South Asian Studies

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs program on Global and International History presents Aparna Kapadia, associate professor of history at Williams College and ” Walking with the Mahatma: Kasturba Gandhi’s Political Life.”

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs program on Global Health and Medicine presents Professor Lucinda Ramberg, sociocultural and medical anthropologist at Cornell University

Lecture “ ‘Theater in South Asia: Shakespeare on the Hindi Stage” by Kanchan Verma, Assistant Professor of Hindi, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi.

Dr. Tasneem Suhrawardy, Associate Professor, Department of History, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi

Professor Subramanian Shankar, University of Hawaii By addressing the cultural affects of caste politics in South India, Dr. Shankar’s lecture will enhance the South Asian Studies program. He plans to address anti-caste activism in 20th century South India as well as the role caste plays in biography. In addressing this last point, Dr. Shankar intends to draw parallels with race in the US. Dr. Shankar is a critic, novelist, and translator.

Lessons in Drag- Kareem Khubchandani

Your favorite South Asian drag auntie brings the nightclub to the classroom (and vice versa) to explain how critical social theory matters in queer nightlife. Touching on themes that include globalization, black feminist theory, diva worship, and islamophobia, she stages the nightclub as a site of politics and pleasure. Part lecture, part lipsync, part audience participation, the show demonstrates how much drag teaches us, even requires us, to be in relation with the rest of the world.

Shahzia Sikander, the Pakistani-born internationally acclaimed artist who now resides in New York City, will join in a conversation about the meanings and context of Sikander‘s newly installed glass mosaic. Perennial Gaze is the newest addition to Middlebury College’s renowned Public Art Collection.   A reception will follow the talk. FREE

Through her decades-long ethnography of Hindu temple rituals in the city of Bangalore, India, Tulasi Srinivas analyzes wonder as an anthropological concept; moments where ritual enmeshes with global modernity to create wonder- a feeling of amazement at being overcome by the unexpected and sublime. In this talk, Srinivas asks— What is the purpose of wonder and how does it link with creativity? Can it inform our practices of ethnography, our understanding of India, and of ourselves?

On June 25, 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India, suspending constitutional rights and rounding up her political opponents in midnight raids. In the twenty-one harrowing months that followed, her regime unleashed a brutal campaign of coercion and intimidation.