Call For Applications: Inlaks Shivdasani #Scholarships for Indian Students to Study in USA, UK, and European institutions in a full-time Masters, MPhil, or Doctoral programme.

ABOUT THE SCHOLARSHIP

Since 1976, Inlaks Shivdasani Scholarships have been granted to over 480 Indian students to read at top-rated USA, UK, and European institutions in a full-time Masters, MPhil, or Doctoral programme.

We award up to USD 100,000 to cover programme tuition as well as scholars’ living expenses, healthcare, and one-way airfare for the scholar.

The Foundation has joint-scholarship arrangements with Imperial College, London, the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, the University of Cambridge (Cambridge Trust), Paris, King’s College London (for PhD. Students*) and Hertie School, Berlin.

The Foundation gives scholarships in a variety of subjects but  DOES NOT  fund the following courses:Business and Finance

• Computer Science
• Engineering**
• Fashion Design
• Film and Film Animation***
• Hospitality and Tourism
• Indian Studies without Contemporary Relevance
• Management Studies (i.e. MBA)
• Medicine, Dentistry, and related therapies
• Music****
• Public Health

*Faculties of Social Sciences, Public Policy, Arts & Humanities only.

**We consider applications to pursue study in Engineering and Natural Sciences at Imperial College, London.

***We consider applications to pursue Documentary filmmaking.

****We consider applications to pursue study in Western Classical singing.

TERMS OF THE SCHOLARSHIP

The maximum funding given by the Foundation is USD 100,000.

If the total funding required to complete the proposed course of study exceeds the above amount, at the time of application candidates must show evidence that they can cover the additional costs on their own with proof of documents.

If successful, applicants are required to report any additional funding sources, to the Foundation when they are received.

Applications made to Imperial College, London, the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, the University of Cambridge (Cambridge Trust), Paris and King’s College London and Hertie School, Berlin will benefit from additional funding through the Foundation’s joint scholarships with these institutions and can exceed the USD 100,000 limit while making an application.

A candidate’s proposed course of study cannot require long duration of fieldtrips to India during the study tenure. Applications made under the King’s College London collaboration covering PHD students in Social Sciences, Public Policy, Arts & Humanities are exempted from this condition.

If the scholarship does not commence within nine months of award, it will be forfeited.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

1. All Indian passport holders who are resident in India at the time of application born on or after 1st January 1994 and hold a degree from a recognised university in India.

2. Candidates who hold a good undergraduate degree from a recognised university abroad must have resided continuously, been employed, or have been studying in India for at least two years after their under-graduation are eligible to apply. If you are in the final year of graduation and awaiting results, you are eligible to apply.

3. Required minimum percentage/grade

1. For Social Sciences, Humanities, Law, Fine Arts, Architecture and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 65%, CGPA 6.8/10, or GPA 2.6/4 from a recognized university/institution.

2. For Mathematics, Sciences, Environment and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 70%, CGPA 7.2/10, or GPA 2.8/4 from a recognized university/institution.

4. It is essential to have prior admission to the institution and course chosen at the time of the application. The Foundation will not consider candidates without evidence of admission.

5. Candidates who have an English language certification as a conditional part of their offer letter need to attain that certification before applying for the scholarship.

6. Candidates who have received a deferred offer of admission must have a valid offer for the academic year 2024-25 to be eligible for the 2024 scholarships

7. Candidates having a postgraduate qualification (e.g. Master’s or PhD) from an institution abroad are not eligible to apply.

8. Candidates who are already studying or have started their postgraduate education at an institution abroad are not eligible to apply.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS.

1. Please read all the instructions carefully and have all your documents and information ready.

2. The last day to submit your application is till 12:00pm (afternoon) on 22nd March 2024.

3. Please do not wait till the last day/minute to submit your application.

4. This is a one sitting online application submission. It cannot be saved.

5. Only one submission per candidate will be accepted. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

6. When you begin to fill your application, make sure you have good internet connectivity and uninterrupted time in hand

7. On starting to fill the form, you will receive a verification code on your email address which needs to be entered in the form so keep your email open.

8. You cannot save your progress while completing the online application and you will not be able to edit the application after submission. Please do not refresh the page at any point.

9. Please take screen shots as you progress through the online application in case you face a technical error while submitting your online application, send an email with a screenshot of the error indication to: techsupport@inlaksfoundation.org

10. For any other query please write to applications@inlaksfoundation.org

11. When you click ‘Submit’ it may take some time for the application to be submitted. Please be patient and do not click any additional buttons or you may lose your work.

12. The Application form comprises 7 sections

1. Personal Information

2. Proposed Programme

3. University Education

4. Work Experience/Projects pursued

5. Statement of Purpose

6. 2 References

7. Declaration

13. Each section has varied number of fields to be filled along with documents to be uploaded

14. Fields marked with ‘*’ and drop downs are mandatory. You will not be allowed to proceed or submit the application without filling these fields

15. Please keep the following documents handy in PDF file format since you will need to upload them at various points in the application under different sections

1. Mandatory

1. Passport – (if expired, continue to upload old passport along with the receipt of application made for a new one as one PDF file document)

2. Updated Resume/Curriculum Vitae

3. Photo (JPEG or PNG)

4. Admission/offer letter. *If you have not received your admission/offer letter by 22nd March, kindly attach the acknowledgement of your application to the said University in a PDF file format. You can separately email the admission/offer letter to applications@inlaksfoundation.org latest by 12pm (afternoon) 31st March 2024 and we will attach it to your application. However, this will only be accepted if you have submitted your full application form by 22nd March and not accepted in isolation.

5. Fee Statement

6. Proof of additional funding

7. Degree certificates and marksheets

8. Course related portfolio/links/writing samples

9. Optional and/or if relevant

i. TOEFL/IELTS/GRE score sheets (if relevant to your programme)

ii. Academic distinctions, grant, scholarships, prizes etc if any

iii. Extracurricular attainments if any

16. On format of documents

1. Your photograph must be uploaded in JPG or PNG format and documents must be in PDF format.

2. Once you select your choice of subject, a relevant prompt will appear in the application for you to attach your portfolio/links/writing sample.

Please scroll down to the prompt, select and attach them

1. Applicants for Documentary film, Dance, Theatre, and Music (Western classical-vocal) must paste links to their performances

2. Applicants for Media and Journalism, English Literature must upload their writing samples in PDF file format and / or links.

3. Applicants for Architecture, Fine and Applied art, Urban planning and related subjects must upload their portfolios in PDF file format.

17. All the academic qualifications beginning from your first degree that have been completed/are in progress have to be mentioned at the time of making an application for the scholarship.

18. Eligible Percentage

1. For Social Sciences, Humanities, Law, Fine Arts, Architecture and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 65%, CGPA 6.8/10, or GPA 2.6/4 from a recognized university/institution.

2. For Mathematics, Sciences, Environment and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 70%, CGPA 7.2/10, or GPA 2.8/4 from a recognized university/institution.

19. On fees and funding (In case this information is incorrectly filled, the application will be disqualified.)

1. Applicants must indicate the tuition fees and health insurance for the entire duration of their course. For information on the health insurance amounts check with the university for the exact amounts.

2. If you are making an application to read for a PhD programme, please ensure that you mention the fees for all the years of your study.

3. With respect to the fee statement to be uploaded

1. If the tuition fees are mentioned in the offer letter, then highlight the fee and upload the letter in the fee statement section as a PDF File format document.

2. If the tuition fee is not mentioned in the offer letter, then from university website, download the tuition document and highlight the fees of the course you have admission of and upload it as a PDF file format.

4. For proof of additional funding, you may attach one or more of any of the following (as ONE PDF file format only):

1. Personal bank statements

2. Parents/Relative bank statements and/or investment with letter of authority

3. Personal investment documents (no property documents allowed)

4. Approval letter of educational loan

5. If you have already received and/or additional scholarship, please upload a proof of document from the University or scholarship organisation. If you are waiting for results then kindly let us know through email with proof by 10th April 2024 at applications@inlaksfoundation.org .

6. Living allowance is ‘auto-calculated’ as per Foundation guidelines. Travel amounts for a one-way ticket will be provided in addition to the tuition, maintenance and health insurance

7. The total support from the Foundation cannot exceed USD 100,000. The Foundation does not give any scholarships for visas, travel and health insurance in isolation.

20. On your references

1. Please inform your referees, that they will receive an email from the Foundation with a link to upload their reference letters; these links are valid for 7 days from the day of application and cannot be extended.

2. For applications made on 22nd March 2024, the referee link will be valid for seven days post submission till 29th March 2024.

3. The reference letter must be on a letterhead.

4. For students, 2 academic referees are required, for those working, one of the referees can be a professional one

5. In case the referee cannot find the email, ask them to check their spam folder

21. On submitting the application

1. Confirmation of your submitted application will be emailed to your verified email address.

2. If you encounter an error while submitting your online application, send an email with a screenshot of the error indication to:techsupport@inlaksfoundation.org

22. For any other query please write to applications@inlaksfoundation.org

SELECTION PROCEDURE

An independent, Inlaks Selection Committee is appointed to select successful applications for scholarships.

Applicants are assessed on not only their past and present achievements but also on their future potential. Candidates applying for scholarships in art and design (fine/performing arts) will be primarily assessed on their portfolios.

The selection process consists of three stages:

(1) Review of eligible applications

(2) Online preliminary interviews with candidates chosen from the review and

(3) A final in-person interview with those who succeed in the preliminary interview.

Candidates who do not receive any communication from the Foundation by 19th April 2024 must assume that their applications have not been successful.

For More Details, Please Visit: https://www.inlaksfoundation.org/scholarships/how-to-apply/

CFP: International Seminar on #Foucault and #Postcolonial Governmentalities in South Asia-24-25 May, 2024- ILSR, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

This seminar hinges on South Asian governmentalities (Legg and Heath, 2018), as experienced in postcolonial South Asian nation states. They were erstwhile colonies, liberated through intense anti-colonial struggles against the British, a move that involved totalizing discourses of autonomy and nation-making. The newly born nations, supposed to be democratic guardian states, however, adopted the sovereign logic of governmentality and gradually most postcolonial nation states in South Asia, engulfed in internecine conflicts, diluted its nourishing roles to legitimize structural authoritarianism. They often demonstrate autocratic tendencies, evolving into absolutist state-machines, adopting culturalist disciplinary technologies to govern its citizens. There are occasional signs of carceral despotism, liquidating norm-deviant voices, adopting bio-political control in the name of national integration, identity and securitization. All these 
governmentality-oriented highhandedness demand a fresh Foucauldian analysis of normative categories such as power, civil society, territoriality, identity, state control, security, etc in the South Asian contexts. Postcolonial scholars, so far, have primarily looked into the perspectival reservoir of indigenous thinkers (quite understandably and legitimately so) but a larger Foucauldian critical hermeneutics can offer fresh 
analytical tools to understand the postcolonial biopolitical predicament. This proposed Kolkata chapter of 
the World Foucault Congress will look into the postcolonial governmentality question through the 
Foucauldian lens.
Original scientific paper proposals are invited, focusing on but not limited to the following areas of 
research:

• Foucault, Postcolonial State and Governmentality
• Foucault, South Asian biopolitics and bio-sociality
• Gender and Sexuality in the Global South and Foucault
• Foucault and Postcolonial Literary, cultural Agenda 
• Prison Reform, Incarceration in South Asia and Foucault
• Foucault and Postcolonial Nationalist Discourses
• Foucault and Postcolonial Human Rights 
• Violence and Postcolonial Discourse of Power
• Foucault and the Question of Identity
• Foucault and the Question of Caste, Race and Religion in South Asia, etc
• Foucault, Neoliberalism and Subalternity
• Foucault, Anthropocene and Critical Animal Studies
• Foucault and Psychoanalysis

Method of submission of proposal:
Submit an abstract (300 words maximum) with a short bio-note (150 words) within March 10, 2024 to 
foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com
Selection results will be communicated within 25 March, 2024
Selected abstracts will be asked to submit a full paper of 3000-4000 words (for a presentation of 15-
20 minutes) within 15 May 2024
Confirmed Invited Speakers:
Deana Heath, University of Liverpool 
Srila Roy, University of the Witwatersrand 
Anup Dhar, Ruhr University Bochum 
Sreenanti Banerjee, University of Bristol 
Jonathan Saha, Durham University
Convenors:
Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha, ILSR, Kolkata
Subhendra Bhowmick, Sidho Kanho Birsha University
Mursed Alam, Gour College, University of Gour Banga
Selected candidates will be informed about the registration process in due course of time. For any 
queries reach us at foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com

Contact Information

Submit an abstract (300 words maximum) with a short bio-note (150 words) within March 10, 2024 to 
foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com
Selection results will be communicated within 25 March, 2024
Selected abstracts will be asked to submit a full paper of 3000-4000 words (for a presentation of 15-
20 minutes) within 15 May 2024

Selected candidates will be informed about the registration process in due course of time. For any queries reach us at foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com

Contact Email

foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com

URL

https://foucault40.info/kolkata/

Call For Articles: Postcolonial Interventions (ISSN 2455-6564) Call for Papers Vol. IX, Issue 2 (June 2024)

Postcolonial Interventions invites scholarly articles for an OPEN ISSUE to be published in June 2024. As this call is being circulated, the people of Palestine continue to suffer with excruciating agonies inflicted on them by Zionist imperial aggression, right-wing forces of xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance continue to gather momentum across the world, inequality and ecological crisis continue to escalate and new forms of precarity are being constantly negotiated. 

The next issue of Postcolonial Interventions seeks to explore such issues and more based on postcolonial experiences across the world.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Articles must be original and unpublished. Submission will imply that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

2. Written in Times New Roman 12, double spaced with 1″ margin     on all sides, in doc/docx format.

3. Between 4000-7000 words, inclusive of all citations.

4. With in-text citations and a Works Cited list complying with        Chicago Manual of Style (author-date) specifications.

5. A separate cover page should include the author’s name,                designation, an abstract of 250 words with a maximum of 5                 keywords and a short bio-note of 50 words.

6. The main article should not in any way contain the author’s name.  Otherwise the article will not be considered.

7. Reviews also need to follow the aforementioned guidelines.            However, word limit for reviews is 1500 words.

8. The contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to        reproduce any material, including photographs and illustrations         for which they do not hold copyright.

Please send all your contributions to postcolonialinterventions@gmail.com  within 30 April, 2024.

Call for Articles: Inaugural Issue of Creativitas: Critical Explorations in Literary Studies

 Inaugural Issue of Creativitas - Critical Explorations in Literary Studies (A Double-blind Peer-reviewed Journal of English Studies).

[We are in the midst of registering the journal under ISSN. However, as per guidelines, an issue has to be published prior to acquiring an ISSN. So, the inaugural issue will be published without an ISSN.]

Creativitas, an up and coming journal in the field of English Studies, invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to submit original and innovative contributions for its inaugural issue. The journal aims to provide a platform for critical explorations in literary studies, fostering interdisciplinary discussions and pushing the boundaries of traditional approaches to literature.

Creativitas seeks submissions that engage with a broad spectrum of topics within literary studies. The theme for the inaugural issue is intentionally broad, allowing for a diverse range of perspectives and methodologies. We welcome papers that delve into, but are not limited to, the following areas:

·         Literary Criticism and Theory

·         Comparative Literature

·         Postcolonial Studies

·         Genre Studies

·         Cultural Studies

·         Digital Humanities and Literature

·         Eco-criticism

·         Intersectionality in Literature

·         Memory Studies

·         Global Perspectives in Literary Studies

·         Adaptation Studies

·         Narratology

·         Experimental Literature

·         Comic Books and Other Graphic Narratives

·         Literature and Film

·         Literary Translation Studies

·         Historical Approaches to Literature

Submission Guidelines: Authors submitting manuscripts to Creativitas for the inaugural issue are required to adhere to a comprehensive set of guidelines to facilitate the double-blind peer-review process. The journal follows the MLA Eighth Edition format, and authors are expected to submit an abstract for initial selection before the full manuscript.

Abstracts should be around 300 words long (with a maximum of five keywords), and should be sent to creativitasjournal@gmail.com with a copy of it sent to sapientia2024@gmail.com. The mail should bear the subject “Abstract Submission for Creativitas Inaugural Issue”.

Upon approval, authors can proceed with the full manuscript submission. Manuscripts must strictly adhere to the MLA Eighth Edition format guidelines. This includes proper citation style, page formatting, and referencing conventions.

Note: Authors submitting manuscripts to Creativitas for the inaugural issue are instructed to carefully anonymize their articles. To ensure a double-blind peer-review process, authors should remove any personal information, including names, affiliations, and acknowledgments, from the manuscript. Additionally, the document should not contain any metadata that may reveal the author's identity. Authors are encouraged to replace self-references in the text with generic terms (e.g., "the author") and ensure that any potentially identifying information is temporarily omitted.

Manuscripts, once prepared (according to the MLA Eighth Edition format) and anonymized, should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document via email to should be sent to creativitasjournal@gmail.com with a copy of it sent to sapientia2024@gmail.com, with the subject line: "Manuscript Submission for Creativitas Inaugural Issue".

The editorial team at Creativitas is committed to ensuring a fair and rigorous double-blind peer-review process. Authors are encouraged to reach out to the editorial team at sapientia2024@gmail.com for any clarification or assistance regarding the submission guidelines.

Important dates:

·         Deadline for Submission of Abstract – 01.03.2024

·         Notification of Acceptance of Abstract – 05.03.2024

·         Deadline for Submission of Full-length Manuscript – 15.04.2024

P.S. In the on-going process of registering Creativitas for an ISSN, it's important to note that, according to guidelines, an issue must be published prior to obtaining the ISSN. Consequently, the inaugural issue of Creativitas will be released without an ISSN. While this initial publication won't have the ISSN, it represents a crucial step in establishing the journal and facilitating academic discourse.

Contact Information

sapientia2024@gmail.com

creativitasjournal@gmail.com

Contact Email

contact@creativitasjournal.in

URL

https://creativitasjournal.in

CFP: 4th International Conference of the Indian Association for South Asian Studies (IASAS) on #Subalterns in South Asia, 21-22 June, 2024

We are accepting abstracts for the Indian Association for South Asian Studies (IASAS) International Conference, which will take place at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha from June 21-22, 2024. Researchers and scholars from across the disciplines will participate in this two-day conference that will be concentrating on South Asian studies. The central theme for the above is ‘Subalterns in South Asia:.

The term "subaltern," popularized by Antonio Gramsci, conceptualized subaltern groups as those excluded from hegemonic power, encompassing peasants, workers, and other marginalized factions. However, in Subaltern Studies led by Ranajit Guha, the term broadens to denote the quality of being subordinate in South Asian society, irrespective of its manifestation in class, caste, age, gender, or office.

The collective, initially comprising scholars such as Shahid Amin, David Arnold, Partha Chatterjee, David Hardiman, Gyanendra Pandey etc., aimed to give voice to the historically marginalized. Subaltern Studies encompassed diverse subjects, including history, politics, economics, and sociology of subalternity, along with associated perspectives, ideologies, and belief systems. The initiative aimed to counter elitist historiography by allowing subaltern voices to emerge within its pages, representing and amplifying the voices of the oppressed.

The theory posited that the elite in India did not merely have a hegemonic role but played a dominant one, enabling the subaltern to be seen as independent historical actors. This perspective countered the notion that the subaltern were passive recipients of elite guidance, emphasizing their independent agency within the political system. 

In line with the subaltern understanding, this conference extends a warm invitation to panels and paper submissions that specifically emphasize non-elite discourses. The conference aims to spotlight and explore narratives, perspectives, and voices that have traditionally been marginalized or overlooked in favour of dominant, elite perspectives. Connecting historical studies to disciplines like gender studies, cultural studies, sociology, economics, demographics, politics, psychology, and others are also welcome. By prioritizing non-elite discourses, we aspire to create a space for critical discussions and insights that challenge established norms and contribute to a richer understanding of the diverse, often unheard, voices in South Asian societies. 

The conference hopes to be able to encourage more research by generating new perspectives by exploring new as well as alternative and evolving research ideas and methods.

IASAS 2024 conference welcomes panels and papers in English or in Hindi on any theme of South Asian Studies employing interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives inspired from History, Philosophy, Political Science, Anthropology, Ethnography, Sociology, Psychology etc. Hence, the conference aim is to bring historians and social scientists into conversation with each other. We encourage submissions from research students, early career scholars, faculty members, and independent social scientists whose research falls under the spectrum of South Asian Studies. The conference hopes to generate new perspectives by exploring new as well as alternative and evolving research ideas and methods. 

There would be at least four presenters in each panel session. Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes each.

1. Abstracts of up to 500 words should be submitted on or before 15 April, 2024.

2. Acceptance letters for proposals will be e-mailed by 30 April, 2024. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed.

 

In the Subject window of your e-mails, please type the following words: IASAS Bhubaneswar 2024.

Email: iasasconference@gmail.com

Delegates fees:

For paper presenters:

1. Faculty Members: 6000 INR (with hostel room accommodation single occupancy for two days) 
2. Faculty Members :5000 INR (without accommodation) 
3. Research Students:5000 INR (with hostel room accommodation single occupancy for two days)
4. Research Students : 4000 INR (without accommodation)
5. Guests and Listeners: 2500 INR

Note:

• The organizing committee is not in a position to provide participants with financial support.
• All participants are advised to seek funding through their respective institutions or other sources.
• The venue of the conference is Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Contact Information

Centre for Alternative Studies in Social Sciences, New Delhi

Indian Association for South Asian Studies, New Delhi

 

Email: iasasconference@gmail.com

Contact Email

iasasconference@gmail.com

Attachments

cfp-iasas-2024.pdf

Call for Papers on #Edward #Said’s legacy in the context of current events-Edited Volume; MLA 2025 conference special session

Twenty years after his death and fifty years after the publication of Orientalism, Edward Said, the best-known Palestinian American public intellectual, seems more relevant and more controversial than ever before. As the middle-east is torn apart by the most horrific violence since the creation of Israel, Said has already been blamed for providing academic cover to Hamas’s murderous actions. Said, these critics say, was a rabid anti-Western, anti-Semitic, Arab extremist who legitimized the use of violence by terrorists calling themselves freedom fighters. But others have recalled the intellectual clarity and moral urgency Said brought to the Palestine question. Those who respect Said see him as a cosmopolitan, liberal, secular humanist who consistently critiqued colonialism, whether Western or Israeli. Both sides, however, acknowledge that something remarkable is happening in the West, particularly the United States: for the first time, a generational divide has opened up between the elders who stand steadfastly by Israel and the youth who are speaking up for Palestinians. This generational battle is being fought on elite college campuses where student protests against unconditional US aid for Israel’s war on Gaza have put college presidents in the crosshairs and upended careers. Articulated in a Saidian language of anti-colonialism and Orientalism, this youth protest is more aligned with the political position of the non-West/global South than the older West/global North which views the conflict largely in terms of its own troubled history of anti-Semitism and the holocaust. What should we make of Edward Said and his legacy at this global conjuncture? How have Said’s intellectual preoccupations and political commitments shaped today’s divided discourse about the middle-east? What is the long-term impact of Said’s literary preoccupations and cultural interventions within and beyond academia?

We invite original scholarly papers for a proposed edited volume that explores the legacy of Edward Said in the wake of the current Israel-Palestine war.

While we would like to include a wide range of topics and perspectives in the edited, the following areas will be of particular interest:Said, democracy, and decolonization in the context of (de)globalization, the rise of China, great power competition

Said, zionism, and the politics of Palestine today

Said’s influence on public opinion in America/the West/other regions about the Middle East

Said’s cosmopolitanism/secularism/humanism/liberalism: scope, relevance, limits

“Orientalism” today

Said’s influence on literary and cultural studies as practiced today

Please send abstracts of 300 words, a 100-word bio, and five keywords by March 15, 2024 to

revathi.krishnaswamy@sjsu.edu

or noelle.brada-williams@sjsu.edu

Let us also know if you’d like your abstract to be considered for inclusion in a proposed special session at the 2025 annual Modern Language Association conference scheduled for 9-12 Jan in New Orleans.

Full articles of 5000-8000 words should be submitted by November 30th, 2024.

revathi.krishnaswamy@sjsu.edu

CALL FOR PAPERS :National Conference on New National Allegories: Twenty-First Century India in the Indian English Novel from 1990s to the present 1st March 2024 -Zakir Husain Delhi College (Evening) University of Delhi

Since its earliest formative years, the Indian novel has been preoccupied with the thematic of the nation, its formation, its articulation and its narration. Early novels like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath, Tagore’s Home and the World and Raja Rao’s Kanthapura set the initial trends in the modes of allegorizing the Indian nation. Along its long trajectory, over the twentieth century, the literary form managed to permeate almost all the languages of the Indian subcontinent, picking up other thematics such as the anti-colonial struggle, gender, caste and class concerns, communal, regional and ethnic questions. Even while being ostensibly focused on these concerns and questions, the Indian novel in English remained largely centred around the ideations and elaborations of the Indian nation. As the first nation-republic, installed in 1950, began to transform, irrevocably, in 1991 under global and domestic imperatives, the corollary cultural impacts and their cultural products, such as the Indian novel, were also bound to transform. The Indian nation emerged anew as an interesting subject where writers from various social, political and economic groups vied with each other to present and represent the ‘real’ and the ‘imaginary’ India. In other words, the post-1991 India which laid the foundations of twenty-first century India produced a newer version of the Jamesonian ‘national allegory’, as much as it had been produced pre- and post-1947. It is this post-1991 ‘national allegory’ that the proposed conference aims to investigate. Understanding the manners in which the post-1991 Indian novel addresses the issues and questions of Indian representations (to the home and the world), both from nationalist and decolonial as well as postcolonial points of departure is to form the anchor of the conference. To this end, the conference invites scholarly research papers in English on how the nation has been discussed, imagined, represented and narrated in the works of English language writers located within or outside India. Therefore, without placing a limitation, it is encouraged to bring the works of such writers to the fore who have followed the generation of Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, VS Naipaul, Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry, Jhumpa Lahiri and such others. This may include Arvind Adiga, Chetan Bhagat, Jeet Thayil, Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Manu Joseph and their contemporaries. The papers may include but may not be limited to the following topics:

Indian nation in the Indian novel in the twenty first century

Neo-nationalism/national self-assertion in the Indian novel

Postcolonialism versus decolonialism in the Indian novel

Return the white western gaze in the twenty-first century

Cognising neo-orientalisms and neo-imperialisms

Indian literary subjectivity in the twenty-first century

Abstracts of 300-350 words along with a brief bionote may be sent to zhceengconference@gmail.com by 18th February 2024.

The acceptance will be notified by 21st February 2024. Full papers may be submitted up to 5 days prior to the conference.

Registration fee and the payment process will be shared upon acceptance.