The Sarat Chandra Sharma Prachyatattwa Adhyayan Kendra, Guwahati, in collaboration with the Directorate of Museums, Govt of Assam, is organising a two-day National Seminar on 25 and 26 August 2018 on different academic aspects of the Mahabharata, where many reputed scholars, from both inside and outside the state of Assam, are likely to participate.
On the precious occasion, we are going to publish a souvenir in a befitting manner. We, therefore, request you to kindly contribute a scholarly article on any aspect of the Mahabharata given below. The language of the article may be Assamese, Hindi, Bengali or English. We would much appreciate if your article reaches us on or before 30 June 2018. You may send the articles to my email address: dhurjjati.sarma@gmail.com.
Themes:
A) Mahabharata (MB) as a Historical Epic of India
a) Link with Northeast India (Pragjyotisha Kamarupa) and Vanga (Bengal)
b) MB as the source of Indian History
c) Date of the MB war
d) Social Life as depicted in the MB
e) Reflection of Astrology and Astronomy in the MB
B) Geographical and Historical Aspects of MB
a) Historical Aspects
b) Identity of the Heroes and their roles in the MB
c) A study of Bhagadutta
d) Socio-cultural life of NE and Bengal as reflected in the MB
e) Ethnographic and Demographic Study of the NE and Bengal as reflected in the MB
f) Influence of the MB on Epigraphy and Coins
g) Evidence of Mahabharata in the Architecture of Assam
h) The Sanskrit Mahabharata and the Assamese/Bengali Mahabharata: A Comparative Study
i) Representation of Folk Culture in the MB.
Please note that these are only indicative areas. You may decide to write on any other area as you deem fit pertaining to the Mahabharata. I request you to kindly send us an article on any of the areas mentioned above and also circulate the message among your colleagues and friends. For any query or clarification, please feel free to call me at 9818888821 or write to me at the email address given above.
National Conference on Contemporary Indian Literature in English
(August 03-04, 2018 at Government College Bassa (Gohar), District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh)
English Teachers’ Forum, Himachal Pradesh, in collaboration with Government College Bassa (Gohar), District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh invites original, unpublished research papers on Contemporary Indian Literature in English for National Conference being organised at Government College Bassa (Gohar) on August 03-04, 2018.
About the Conference:
General Theme: Contemporary Indian Literature in English
Sub Themes:
1. The Indianness of Indian Literature
In the rapid flux of ‘isms’ and ‘post-isms’ perpetuated by the western academy which tends to usurp the concept of literature and literariness (if such concepts still exist), are there any specific qualities and characteristics of contemporary Indian Literature in English which may be construed as Indian? As a case in point, does the contemporary literature still voice the philosophical foundations of Indian Literature based on the four-fold Purusharthas or aims of life viz. Dharama, Artha, Kama and Moksha as a continuum.
2. The Dynamics of Form in Contemporary Indian Literature
The structuralist idea of form as the informing and organising principle of literary works along with the various disruptions of form in the post-structuralist/ post-modernist as well as the post-truth era as well as other western models of form as applicable to contemporary Indian Writing in English might form the basis of the papers under this sub-theme. However, it would be both challenging and intellectually intriguing to explore and crystallise the concept of form vis-à-vis ‘the great Indian Narrative which is rooted in the oral and folklorist tradition, the epical lineage of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata with their numerous adaptations across languages and cultures of the sub-continent as well as the diversity of literatures in different Indian languages.
3. The Construction/Expression of Gender and Marginality in Contemporary Indian Literature
The paper submitted in this category may be based on the commonly accepted norms of the Deconstruction theory, Feminism, Post-Colonialism, Diaspora and Dalit philosophy. However, it may again be interrogated whether these theoretical foundations are central to the form and content of contemporary Indian literature in English or merely mime these western constructs as academic fads.
4. Contemporary Indian Writing in English Translation
Some of the papers under this sub-theme may be devoted to explore the need and efficacy of translating the regional Indian literatures in English with a view to facilitate a comprehensive perspective on the aesthetic and technical aspects of contemporary Indian Literature.
5. East-West Inter-literariness: Comparative Perspective on Indian and Western Poetics
It might be interesting to explore the possibility of evolving a poetics of Indian English Literature which might be postulated not only on the basis of Sanskritic, Upanishadic or Puranic traditions, but also the western models thereof in the contemporary literary scenario.
It might be useful if the focus of proposed research papers is on Indian authors whose works are generally prescribed for study in the Indian Universities so that the deliberations of the conference may be distilled into classroom discussions thereof.
Acceptance of Abstracts: To be notified by e-mail on or before July 05 2018.
Online submission of Full Papers: Please submit your full paper by e-mail at the given mail id on or before July 30 2018. Please use the font and size as specified for the abstract and follow MLA format of documentation (Eighth edition).
The fee will cover expenses towards their boarding and lodging, meals and refreshments. The delegate fee may be transferred through NEFT to the Savings Bank Account of English Teachers’ Forum by the date to be specified along with acceptance letter of abstracts submitted for the conference.
Delegate Fee (For Local Delegates who do not require accommodation): Rs. 1500/-.
Important Dates:
Submission of Abstracts: An abstract of 250 words (main body only) along with prominent keywords of the proposed paper may be mailed at etfhimachal.2018@gmail.com by June 25 2018. The title of the paper may be mentioned in bold face Times New Roman, font size 14. Use Times New Roman, font size 12, for the main body of the abstract. Do remember to mention your Title (Prof./Dr./Mr./Ms.), Full name and institutional affiliation in your abstract.
(Please note that no proposal for paper presentation will be accepted if the abstract of the same is not submitted by due date. However, teachers/ scholars may participate in the conference in the capacity of non-paper presenters.)
Over the last decade, scholarship on “the body” has received increasing academic attention in research on colonialism in India. Historians have examined the interplay between the body and several areas of enquiry, from gender and sexuality to material culture, foodways, and stimulants. Their findings have foregrounded the impact of colonialism on the bodies of colonisers and colonised alike, as well as the often pervasive scope of colonial biopolitics. In this way, scholars have established the centrality of the body to the colonial experience in India. What has been assessed to a lesser extent is the degree to which knowledge of the body became a discursive contact zone between Indian and European actors in the colonial period.
This colloquium aims to advance the historiographical debate by examining the role of knowledge, including medical knowledge, in shaping bodily understandings and practices in colonial India. How did Indians and Europeans construct, transmit and challenge knowledge of the body and its associated bodily practices? How did the colonial encounter affect older forms of knowing and doing? How did knowledge of the body turn into a focal point for debates around personal and collective emancipation?
Presentations will consist of seminar papers by Erica Wald (Goldsmiths), Kate Imy (UNT) and Teresa Segura-Garcia (Uni. Pompeu Fabra) and a roundtable. Lunch will be provided to all participants. Registration is free courtesy of the University of North Texas, the Royal Historical Society, the Society for the Social History of Medicine, and Goldsmiths. Travel assistance may be available to graduate students and ECRs through the SSHM: https://sshm.org/bursaries/
Please send proposals (100-200 words) for 5-10 minute roundtable presentations to Kate Imy (kate.alison.imy@gmail.com) by June 12, 2018.
The conference will be held at Goldsmiths (University of London, UK) on July 7, 2018.
Special thanks to Julia Hauser (Uni. Kassel) for her indispensable contributions to this initiative..
The Department of English, Gauhati University, has been organizing a series of international seminars on literature emerging from India and its neighbours, with two seminars already held on Sri Lanka and Pakistan. This year, we are shifting our focus to Afghanistan, the nation, and its diaspora.
Modern Afghanistan is often regarded as an isolated, troubled, violence-ridden territory in the global imaginary, in the light of its occupation by the Soviets in the Cold War era and by the US in the aftermath of 9/11. However, this representation, as with any representation, comes with its own political and ideological baggage. Seamus Heaney, in “Crediting Poetry”, his Nobel lecture, in speaking of the violent history of Northern Ireland, said that “history is about as instructive as an abattoir; ... peace is merely the desolation left behind after the decisive operations of merciless power”. This suggests the ‘universal’ nature of violence in the history of any race, and to speak of certain parts of the world as being prone to more violence is politically motivated.
In terms of language and culture, Afghanistan retains a rich heritage that not merely dates back to thousands of years but also charts a transnational trajectory in the form of a Persian literary culture that includes countries like Turkey, Iran and India in its ambit. Apart from Dari (Persian), Pashto, the other major language of Afghanistan, also possesses a wealth of literature, both oral and written. Afghan writing in English, however, seems to be a relatively recent phenomena compared to the rich literary histories of Dari and Pashto, with only a few writers like Khaled Hosseini and Nadia Hashimi writing in English. Other eminent contemporary writers who are visible globally, like Atiq Rahimi, have had their writings translated into English. Given this, to merely look at Afghan fiction in English would be to ignore the larger literary scenario that includes not merely Pashto and Dari but also other genres like poetry. In fact, poetry and fiction have been the dominant forms through which Afghan writers have articulated the trauma of violence, terror, displacement and loss of identity and home.
A discussion of politics and the political cannot be avoided in speaking of representation; this is all the more so when one looks at contemporary Afghan literature, especially the fact that the writers choosing English as the medium of their representation are diasporic rather than resident writers. This is not to say that writing in English is not possible in Afghanistan itself but to underline the fact that the particular political engagements of writers are consciously undertaken to provide alternative versions of reading and representing Afghanistan rather than the politically dominant Western view of the nation being just a den of violence under Taliban rule until it was occupied by the United States of America and transformed into a ‘democratic’ nation. A similar preoccupation can be seen in the works of writers looking at the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in a similar light. Another important aspect is the experiences of women who find themselves repressed in terms of tradition, religion and politics. Writers as well as journalists highlight the grim challenges that women in Afghanistan face in present times. Even though the thrust of this series of seminars is on fiction in English, we would, however, like to welcome papers on texts translated into English as well as on forms other than fiction, if they conform thematically to the central focus of the seminar, which is, to attempt to understand the specific ways in which contemporary Afghan literature has responded to and addressed the drastic political and cultural changes in Afghanistan since the second half of the twentieth century as well as certain repressive aspects of tradition that perpetuate from the past well into the present.
We invite papers that look into the complex cultural, historical and political contexts that underpin the literature emerging from both within Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora since the last two decades, roughly under, but not limited to, the following sub-themes:
Gender and the nation
The body
Ethnicity
Home
Exile, migration and displacement
Identity, nation and literature
Religion and violence
Narrative and history
Orality and culture
The Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan
The Taliban occupation
9/11 and the US presence in Afghanistan
Politics and literature
The folk and the popular
Terrorism and children
Everyday life in Afghanistan
Tradition and modernity in Afghanistan
Afghanistan and the West
Interested participants are requested to submit a 300-word abstract by 15 June 2018 to:
Participants whose papers are selected for presentation will be notified by 30 June 2018. Paper presenters will get 20 minutes each to present their papers, followed by 5 minutes of discussion. The full papers should be e-mailed to us by 31 December 2018.
Shanghai University 2018 International Forum for Young Scholars
Sub-Forum for Humanities and Social Sciences
Shanghai University is making plans for the development of its Humanities and Social Sciences departments. With the support of national and municipal funds it will open up academic position at different academic levels in a variety of disciplines. Therefore, it will host a forum for international young scholars from 25 to 27 May, 2018, designed to discuss and explore new approaches and methods in Humanities and Social Sciences as well as to recruit young scholars interested in building the field of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shanghai University. Young academics from the fields of Literature, Chinese History, World History, Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, International Relations and Diplomacy, Sociology, Anthropology, Demography, Folklore, Public Administration or other related backgrounds are invited to apply. The forum will include symposia, academic seminars and a talent fair, all of which serve as a platform for young Chinese and foreign scholars to exchange ideas and explore opportunities at Shanghai University.
Profile of Shanghai University
Shanghai University (SHU) is a comprehensive research university, offering degree education in a broad range of academic disciplines. As a public university, it is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. It is presently listed as one of the universities in China which transforming their own preeminent disciplines into first-class programs under China’s “Double-First Class” initiative.
At present, more than 27,000 undergraduate and 14,000 postgraduate students are studying at its 28 schools and 2 independent departments, the majority enrolled in one of the 71 undergraduate, 221 master, 117 Ph.D. or 2 MBA programs. According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, SHU is currently ranked 30 out of 2258 Chinese universities and 390 out of more than 20,000 universities worldwide. Moreover, SHU has 4 national-level key disciplines; 11 first-level disciplines in Shanghai, and 8 disciplines ranked in the top 1% in ESI. In 2017, it ranked among the world’s top 60 universities with a history of less than 50 years, topping the list of such universities in China’s mainland; was ranked 31st in 2017’s ‘US News Global University Rankings’ (within Mainland China), and 15th in 2018’s ‘QS World University Rankings’. (In Mainland China)
Shanghai University is open to the world’s academics and researchers, attracting first-rate scholars to join SHU through the “Talents Plan” platform, set up by China’s Central Government and Shanghai’s Local Government, focusing on the “First-Class Basic Discipline Construction Plan” and “Frontier and Key Discipline Development Plan”.
Requirements
1. Applicants should be aged below 45, have a PhD qualification from top universities or institutions; plus more than two years research experience abroad.
2. Possess recognized, outstanding academic achievement and excellent research potential in the related field.
3. Aspire to return to China, be based in the Shanghai area, and engaged in academic research work.
Disciplines
Literature, Linguistics, Chinese History, World History, Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, International Relations and Diplomacy, Sociology, Anthropology, Demography, Folklore and Public Administration, and related fields.
Meals and Accommodation
Meals and accommodation for the invited participants will be arranged by Shanghai University during the forum.
NOTE: Shanghai University will reimburse round-trip air tickets for invited participants (economy class, up to RMB 12, 000 Rmb/person, for Europe, America and Australia; and up to RMB 6,000 Rmb/person for other countries or regions. Travel expenses for invited participants from China will be reimbursed upon presentation of original receipts based on the relevant state financial regulations).
Applicants are expected to submit applications via e-mail before 10th April and mark their applications: “Sub-Forum for Humanities and Social Sciences”.
Application materials must include the application form for ‘Shanghai University Forum for International Young Scholars Sub-Forum for Humanities and Social Sciences’, personal resumes, list of three representative achievements, and related materials.
For application forms, please contact:
Ms. Qin Feifei (Tel: +86-021-66133228; Email: qinfeifei1123@163.com) for Literature, Linguistics, Chinese History, World History, Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, International Relations and Diplomacy and related fields;
Mr. Fan Jie (Tel: +86-021-66135205, +86-021-66134142; Email:fanjie@shu.edu.cn), for Sociology, Anthropology, Demography, Folklore and Public Administration;
Notes: Please send this application form together with your resume to qinfeifei1123@163.com(Ms. Qin) or fanjie@shu.edu.cn(Mr. Fan). Please mention “2018 Shanghai University International Forum for Young Scholars Forum of Humanities and Social Studies Application” in the email subject bar.
This conference aims to bring together new approaches to colonial Australia across the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Colonialism puts a range of practices and discourses into play: violent encounters, dispossession, trauma, 'development', 'civilisation', governance, trade, and so on. It produces endless narratives about what it is, what it does and the lives it radically changes. It is both immensely destructive and energetically productive: recording its various practices and discourses through a rapidly growing range of media and visual technologies.
The narratives of colonialism worked to reinvent Australia in colonialism's image, leaving us with legacies and frameworks that continue to shape who we are and how we identify to the world around us. Sometimes we try to 'forget' colonialism, but it constantly claims us and returns to us; we continue to live in its aftermath.
This conference welcomes papers on the following topics:
Militant colonialism and frontier violence
Indigenous dispossession and resistance
Colonial racism, its histories and legacies
Colonialism and the anthropological turn
Language and the exchange of knowledge
Money, capitalism and trade
Settler and Indigenous governance
Colonial modernity and the 'global south'
Metropolitan identities
Bush, desert and coastal narratives
The convict archive
Gold rush narratives
Colonial transnationalisms
Immigrant narratives
Print culture and colonial literature: prose fiction, poetry, theatre
Gender and sexuality
Colonialism and the law
Institutions and their networks
Collectors, archivists and the colonial GLAM sector
Colonialism and the visual arts
Environment, species and the natural sciences
Colonialism and everyday life
The colonies and the nation: north, south, east and west
Colonialism today
Paper submissions
Please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words by Friday 6 July, 2018.
Papers should be no more than 20 mins. Suggestions for panel discussions are welcome.
Margins are not mere physical outlying areas, or geographies at the edges of state, capital and socio-cultural worlds. They are products of various complex processes in colonial and postcolonial times and have been produced in various moments of contestations, fragmentations and negotiations. As such, margins are not inert spaces; they are active sites in which creative practices and connections have taken place. Such practices and connections include cultures, politics, histories, societies, and economies that inhabit either the border of a state or a “geo-body.” In this regard, various studies focusing on “margins” have enabled us to look at forms of state-making, subject formations, role of capital, circuits and networks, contestations and subversions, including various cultural and political practices across societies and boundaries.
Historically, “margins” such as North East India had connections with societies in the “margins” of neighbouring areas such as Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, etc. As such, these geographical spaces throw up comparable and significant insights in studying the making of such complex spaces. For instance, these geographies are sites and spaces of various forms of material and non-material transactions and connectivities, including resources, rituals and commodities.
Such transactions and connectivities continue to mark these spaces even in the contemporary times. People continue to have wider social, cultural and (in) formal economic networks, marked by routes and infrastructures that support various forms of mobility. These “margins” have also been sites and spaces where forms of state/non-state violence, contestations, projects of nation-building and developmental interventions of both state and global financial institutions simultaneously have coexisted. This has also included representing these “margins” as the “gateways” and “corridors” of capital, trade and services under the neoliberal economy. Nevertheless, these areas have also been marked by various forms of social and political movements, that resists and negotiates violence and developmental interventions.
Some of the broad concerns and issues that emerge from the above are, what are margins? In what context are margins produced and reproduced? How are margins connected to the wider processes of state, capital and cultural flows? What are the different ways through which societies respond to the shifting dynamics of margin making? Themes
This two-day interdisciplinary international conference seeks to explore some of these issues and concerns, especially focusing on North East India and its neighboring areas such Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, etc. This conference focuses on the following themes, but are not limited to:
Making state, making margins
Circuits, networks and infrastructures
Capital, resource regimes and economy
Margins and everyday life
Violence, resistance and margins
Knowledge, power and practices
Margins and governance
Movement and mobility
Development, ecology and margins
Memory and narratives
Margins and gender
Material culture
Interested research scholars, post-doctoral scholars and early career academics are invited to submit an abstract of about 200-300 words, including a brief CV atneispyoungscholarsconference@gmail.com
Participants from outside India are requested to seek funding from their institutions for travel costs. Partial funding to cover travel costs may be available for selected participants from within India based on availability of funds. Accommodation and local conveyance will be provided for selected participants.
Important dates:
Last date for abstract submission: 21 July, 2018
Intimation of abstract acceptance: 17 August, 2018
Submission of working papers from selected participants: 7 January, 2019
Organizing Team:
G. Amarjit Sharma is Assistant Professor at North East India Studies Programme, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Bhumika R, Thingminao Horam, Tammoy Das and Robert Lunkhopao Haokip are Research Scholars at North East India Studies Programme, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Contact Info:
G. Amarjit Sharma is Assistant Professor at North East India Studies Programme, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
