Biography of Invited Speakers & Participants Dr. Gil Anidjar (Columbia University, NY)
http://religion.columbia.edu/people/Gil%20Anidjar http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mesaas/faculty/directory/anidjar.html Professor Columbia University, NY Biographical Information Gil Anidjar is a professor in the Departments of Religion and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS). Research Interests Jews and Arabs, Political Theology, Race and Religion, Christianity, Rhetorical Exertion, Continental Philosophy Books 2014. Blood: A Critique of Christianity, New York: Columbia University Press. 2008. Semites: Race, Religion, Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2003. The Jew, the Arab: A History of the Enemy. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2002. “Our Place in al-Andalus”: Kabbalah, Philosophy, Literature in Arab Jewish Letters. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2002. Editor. Jacques Derrida's Acts of Religion (Routledge. Selected Articles 2012. “The Enemy’s Two Bodies (Political Theology Too)” in Political Theology and Race, Vincent W. Lloyd, ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press) 156-173. 2011. “Blood” in Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon 1 (Dec) 2011. “The Meaning of Life,” Critical Inquiry 37: 4 (Summer) 697-723. 2009. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Christianity” (on Talal Asad) in Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies 11:3. 2009. “Muslim Jews” in Qui Parle 18:1 (Fall/Winter) 2009. “Blutgewalt” in Oxford Literary Review 31. 2009. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Christianity”, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 11:3, 367-393. 2006. “Secularism” (Critical Inquiry 33:1) 2006. “Our Time in One Image,” Third Text, 20:3, 305 – 316. 2006. “Futures of al-Andalus,” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies Vol. 7, No. 3 Nov. 225-239. 2005. “On the Border,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Autumn) 105-106 2005. “Literary History and Hebrew Modernity,” Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 42, No. 4. 2004. “Banks, Edges, Limits (Of Singularity)” Nancy, Jean Luc. translated by Gil Anidjar, ANGELAKI journal of the theoretical humanities volume 9 number 2 August.
2004. “On Cultural Survival,” ANGELAKI journal of the theoretical humanities volume 9 number 2 August. 1996. “Jewish Mysticism Alterable and Unalterable - On Orienting Kabbalah Studies and the “Zohar of Christian Spain”, Jewish Social Studies. Dr. Sanjib Baruah (Bard College, New York)
http://www.bard.edu/academics/faculty/faculty.php?action=details&id=101 Dr. Sanjib Baruah Professor of Political Studies, Sanjib Baruah is Professor of Political Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York and Visiting Research Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. His publications include India against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality (University of Pennsylvania Press & OUP, 1999), Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India (OUP, 2005), Postfrontier Blues: Toward a New Policy Framework for Northeast India (Washington D.C.: East-West Center, 2007) and the edited volumes Beyond Counterinsurgency: Breaking the Impasse in Northeast India (OUP, 2009) and Ethnonationalism in India: A Reader (OUP, 2010). His Op-ed articles appear in newspapers including Telegraph, Times of India, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Asian Age and Statesman. His current interests include the hydropower projects of the Eastern Himalayas. Dr. Balbinder Singh Bhogal (Hofstra University, NY)
http://www.hofstra.edu/faculty/fac_profiles.cfm?id=115 Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair in Sikh Studies Hofstra University Biographical Information Dr. Bhogal joined Hofstra University in the Fall of 2007, and currently holds the Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair in Sikh Studies. Previously, he has been a professor at University of Derby, England (1997-2002), James
Madison University, Virginia (2002-3) and York University, Toronto (2003-7). His PhD was titled: Nonduality and Skilful Means in the Hymns of Guru Nanak: Hermeneutics of the Word, 2001 from London University, School of Oriental and African Studies. Research Interests Sikh scripture and its exegesis; translation and hermeneutic theory; post-structuralism, post-humanism, postcolonialism; the constructions of religion and secularism; modernity, postmodernity and colonial-modernity; theory and method in the study of religions; orientalism and critical theory; the animal-human nexus; the figure of woman, child and animal as narratives of the lost Self. Selected Articles (See: http://hofstra.academia.edu/BalbinderSinghBhogal) 2014. “Postcolonial and Postmodern Perspectives on Sikhism”, in Pashaura Singh and Louis Fenech (eds). The Oxford Handbook in Sikh Studies, Oxford University Press, New York, ch.23, 282-297. 2014. “Sikhi(sm): word and image within literary and spectator cultures”, Editorial, Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, 10:2 173-186. 2012. “The Animal Sublime: Rethinking the Sikh Mystical Body”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Vol 80, No 4, 856-908. 2012. “Sikh Dharam and Postcolonialism: Hegel, Religon and Zizek”, Australian Religion Studies Review, Vol 25, No 2, (2012) 185-212. 2012. “Oak Creek Killings: the Denial of a Culture of Oppression”, invited as editorial for SOPHIA, 51, Issue 3, 335-339. 2011. “Monopolizing Violence before and after 1984: Governmental Law and the People’s Passion”, Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, Vol.7, No.1, April, 57-82. 2011. “Subject to Interpretation: Philosophical Messengers and Poetic Reticence in Sikh Textuality”, SOPHIA: 1-28. 2011. “The Hermeneutics of Sikh Music (rāg) and Word (shabad)”, Editorial, Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, Vol. 7, No. 3, 211–244. 2010. “Decolonizations: Cleaving Gestures that Refuse the Alien Call for Identity Politics,” Introduction to the Review Symposium, as Guest Editor, of Religions of South Asia, 4.2, 135-164. Dr. Francesca Cassio (Hofstra University, NY)
Dr. Francesca Cassio, Sardarni Harbans Kaur Chair in Sikh Musicology and Associate Professor of Music at Hofstra University, New York. Francesca Cassio is a scholar and singer with expertise in Indian music. Trained in both the Western and Indian music cultures, her work combines the theoretical and practical aspects of music as well as Western and Asian approaches. She has lectured, performed in concerts and made recordings in India, America and Europe. Dr. Cassio earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Università La Sapienza di Roma (Italy), in affiliation with Benares Hindu University (India). Since 1991, Dr. Cassio has conducted extensive research in India, where she lived and has been professionally trained in classical vocal music and in the Sikh repertoire, according to the Guru-Shishya Parampara (“teacher-student”) tradition. Dr. Cassio is disciple of legendary masters of the 20th
century: Padma Bhushan Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Khan Dagar, Padma Bhushan Vidushi. Girija Devi, and the Hazoori Ragi Bhai Gurcharan Singh. Dr. Cassio also received extensive training in vocal and percussion tradition by Bhai Baldeep Singh, the 13th generation exponent of Gurbānī kirtanyas. She is one of the few Westerners performing and teaching the traditional Sikh Gurus’ repertoire in India, Europe and the United States. Prior to joining the Hofstra faculty, she served as a visiting professor in musicology at Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan, India; lecturer of ethnomusicology at the University of Trento, Italy; lecturer of anthropology of music at the Conservatory of Adria, Italy; and lecturer of ethnomusicology and Indian music at the Vicenza Conservatory of Music, Italy. Author of a book on dhrupad (medieval genre of Indian classical music), Dr. Cassio, in more than twenty years of research, has worked extensively and written about Indian music (Gurbānī sangīt, dhrupad, Rabindra sangīt, thumrī, semi-classical, folk and devotional repertoires), the yoga of sound, music therapy, gender studies, intercultural education, ethnomusicology and music pedagogy. Dr. Clayton Crockett (University of Central Arkansas, AR)
Professor and Director of Religious Studies Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Central Arkansas http://uca.edu/philosophy/facultystaff/clayton-crockett/ Biographical Information Clayton Crockett started teaching at UCA in 2003, and was promoted to full Professor in 2014. He is the author of five books, most recently Deleuze Beyond Badiou (Columbia University Press, 2013). He is currently working on a book on Derrida. Research Interests Modern and Contemporary Western Religious Thought, Kantian Sublime, 19th and 20th Century Philosophy and Theology, Psychoanalytic Theory, Continental Philosophy of Religion. Books 2013. Deleuze Beyond Badiou: Ontology, Multiplicity and Event, Columbia University Press. 2012. Religion, Politics and the Earth: The New Materialism, co-authored with Jeffrey W. Robbins, Palgrave Macmillan. 2011. Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism, Columbia University Press. 2007. Interstices of the Sublime: Theology and Psychoanalytic Theory, Fordham University Press. 2001. A Theology of the Sublime, Routledge. Edited Books 2015. Theology After Lacan, with Creston Davis and Marcus Pound, Cascade Books, forthcoming. 2014. The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion, with B. Keith Putt and Jeffrey W. Robbins, Indiana University Press. 2011. Cosmology, Ecology and the Energy of God, with Donna Bowman, Fordham University Press. 2011. Hegel and the Infinite: Religion, Politics and Dialectic, with Creston Davis and Slavoj Žižek, Columbia University Press.
Selected Articles 2014. “Polyhairesis: On Postmodern and Chinese Folds,” Modern Theology, Volume 30, Issue 3. 2013. “Surviving Christianity,” Special Issue on Derrida and “The Deconstruction of Christianity,” Derrida Today, Volume 6, Issue 1. 2010. With Jay McDaniel, “From an Idolatry of Identity to a Planetization of Alterity: A RelationalTheological Approach to Hybridity, Sin, and Love,” Journal of Postcolonial Theory and Theology, Volume I, Issue 3, November. 2010. “Post-secular Spinoza: Deleuze, Negri and Radical Political Theology,” Analecta Hermeneutica, Number 2. 2010. With Catherine Malabou, “Plasticity and the Future of Philosophy and Theology,” Political Theology, Volume 11, Number 1. Dr. Arvind-pal Singh Mandair (University of Michigan, MI)
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/asian/aboutus/faculty/mandairarvindpal_ci Associate Professor and S.C.S.B. Endowed Professor of Sikh Studies University of Michigan Biographical Information Arvind Mandair holds doctoral degrees in Chemistry and Philosophy. He began his professional career as a research scientist in the field of Chemistry. However, after becoming involved in human rights work in the early 1990’s he changed his academic field to study religion and philosophy and completed a second Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Warwick, UK. After teaching appointments at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and at Hofstra University, New York, he moved to the University of Michigan where he is currently Associate Professor and holder of the S.B.S.C. Chair in Sikh Studies. Though grounded in South Asian studies, his research covers a wide range of academic disciplines including comparative and continental philosophy, postcolonial theory and the theoretical study of religion. Books 2009. Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality and the Politics of Translation (Columbia) 2011. Secularism and Religion-Making (with Markus Dressler, Oxford); 2013. Sikhism: A Guide For the Perplexed (Bloomsbury) 2005. Teachings of the Sikh Gurus: Selections from the Scriptures (with Christopher Shackle, Routledge). Current Research Currently he working on three book projects: Untimely Logics (initially delivered as the Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion, SOAS, 2009), explores the question of time in Sikh literature and culture. Thinking Between Cultures, looks at the ethics of cultural encounter by deploying key categories of Sikh thought and praxis to engage related themes in figures like Deleuze, Nancy and Heidegger. These two book projects allow me to return to my intellectual roots, which are in comparative philosophy and religion. Mourning Sovereignties, combines sociological/anthropological and discourse analysis to look at various Sikh discourses in relation to public space and moves in directions that were signaled in his earlier work. He is also editing two book volumes.
He is the founding co-editor of the journal Sikh Formations. Select Articles 2010. “Uneasy Intersections: A Response”, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 2011. “Aporia and the Postsecular”, Religion. 2011. “A Response to Critics”, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 2010. “’Valences of the Dialectic…….’”, Religions of South Asia 2007. “Interdictions: Language, Religion & the (dis)Orders of Indian Identity.” Social Identities. Vol. 13, No. 3, May, pp. 337-361. 2006. “Hegel’s excess: Indology, historical difference and the post-secular turn of theory.” Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 15-34. 2005. “The Politics of Nonduality: Reassessing the Work of Transcendence in Modern Sikh Theology.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 2005. “The emergence of modern ‘Sikh theology’: Reassessing the passage of ideas from Trumpp to Bhami Vir Singh.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 2005. The Repetition of Past Imperialisms: Hegel, Historical Difference, and the Theorization of Indic Religions. History of Religions. Dr. Richard Mann (Carleton University)
http://carleton.ca/chum/people/richard-mann/ Associate Professor- Associate Dean Carleton University Biographical Information I did my graduate work in the department of Religious Studies at McMaster University. My main area of study was Hinduism with a minor in Indian Buddhism and Jainism. My PhD dissertation examined the development of the Hindu deity Skanda (also known as Karttikeya and Murugan) in textual and non-textual sources from the north of India. I taught at Wilfrid Laurier University, McMaster University and the College of William and Mary before coming to Carleton in 2006. Research Interests Early and medieval Hinduism, The historical development of Shaivism, Religion and Material Culture, Religion and Public Life Books: The Rise of Mahāsena: The Transformation of Skanda-Kārttikeya in North India from the Kuṣāṇa to Gupta Empires. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2012. http://www.brill.com/rise-mahasena Books Edited: (with Benjamin Fleming) History and Material Culture in Asian Religions. New York: Routledge, 2014. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415843782/
Chapters in edited books: “Material Culture and Ruler Ideology: The Case of Huviṣka’s Skanda-Kumāra with Viśākha Coinage.” In History and Material Culture in Asian Religions, edited by Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann. New York: Routledge, 2014: 229-251. (with Benjamin Fleming) “Introduction.” In History and Material Culture in Asian Religions, edited by Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann. New York: Routledge, 2014: 1-17. ““Hagiography and Mythology in an American Guru lineage: The Case of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.” In Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism, edited by Lola Williamson and Ann Gleig. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013: 115-139. Articles in refereed journals: “Skanda and His Fathers in the Aranyakaparvan.” The Journal of Religious Studies and Theology, 33.1 (2014): 7-21. “Material Culture and the Study of Hinduism and Buddhism.” Religion Compass, 8.8 (2014): 264-273. Dr. Ashis Nandy (Distinguished Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies)
http://www.csds.in/ashis-nandy Biographical Information Ashis Nandy is a political psychologist, social theorist, and contemporary cultural and political critic. He was Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) at Delhi for several years. He is currently Distinguished Fellow both at the Center and at the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, (IPS) Melbourne. Research Interests Critical and alternative readings of European colonialism, modernity, nationalism, development, religion, religious ethno-nationalism, Hindutva, science, technology, nuclearism, utopia, cosmopolitanism, critical traditionalism, popular culture (Indian cinema, Indic gods and their worship, etc.,) and psychological and political critiques of state violence. Books: 2013. Regimes of Narcissism, Regimes of Despair, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 2007. A Very Popular Exile. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2007. TIME TREKS: The Uncertain Future of Old and New Despotisms. New Delhi: Permanent Black. 2006. Talking India: Ashis Nandy in conversation with Ramin Jahanbegloo. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006. 2002. Time Warps: Silent and Evasive Pasts in Indian Politics and Religion, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey. 1999. Editor, The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema Zed: (also wrote introduction) 1996. The Multiverse of Democracy: Essays in Honour of Rajni Kothari. Eds. D.L. Sheth and Ashis Nandy. New Delhi; London: Sage. 1995. Creating a Nationality: the Ramjanmabhumi Movement and Fear of the Self. Eds. Ashis Nandy, Shikha Trivedy, and Achyut Yagnick. Delhi; Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. 1995. The Savage Freud and Other Essays on Possible and Retrievable Selves. Delhi; London: Oxford UP, 1995. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP. 1994. The Blinded Eye: Five Hundred Years of Christopher Columbus. Claude Alvares, Ziauddin Sardar, and Ashis Nandy. New York: Apex.
1994. The Illegitimacy of Nationalism: Rabindranath Tagore and the Politics of Self. Delhi; Oxford: Oxford UP. 1993. Barbaric Others: A Manifesto on Western Racism. Merryl Wyn Davies, Ashis Nandy, and Ziauddin Sardar. London; Boulder, CO: Pluto Press. 1989. The Tao of Cricket: On Games of Destiny and the Destiny of Games. New Delhi; New York: Viking, 1989. New Delhi; New York: Penguin. 1988. Science, Hegemony and Violence: A Requiem for Modernity. Ed. Ashis Nandy. Tokyo, Japan: United Nations University, 1988. Delhi: Oxford UP, 1990. 1987. Science, Hegemony and Violence: A Requiem for Modernity. Ed. Ashis Nandy. Tokyo, Japan: United Nations University, 1988. Delhi: Oxford UP, 1990. 1987. Traditions, Tyranny, and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness. Delhi; New York: Oxford UP, 1987. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. 1983. Science, Hegemony and Violence: A Requiem for Modernity. Ed. Ashis Nandy. Tokyo, Japan: United Nations University, 1988. Delhi: Oxford UP, 1990. 1983. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism. Delhi: Oxford UP, 1983. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1988. 1980. Alternative Sciences: Creativity and Authenticity in Two Indian Scientists. New Delhi: Allied, 1980. Delhi: Oxford UP, 1995. 1980. At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture. Delhi: Oxford UP, 1980. Delhi; Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990. 1978. The New Vaisyas: Entrepreneurial Opportunity and Response in an Indian City. Raymond Lee Owens and Ashis Nandy. Bombay: Allied, 1977. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic P, Selected Articles 2009. Partition And The Fantasy Of A Masculine State The Times of India 2009. The Hour Of The Untamed Cosmopolitan Tehelka; 2007. What fuels Indian Nationalism? Tehelka 2006. Cuckoo over the cuckoo’s nest Tehelka 2004. A Billion Gandhis 2002. Obituary Of A Culture 2000. Gandhi after Gandhi after Gandhi (May, 2000) 1999. Indian Popular Cinema as a Slum’s Eye View of Politics. The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema. Zed: 1999. 1–18. (also editor) 1996. Bearing Witness to the Future. Futures 28.6–7 (Aug. 1996): 636–39. 1995. History's Forgotten Doubles. History & Theory 34.2 (1995): 44–66. 1994. Tagore and the Tiger of Nationalism. Times of India 4 September 1994. 1993. Futures Studies: Pluralizing Human Destiny. Futures 25.4 (May 1993): 464–65. 1991. Hinduism Versus Hindutva: The Inevitability Of A Confrontation Dr. Gabriele Schwab (University of California, Irvine, CA)
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=2478 Chancellor's Professor of English and Comparative Literature Faculty Associate in the Department of Anthropology; Core faculty in the Program in Theory and Culture;
Associate Faculty in Women's Studies; appointment in the departments of English and German, School of Humanities Biographical Information Gabriele M. Schwab is Chancellor’s Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Affiliate Faculty in Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests include critical theory, psychoanalysis, trauma studies, literature and anthropology, and 20th- and 21st century comparative literatures with an emphasis on the Americas. Her books include Subjects Without Selves:Transitional Texts in Modern Fiction; The Mirror and the Killer-Queen: Otherness in Literary Language; Haunting Legacies: Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma; Imaginary Ethnographies: Literature, Subjectivity, Culture (winner of the 2014 Choice Award). Edited collections: Accelerating Possession: Global Futures of Property and Personhood (with Bill Mauer); Derrida, Deleuze, Psychoanalysis and Clones, Fakes and Posthumans: Cultures of Replication (with Philomena Essed). Currently she is working on a new book titled Haunted Ecologies and a collaborative project with Simon J. Ortiz, titled Children of Fire, Children of Water. Research Interests Twentieth-Century Comparative Literature with a special emphasis on the Americas, including Native American literature; critical theory; psychoanalysis; cultural studies; literature and anthropology; feminism Current Book Projects Haunted Ecologies Children of Fire, Children of Water, in collaboration with Simon J. Ortiz Books 2012. Imaginary Ethnographies: Literature, Culture, Subjectivity, (NY: Columbia UP). 2012. Clones, Fakes and Posthumans: Cultures of Replication, co-edited with Philomena Essed (Rodopi UP). 2011. Literature, Power, and Subjectivity, translated into Chinese by Tao Jiajun, General Editor, Wang Fengzhen, Beijing: CASS Publishing House, Series: Intellectual History, January. 2010. Haunting Legacies: Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma, (NY: Columbia UP) 2007. Derrida, Deleuze, Psychoanalysis, ed. (NY: Columbia UP) 2006. Accelerating Possession: Global Futures of Property and Personhood, co-edited with Bill Maurer (NY: Columbia UP) 1996. The Mirror and the Killer-Queen: Otherness in Literary Language (Bloomington: Indiana UP) 1994. Subjects Without Selves (Cambridge: Harvard UP) 1987. Entgrenzungen und Entgrenzungsmythen (Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden) 1981. Samuel Becketts Endspiel mit der Subjektivitat (Stuttgart: Metzer) Dr. Giorgio Shani (International Christian University, Tokyo)
http://researchers.icu.ac.jp/Profiles/6/0000527/prof_e.html Director, Social Science Research Institute, Associate Director of the Rotary Peace Center, Senior Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, International Christian University, http://researchers.icu.ac.jp/Profiles/6/0000527/prof_e.html
http://icu.academia.edu/GiorgioShani Region President, Asia-Pacific, International Studies Association http://www.isanet.org/ISA/Regions/AsiaPacific.aspx Biographical Information Giorgio Shani PhD (SOAS, London) is the Director of the Social Science Research Institute and Senior Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at the International Christian University, Japan. His primary research interests focus on religion and international politics, critical human security, Sikh political identity and “post-western” international relations. Author of Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age (Routledge 2007) and Religion, Identity and Human Security (Routledge 2014), he is currently serving as President of the International Studies Association Asia-Pacific Region. Research Interests Religion and International Relations, Critical Human Security, Post-western International Political Theory, Sikh political identity, South Asia Books 2014. Religion, Identity and Human Security (Routledge). Selected Articles 2010. “The memorialization of ghallughara: Trauma, Nation and Diaspora”, Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory 6/2, 177-192. 2008. “Towards a Post-Western IR: The Umma, Khalsa Panth and Critical International Theory,” International Studies Review 10 Special Issue (December), 722-734. 2007. “Provincializing Critical Theory: Islam, Sikhism and International Relations”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20, 3 (September), 417-434. 2005. “Beyond Khalistan? Sikh Diasporic Identity and Critical International Theory”, Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory 1/1, 57-74. 2000. “The Construction of a Sikh National Identity,’ South Asia Research 20 /1, 3-18. S Dr. Jaspal Kaur Sadhu Singh (Northern Michigan University)
Professor, Department of English, Northern Michigan University Marquette, MI 49855 U.S.A. Biographical Information Jaspal Kaur Singh, Professor of English Literature at Northern Michigan University, received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Oregon (1998). She was a Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Gender in Africa, James S. Coleman African Studies Center,
University of California, Los Angeles (1998-1999). She is the recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Award at NMU (2009-2010). Jaspal was born and raised in Burma, lived in India and Iraq, and now resides permanently in the US and calls Marquette home. She has a son, Gautam, who lives in Oregon, and a daughter, Gina, who lives in Los Angeles. Research Interests In 2012-2013, Jaspal was a Fulbright Teaching and Research Scholar and spent a year in India. Her research project focused on the representation of Sikhs in Literature and Culture and her monograph is tentatively titled,Gendering Nations: The Construction of Sikh Homelands in Indian and Diasporic Imaginations. Books 2011. Anthology, assistant editor. Voice On the Water: Great Lakes Native America Now. Marquette, Northern Michigan University Press. 2008. Monograph: Singh, Jaspal K. Representation and Resistance: Indian and African Women Writers at Home and in the Diaspora. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. 2010. Anthology, co-editor: Chetty, Rajendra and Jaspal K. Singh. Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and Diasporas. New York: Peter Lang Publishers. 2010. Anthology, co-editor: Chetty, Rajendra and Jaspal K. Singh. Trauma, Resistance,Reconciliation in Post-1994 South African Writing. New York: Peter Lang Publishers. Selected Articles 2011. “South African Indian Fiction: Transformations in Ahmed Essop’s Political Ethos,” Research in African Literature, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 2009 . “The Construction of Sikh Identity and Ideas of Nations/Homelands in Indian and Diasporic Imaginations.” Journal of Contemporary Thought. Ed. Prafula Kar, et al. Delhi: Pencraft International, 250261. 2008. “Africa in India: The African Diaspora in India in Kamal Amrohi’s Film Razia Sultan.” India in Africa, Africa in India. Ed. John Hawley. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 273-288. 2007. “Memory of Trauma in Meena Alexander’s Texts.” Tracing an Indian Diaspora. Ed. Parvati Raghuram, et al. New Delhi: Sage Publication, 55-80. Prabhsharanbir Singh (University of British Columbia, BC)
http://www.ligi.ubc.ca/?p2=/modules/liu/scholars/profile.jsp&id=156 Prabhsharanbir Singh Doctoral Candidate The University of British Columbia Biographical Information Prabhsharanbir Singh grew up in Eastern Punjab and did his Masters in Philosophy from Punjab University, Chandigarh. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His research is focused on the construction of religious subjectivity in colonial and postcolonial Punjab, with a focus on Sikhs. His doctoral research tries to relate technological transformation of colonial and postcolonial Punjab to the rise and fall of religious discourses.
Research Interests His research interests include South Asian studies, Sikh studies, Punjabi Literature, Postcolonial Studies, Philosophy of Technology, and Psychoanalysis. Selected Articles 2009. “Stolen Bodies and Ravished Souls: Sikh Experience Meets Colonial Power.” Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory Volume 5, Issue 2, December. 2008. “Sakhi, Vyakhya and the Self: Some Reflections on ‘Chaubole Mahla 5” Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, Volume 4, Issue 2 December. Prabhsharandeep Singh (University of Oxford, UK)
http://www.theology.ox.ac.uk/people/research-students/prabhsharandeep-singh-sandhu.html Prabhsharandeep Singh Doctoral Candidate, Faculty of Theology and Religion University of Oxford Prabhsharandeep.Sandhu@wolfson.ox.ac.uk Bio: Prabhsharandeep Singh is a DPhil candidate at Oxford University in the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He also has an M.A. degree in Religion from SOAS and an M.A. and B.A. degree in English from Punjabi University, Patiala. Research Interests: His research interests include 20th century Sikh literature, Religion, Sikh cultural history, and the development of literary cultures in Punjab from the nineteenth century to colonial era onwards. Books: 2008. “Experiences of Desertion: Locating the works of Harinder Singh Mahboob.” Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory. 4:2, 115-131. Dr. Pritam Singh (Oxford Brookes University, Oxford)
http://business.brookes.ac.uk/about/staff/profile.asp?id=p0054980 Professor Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Oxford-Brookes University Biographical Information Pritam Singh took his DPhil from Oriel College, University of Oxford. He has explored the triangular relationship between federalism, nationalism and development in India, and has developed the political economy framework for studying human rights. He is currently studying the ecological implications of the rise of BRICS in the global economy. Pritam has published extensively on the political and economic development in South Asia, India and the Punjab region and more recently on the global economic and ecological crisis. He has focussed on development, secularism and religious revivalism; and nationalism, development and human rights. He approaches these issues from the viewpoint of the relationship between globalisation and changing identities. His co-edited book Punjabi Identity in a Global Context (Oxford University Press, 1999) was the first book to take Punjabi identity in global context as a sole concern. His most recent books are Federalism, Nationalism and Development: India and the Punjab Economy (London, New York: Routledge, 2008; Special Indian Reprint 2009) and Economy, Culture and Human Rights: Turbulence in Punjab, India and Beyond (Delhi: Three Essays Collective, 2010). Both these books are coming out soon in Punjabi translation. His current projects are: a book on federalism and India capitalism, and a co-authored book on interrogating the secularism of India’s constitution. Research Interests Theoretical and empirical work in the areas of migration, poverty reduction and human development, ecosocialism, BRICS and South Asian studies with a focus on India, Punjab and the Sikhs. Selected Articles 2014. “Austerity, Welfare State and Eco-Socialism: with special reference to the United Kingdom”, Economic and Political Weekly, Volume XLIX, Number 39, September 27, 2014, pp. 111-118. 2014. “Resolving secessionist disputes:The Scottish referendum is almost exemplary, strengthens democracy”, The Tribune, India, September 22. 2014. “The Scottish Path to Independence”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLIX, No.39, September 13. 2014. “Russian ban: A blessing in disguise?, Imported food contributes to growth in transportation and gas emissions”, The Tribune, August 11. 2014. Singh, P. and Dhanda, M. “Sikh Culture and Punjabiyat”, in Singh, P. and Fenech, L., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies, pp. 482-492, Oxford University Press: Oxford. 2014. “A post-modern Punjabi thinker (obituary of Professor Gurbhagat Singh)” The Hindustan Times, April. 2014 “Dr Gurbhagat Singh (1938-2014): a brief biographical note” Sikh Siyasat (Sikh Politics), April (Punjabi translation in Amritsar Times, April). 2013. “Class, nation and religion: changing nature of Akali politics in India”, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 55-77, November, 2013. “Prof G.S. Bhalla” (an obit)”, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 48, no. 45, pp. 4-5, November, 2013. “The Role of Externally-Governed Policies in Shaping Punjab’s Agrarian–Oriented Development Pattern”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Development and Policy, vol. 22, no. 2, 1-8 2013. “The Resurgence of Bhindranwale Image in Contemporary Punjab”, Contemporary South Asia, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 133-147. 2012. “Globalisation and Punjabi Identity: Resistance, Relocation and Reinvention (Yet Again!)”,
Journal of Punjab Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 153-72. 2011. “Dialectics of Human Rights”. The Front (magazine of Paris International Forum), September. 2011 “Global Food Crisis as a Part of the Crisis of Global Capitalism”, in Ghuman, R., ed., Globalization and Change, Rawat Publications: Delhi/Jaipur, India. 2011. “The Rise of Sikh Belief and Community”, in Morrison, D. A. and Diamond, J. M., ed. World History Encyclopedia. Era 6: The First Global Age - 1450-1770AD, ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara, California. 2010. “Capitalism, Nature and Eco-Socialism”. Economic and Political Weekly, March. 2009. “The Third Ghallughara’, a review article on Terror in Punjab: Narratives, Knowledge & Truth by Ram Narayan Kuman, Shipra: Delhi”, The Himal, June, Kathmandu, Nepal. 2007. “Political economy of the cycles of violence and non-violence in the Sikh struggle for identity and political power: Implications for Indian federation”, Third World Quarterly: Journal of Emerging Areas, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 555-570, January. 2005. “Hindu bias in India's 'secular' constitution: probing flaws in the instruments of governance”, Third World Quarterly: Journal of Emerging Areas, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 909-926, January. Dr. Simon Springer (University of Victoria, BC)
http://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/geography/people/faculty/springersimon.php Assistant Professor University of Victoria Website: http://people.geog.uvic.ca/Springer Academia.edu: http://uvic.academia.edu/SimonSpringer Biographical Information Simon Springer joined the Department of Geography at University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor in the summer of 2012. Prior to this, he taught geography in New Zealand and in Singapore. Research Interests Explores the political, social, and geographical exclusions that neoliberalization has engendered in posttransitional Cambodia, emphasizing the spatialities of violence and power. Books 2015. To Make the Colossus Tremble! Anarchist Geography and Spatial Emancipation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2015. Violent Neoliberalism: Development, Discourse and Dispossession in Cambodia. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 2010. Cambodia's Neoliberal Order: Violence, Authoritarianism, and the Contestation of Public Space. New York: Routledge. (Paperback version issued in 2012). Edited Books 2015. Brickell, K. and Springer, S. eds.. The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia. London: Routledge. 2015. Springer, S., Birch, K, and MacLeavy, J. eds. The Handbook of Neoliberalism. London: Routledge. 2012. Springer, S., Ince, A., Pickerill, J., Brown, G., and Barker, A. eds. “Anarchist Geographies.” Special issue
on anarchism for Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. 44 (5),
1579-1754.
Selected Articles 2014. Human geography without hierarchy. Progress in Human Geography. 38 (3): 402-419. 2013. Violent accumulation: a postanarchist critique of property, dispossession, and the state of exception in neoliberalizing Cambodia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 103 (3): 608-626. 2012. Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism. Critical Discourse Studies. 9 (2), 133-147. 2011. Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographies. Political Geography. 30 (2), 90-98. Recent article on the impact of my work on Academia.edu: http://blog.academia.edu/post/53204075764/kindling-impact Dr. Nelson Maldonado-Torres (Rutgers University, NJ)
http://latcar.rutgers.edu/people/administration/137-nelson-maldonado-torres-3 Associate Professor and Department Chair Joint appointment with Comparative Literature Biographical Information Professor Maldonado-Torres is an Associate Professor at the Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies and the Comparative Literature Program. He is also Chair of Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies. His first book, Against War: Views from the Underside of Modernity, examined the bases of modernity/coloniality in terms of a paradigm of war through the work of Enrique Dussel, Frantz Fanon, and Enmanuel Levinas. He is also co-editor of Latin@s in the World-System: Decolonization Struggles in the 21st Century U.S. Empire, and guest editor of two special issues entitled “Thinking through the Decolonial Turn: Postcontinental Interventions in Theory, Philosophy, and Critique” on the journal Transmodernity. Professor Maldonado-Torres is particularly interested in the crossings of different genealogies of thinking, and their appearance in different genres of writing, discourses, artistic expressions, and social movements. Research Interests Comparative critical and decolonial theorizing, theories of race and ethnicity, decolonial feminism, phenomenology, and social and political philosophy Books n.d.Fanonian Meditations (In preparation) 2012. La descolonización y el giro de(s)colonial. Universidad de la Tierra, Chiapas, México. 2008. Against War: Views from the Underside of Modernity. Duke University Press. Edited Books and Special Issues 2011-2012: Guest editor. Special Issues: “Thinking through the Decolonial Turn: Post-continental Interventions in Theory, Philosophy, and Critique.” Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the LusoHispanic World. Vol. 1, Issue 2; Vol. 1, Issue 3. 2010: Co-editor with Ramón Grosfoguel. Special Issue on Robert Allen’s Black Awakening in Capitalist
America. The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research. 40.2 (Summer). 2008. Co-editor with Paget Henry. Special Issue on Lewis R. Gordon. C.L.R. James Journal. 14.1 Selected Articles 2009. “Rousseau and Fanon on Inequality and the Human Sciences.” C.L.R. James Journal 15, no.1 : 113-34. 2008. “Lewis Gordon: Philosopher of the Human.” C.L.R. James Journal 14, no. 1: 103-37. 2007. “On the Coloniality of Being: Contributions to the Development of a Concept.” Cultural Studies. 21.2-3 (2007): 240-270. 2006. “Post-continental Philosophy: Its Definition, Contours, and Fundamental Sources”, Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise, Fall. 2006. “The Time of History, the Times of Gods, and the Damnés de la terre”, Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise, Spring.