and appreciation for my Indian identity. I am proud of who I am and have the confidence to be my whole and true self.” MORE ABOUT TANDEL’S EXPERIENCE >>
22
The South Asian Studies Minor The Minor in Global Studies with a specialization in South Asian Studies presents undergraduates with a significant opportunity to scaffold their interest in and knowledge of South Asia. This track allows them to focus on South Asia while locating their work within larger global conversations. MORE ABOUT OUR MINOR >> Photo Credit: Vanessa Vaek (Mural, Mumbai, India, 2020)
23
The SASSpod When the Bay Area went into shelter-in-place in March 2020, the Center tried to come up with innovative programming to bridge the virtual gap and stay connected with our stakeholders. The CSA podcast (SASSpod) was borne out of this initiative and has continued even as the world has slowly opened up again. On the SASSpod, a half-hour conversation that drops every 2-3 weeks, Lalita du Perron hosts a wide variety of guests who have a Stanford connection: alumni, faculty, staff, researchers, and students. With almost 1000 listeners in 46 countries, the SASSpod is truly reaching a global audience, who are interested in learning more about South Asia at Stanford. SASSpod >>
24
The SASS Tube
The Center for South Asia introduces the SASS Tube! The South Asian Studies at Stanford (SASS) Tube features event recordings from the Center for South Asia (CSA) at Stanford University. The SASS Tube expands our mission of bringing together a range of audiences to broaden, nuance, and deepen both scholarly and public understandings of South Asia. Since its conception in March 2021, our YouTube channel has 147 subscribers, made 69.2k impressions, and has received about 4,700 views, and climbing. The majority of our viewers are from India and the United States, with some engagement in Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, and Bangladesh. We will continue to update and provide more content for the community. VISIT AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE SASS TUBE >>
25
Programming “The various lectures, workshops, performances, and social events that the Center organized created both a professional and personal space to engage with core issues pertinent to the South Asian region.” - Lakmali Jayasinghe, CSA Alumna MORE ABOUT OUR UPCOMING EVENTS >> Photo Credit: Tess Rothstein (Nepal’s Annapurna mountains, 2012)
26
Lecture Series Many thanks to Mejgan Massoumi, Soledad Artiz Prillaman, Usha Iyer, Hayden Kantor, and Maira Hayat for moderating.
28
29
Click on the picture of the speaker to view the event information.
SGS Film Festival: Aamis Aamis Q&A discussion with director Bhaskar Hazarika The CSA selection for the SGS theme of Food was the Assamese film Aamis, which centers around the relationship between a married woman and a younger male PhD student. Restrained by societal mores and restrictions on physicality, the couple spend time together sharing a passion for eating meat dishes. The film culminates in a terrible crime, driven by the couple’s desire to satisfy their cravings. We were fortunate to have the movie’s director, Bhaskar Hazarika, join Stanford Professor Usha Iyer on Instagram Live for Q&A about the film. During the Q&A, viewers asked about vegetarianism in India, the taboo on extramarital relationships, feminist readings of the film, and the movie’s commentary on class, caste, and gender in Indian/Assamese society. Young and aspiring film makers also 30
asked about the future of independent films, especially in an age of streaming. Hazarika shared with us his intention to have his next movie be an adaptation of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. You can follow him on Instagram at @stranger.in.time The above photo is of Usha Iyer and Bhaskar Hazarika. VIEW THE RECORDING ON INSTAGRAM >>
South Asia Working Group Organized by Shubhangni Gupta and Shantanu Nevrekar The South Asia Working Group at Stanford is a space for community, dialogue, and reflection for South Asianist students working on and engaging with South Asia in meaningful ways. Imagined as a student forum co-sponsored by the Center for South Asia, it features a variety of events such as paper presentations, performances, lectures, and film screenings. MORE ABOUT THE WORKING GROUP >>
2021 Graduate Student Workshop Topic: The Erotic Organized by Rishika Mehrishi and Ankita Deb
The erotic is powerful, provocative, and performative. The 2021 CSA Graduate Student Workshop explored the genealogies of the erotic as they traverse the entangled terrains of precolonial, imperialist, nationalist, postcolonial, and neoliberal thought. The workshop gathered an interdisciplinary group of graduate students at all levels to explore the embodied, political, social, and affective textures of the erotic. Photo Credit: @FurSid GO TO THE WORKSHOP WEBPAGE >>
31
Future Programming The Center for South Asia, in cooperation with other Centers and Departments across Stanford, plans a series of events exploring caste in contemporary life in South Asia and the US. Aided by incoming CSA Visiting Fellow Thenmozhi Soundarajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology Sharika Thiranagama and CSA student intern Kavya Srikanth, the Center envisions a collaborative program of lectures, workshops, and teach-ins for students, staff, and faculty to discuss the relationships, intersections and contestations of caste and feminism, religion, environment, urban and rural spaces, and queer identities. One major focus will be to reflect upon and interrogate caste stratifications and inequality in the technology sector as well as on university campuses in Silicon Valley and beyond.
In Search of Young Asia Sugata Bose Thursday, October 14 | 12 PM Pacific Moderated by Partha Pratim Shil MORE ABOUT THE EVENT >>
Capability and Incorporation: Pathways to Redress in the Aftermath of Violence Poulami Roychowdhury Thursday, November 11 | 12 PM Pacific Moderated by Soledad Artiz Prillaman MORE ABOUT THE EVENT >>
32
How to Give The Center for South Asia extends sincere appreciation to our contributing alumni, parents, students, and friends for their generous support. Your support helps strengthen our existing programs and also create new ones to enhance our collaboration with Stanford faculty, students, and other university units. For more information about working with us to support the study of South Asia at Stanford, please contact Lalita du Perron, Associate Director at lalita@stanford.edu.
Make a Gift >>
CSA Alumni Perspective
LAKMALI JAYASINGHE Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, 2021
When I think of the Center for South Asia, I am reminded of the quintessential medieval town square, also known as the plaza, the agora, or the piazza. It structurally supported the flourishing of culture, community, and democracy. The Center for South Asia is, in many ways, one of Stanford’s town squares. The experience of putting together the Sri Lanka Conference as a member of the conference organizing committee during the first two years of my Ph.D. program is one of the memorable engagements I’ve had with the Center for South Asia. MORE ABOUT JAYASINGHE’S ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT >>
33
CLICK TO CONNECT WITH US Instagram: @csastanford Twitter: @csa_stanford Facebook: @StanfordCenterforSouthAsia Website: southasia.stanford.edu 615 CROTHER WAY ENCINA COMMONS 124 STANFORD CA, 94305