Symposium | South Asia's Publics
Eggers Hall, 220, Dr. Paul and Natalie Strasser Legacy Room
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Political critique has often revolved around the ways in which the contemporary global order worked to privately benefit the wealthy few and harm the poor many. Now this very order appears imperiled by a renewed embrace of might-makes-right contests between states—where power rewards the strong and subdues the weak. One might then ask: Did the earlier public veneration of rules and norms merely mask and sustain a hegemonic global order or did it also productively shape the terms of international dialogue, critique and engagement in the pursuit of justice? Are we experiencing a moment similar to the earlier “imperial boomerang” where the streets and institutions of the Global North are under siege by the same violence-sanitizing apparatuses of control that were tried and tested on Global South populations, or are other public dynamics in play that trouble such Global North/Global South binaries entirely?
At a time of growing authoritarianism in the United States, South Asia, and across the world, how might we sustain and continue to pursue research, scholarship, and creative expression that are vital to our democracy and public life? Federal support for National Resource Centers has eroded and public spaces for democratic engagement are increasingly policed, repressed, and weaponized through ethnonationalist and anti-immigrant policies. When public expression is severely constrained, what happens to public life itself?
This symposium hosted by the South Asia Center at Syracuse University is dedicated to exploring interconnected questions about collective public life and scholarship on South Asia and beyond. The workshop examines the relationships between scholarship, political practice, and the cultivation of publics through art, research, and creative writing—a conversation that feels especially urgent in the current political climate. The workshop brings together scholars across the U.S. and Upstate New York working across diverse fields and disciplines. Panelists draw from their scholarship to engage with recent political events at home and abroad that may suggest a substantial shift in the role of the public.
Friday, April 24
3:00-3:10 Welcoming Remarks: South Asia's Publics
Mona Bhan, Syracuse University
3:15-5:15 Cultivating Publics
Natasha Raheja, Cornell University | "A Desi-Pardesi, Border-Crossing Approach to Public Scholarship"
Nausheen Husain, Syracuse University | "War Counterstories: American Journalists on Post-9/11 Newsrooms"
Suvaid Yaseen, Hamilton College | "Hesitant Discussions: South Asian Publics and the (Ir)Relevance of Academia in the Present"
Romita Ray, Syracuse University | "Whither South Asian Art?"
Graduate Student Discussants, Syracuse and Cornell: Praagya Khand, Sara Ather, Shrutika Lakshmi, Ebad Athar
5:30-7:30 Keynote Address: The Pith of Disgust and How It Has Shaped Ideas of Caste in South Asia
Yashica Dutt, author of Coming Out As Dalit (2019)
Saturday, April 25
9:00-11:00 Capitalism and Un(Making) Publics
Priti Ramamurthy, University of Washington | "Why Tell Feminist Stories along and beyond Capitalism? Complicity, Vernacular Conceptions of the Economic, and Betweenness"
Llerena Searle, University of Rochester | "Purification and Commodification: Interiors and the Public in Urban India"
Aniket Aga, University at Buffalo-SUNY | "On the Necessity and Difficulties of Constructing a Democratic Public: Thoughts from India"
Farhana Sultana, Syracuse University | "Environmental Publics, Authoritarian Capitalism, and the Contradictions of Development"
Graduate Student Discussants, Syracuse and Cornell: Adarsh Raghuram, Bramsh Khan, Poonam Argade, Parijat Jha
11:15-1:15 Governing Publics
Anupama Rao, Barnard College | "On Names and Events: Impunity at the Intersection of Law, State, and Society"
Sohini Chattopadhyay, Union College | "Heterotopic Spaces and the Collapse of the Public: Reflecting on a 1920s Crematorium"
Nadine Murshid, University at Buffalo-SUNY | "Claiming Space: Lessons from Bangladesh’s July Uprising"
Carmel Christy, Syracuse University | "Sensorium of 'Secular' and Sacred Publics: Cast(e)-Bodies of 'Casteless' Rhetoric"
SherAli Tareen, Franklin & Marshall College | "The Perniciousness of Secular Power in South Asia and Beyond"
Graduate Student Discussants, Syracuse and Cornell: Nikita Agarwal, Sadam Hussain, Sadhvi Dash
3:00-5:00 Closed Event: Building Reflections with Richa Nagar, Smith College
Talk | "Salty River & 'Padosi Dharma': Stories Flowing in Neighborliness"
Participant Provocations | Can Stories Embody an Ethic of Neighborliness?
5:00-5:30 Closing Reflections
Category
Social Science and Public Policy
Type
Conferences
Region
In-Person
Open to
All Students
Alumni
Faculty and Staff
General Public
Organizers
Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, South Asia Center
Accessibility
Contact Matt Baxter to request accommodations