SALA Conference Program 2007 (Chicago)
(The 2007 South Asian Literary Association is having its annual conference in Chicago, on December 26-27. The keynote address will be given by Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, which should be good. I am posting the entire conference program here as a service to SALA.)
Social Justice in South Asian Cultural Practices.
Wednesday, December 26
1:00-3:00: Conference Registration
3:00-3:30: Welcome Address
SALA President P. S. Chauhan, Arcadia University
Conference Co-Chairs Nivedita Majumdar, John Jay College, City University of New York and Karni Pal Bhati, Furman University
3:30-4:00: Coffee/Tea
4:00-5:30: Session 1
1A. Modernity, Tradition, and Gender in Amitav Ghosh’s Fiction
Chair: Pennie Ticen, Virginia Military Institute
Kulvinder Arora, Macalester College, “Gender and Modern Apparitions in Anil’s Ghost and The Hungry Tide”
Srikanth Mallavarapu, Case Western Reserve University, “Reengaging the Local: The Negotiation of Modernity in Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide”
Anuradha Ramanujan, University of Delhi, “Brokering Justice in a Translated World: Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide”
1B. Sexual Minorities
Chair: Cynthia Leenerts, East Stroudsburg University
Kanika Batra, Texas Tech University, “Factoring ‘Class’: Contemporary Gender Studies and Cultural Representations of Sexual Minorities in India”
Jana Fedtke, University of South Carolina, “From Social Stigma to Appropriate(d) Activism: Representations of HIV/AIDS in Recent Indian Films”
Rebeccca Kumar, Emory University, “Queer Desis and ‘Social Justice’: A Comparison of Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Karan Razan’s Girlfriend”
1C. Arundhati Roy
Chair: Kanika Batra, Texas Tech University
Arch Mayfield, Wayland University, “Exploitation: What’s the Harm? A Look at Arundhati Roy’s Answer”
Miriam Nandi, University of Freiburg, “Translating Cash-flow Charts? Social Criticism in Indian English Writing”
Navneet Kumar, University of Calgary, “The Postcolonial Intellectual and Social Justice: Edward Said and Arundhati Roy”
Pennie Ticen, Virginia Military Institute, “Exploring the Rhetoric of Social Justice in the Essays of Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy”
5:30-7:00: Session 2
2A. Mahasweta Devi and Mahadevi Verma
Chair: Rajender Kaur, William Paterson University
Lopamudra Basu, University of Wisconsin, Stout, “Mourning and Motherhood: Transforming Loss in Representations of Adivasi Mothers in Mahasweta Devi’s Short Stories”
Madhurima Chakraborty, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, “Dangerous Memories: Mahasweta Devi’s ‘Statue’ and the Problem with Conjuring Independence”
Jayshree Kak Odin, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, “Techno-capitalist Rationality, Environmental Justice, and Indigenous Perspectives”
Amiya Sharma, Indira Gandhi Nehru Open University, “Search for Social Justice in the Personal Essays of Mahadevi Verma”
2B. Cinematic Justice
Chair: Toral Gajarawala, New York University
Meenakshi Bharat, University of Delhi, “A Call for Justice: Transformed/Transforming Apparatus for Social Change in Indian Films”
Reena Dube, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, “Remaking Caste, Class, Masculinity, and Social Justice: The Cinematic Tradition of the Devdas Films”
Manjula Jindal, Independent Scholar, “Gender, Orientalism, and Legal Narrative in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen”
Kaustav Mukherjee, Michigan State University, “Social Justice in Swades: The Question of the Individual against Cultural Purity”
2C. Interrogating Nationalism
Chair: Amritjit Singh, Ohio University
Angshuman Kar, Burdwan University, “Interfacing Social Justice and Gender in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura”
Tirthankar Das Purkayastha, Vidyasagra University, “The Owners (?) of History: Focus on Shashi Tharoor’s Riot”
Saadia Toor, College of Staten Island, CUNY, “’Chale chalo ke woh manzil abhi nahin aayi’: Literary Politics in Pakistan in the Aftermath of Independence”
Wednesday, December 27
7:30-8:30: Coffee/Tea and Danish
Conference Registration
8:30-10:00: Session 3
3A. Colonialism and/in Performance
Chair: Henry Schwarz, Georgetown University
Sayan Bhattacharyya, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “The Idea of Revolution in the Plays of Rabindranath Tagore”
Parmita Kapadia, Northern Kentucky University, “Marginalizing Political Activism: Postcolonial Shakespeare Theater and the Academy”
Nandi Bhatia, University of Western Ontario, “Re-presenting the Courtesan in the 1857 ‘Mutiny’”
3B. Justice Without Borders
Chair: Lopamudra Basu, University of Wisconsin, Stout
Monia Acciari, University of Manchester, “If Cultures Coexist, Can We Hear (and See) Social Justice with Borderless Superimposition of Ethnicities?”
Esra Mirze, University of Tampa, “Disorientation in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia”
Jalal Uddin Khan, University of Qatar, “Shelley’s Orientalia: Indian Elements in His
Poetry”
Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University, “’The kind of writing you like’: Shifting Frames in
Manto’s ‘Letters to Uncle Sam’”
3C. Between Nations
Chair: Sukanya Banerjee, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Nyla Khan, University of Nebraska, Kearney, “Islam, Women, and the Violence In Kashmir: Between India And Pakistan”
Ashmita Khasnabish, Brandeis University, “Negotiating the Humanitarian Identity in Shalimar the Clown”
Rajender Kaur, William Paterson University, “Who Speaks of the Komagata Maru? Cultural Memory, Identity Talk, and Social Justice”
Alia Somani, University of Western Ontario, “Srivinas Krishna’s Masala and the Politics of Mourning”
10:00-10:15: Coffee/Tea
10:15-11:45: Session 4
4A. Contemporary Theatres of Resistance
Chair: Nandi Bhatia, University of Western Ontario
Seema Malik, Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, “Injustice, Resistance, and Subversion: A Study of Selected Plays by Indian Women Playwrights”
Roopika Risam, Emory University, “Budhan’s Theatre of Pedagogy: Formal Strategies and Political Interventions”
Henry Schwarz, Georgetown University, “Is Indian History Indian History Yet? Revolution and Reaction in Recent Indian Narrative”
4B. Colonialism and its Aftermath
Chair: Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University
Sukanya Banerjee, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, “’Coolies,’ ‘Arabs,’ and Indentured Labor: Indians in Colonial South Africa”
Surekha Dangwal, H. N. B. Garhwal University, “’I must never behave as though I am staying’: Shifting Epistemologies in Naipaul’s Half a Life”
Arthur Dudney, Columbia University, “Greco-Roman Social Justice and Early Colonial India”
Abdollah Zahiri, University of Toronto, “The Naxalite Justice in Naipaul’s Magic Seeds”
4C. Representations of Dalits
Chair: Joseph Jeyaraj, Liberty University
Toral Gajarawala, New York University, “The Dalit Limit Point: Realism, Representation, and Crisis in Premchand”
Vijaya Singh, Government College for Men, Chandigarh, “The place of Dalit Women in Dalit Aesthetics and Literature”
Babu Suthar, University of Pennsylvania, “Politics of Migration and Migration of Politics in Gujarati Dalit Short Stories”
11:45-1:15: Session 5
5A. Women in/and Diaspora
Chair: Robin Field, King’s College
Cynthia Leenerts, East Stroudsburg University, “American Nightmares in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices and Queen of Dreams”
Gita Mohan, University of Salford, “Struggles of Immigrant Women: Expanding Literary Polysystems through Translations”
Amulya Kishore Purohit, Ravenshaw University, “Moral Agency and Social Justice in Bharati Mukherjee’s Short Fiction”
Parama Sarkar, Michigan State University, “’The old rules aren’t always right’: Redefined Gender Roles in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Narratives”
5B. Family and the Female Body
Chair: Saadia Toor, College of Staten Island, CUNY
Sarbani Bose, University of South Carolina, “The Family and the Gender Politics of the Body: A Reading of Aparna Sen’s Parama”
Shirin Edwin, Sam Houston State University, “The Indian Family: A Microcosm of Socioeconomic and Political Injustice in Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting”
Kathleen Fernando, York University, “’Dirty’ Bodies, Everyday Life, and Social History: Emancipatory Narratives of South Asian Women’s Writing in the Vernaculars and in English”
Hafiza Nilofar Khan, University of Southern Mississippi, “Wifely Agency in the Fiction of Subcontinental Muslim Women Writers”
5C. Ideologies of Caste
Chair: Babu Suthar, University of Pennsylvania
Joseph Jeyaraj, Liberty University, “Ethos and Caste: The Rhetoric of Silence in Diasporic Discourses”
Roger McNamara, Loyola University of Chicago, “Towards a Dalit Secularism: Bama’s Kurukku and the Possibilities of an Internal Critique”
Prabhjot Parmar, Royal Holloway College, “’Zabaan sambhal kar baat kar, kutte!’ [‘Watch your tongue, you dog!’]: Mangal Pandey and Caste Politics”
K. D. Verma, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, “Coolies and Untouchables: Mulk Raj Anand’s Sense of Social Injustice”
2:30-3:30: Plenary Panel with John Hawley and Revathi Krishnaswamy, moderated by Karni Pal Bhati and Nivedita Majumdar
3:30-4:00: Tea and reception for Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
4:00-4:30: SALA 2007 Achievement Award (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)
4:30-5:30: Keynote Address: Prof. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Global Distinguished Professor of English, New York University.
Social Justice in South Asian Cultural Practices.
Wednesday, December 26
1:00-3:00: Conference Registration
3:00-3:30: Welcome Address
SALA President P. S. Chauhan, Arcadia University
Conference Co-Chairs Nivedita Majumdar, John Jay College, City University of New York and Karni Pal Bhati, Furman University
3:30-4:00: Coffee/Tea
4:00-5:30: Session 1
1A. Modernity, Tradition, and Gender in Amitav Ghosh’s Fiction
Chair: Pennie Ticen, Virginia Military Institute
Kulvinder Arora, Macalester College, “Gender and Modern Apparitions in Anil’s Ghost and The Hungry Tide”
Srikanth Mallavarapu, Case Western Reserve University, “Reengaging the Local: The Negotiation of Modernity in Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide”
Anuradha Ramanujan, University of Delhi, “Brokering Justice in a Translated World: Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide”
1B. Sexual Minorities
Chair: Cynthia Leenerts, East Stroudsburg University
Kanika Batra, Texas Tech University, “Factoring ‘Class’: Contemporary Gender Studies and Cultural Representations of Sexual Minorities in India”
Jana Fedtke, University of South Carolina, “From Social Stigma to Appropriate(d) Activism: Representations of HIV/AIDS in Recent Indian Films”
Rebeccca Kumar, Emory University, “Queer Desis and ‘Social Justice’: A Comparison of Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Karan Razan’s Girlfriend”
1C. Arundhati Roy
Chair: Kanika Batra, Texas Tech University
Arch Mayfield, Wayland University, “Exploitation: What’s the Harm? A Look at Arundhati Roy’s Answer”
Miriam Nandi, University of Freiburg, “Translating Cash-flow Charts? Social Criticism in Indian English Writing”
Navneet Kumar, University of Calgary, “The Postcolonial Intellectual and Social Justice: Edward Said and Arundhati Roy”
Pennie Ticen, Virginia Military Institute, “Exploring the Rhetoric of Social Justice in the Essays of Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy”
5:30-7:00: Session 2
2A. Mahasweta Devi and Mahadevi Verma
Chair: Rajender Kaur, William Paterson University
Lopamudra Basu, University of Wisconsin, Stout, “Mourning and Motherhood: Transforming Loss in Representations of Adivasi Mothers in Mahasweta Devi’s Short Stories”
Madhurima Chakraborty, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, “Dangerous Memories: Mahasweta Devi’s ‘Statue’ and the Problem with Conjuring Independence”
Jayshree Kak Odin, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, “Techno-capitalist Rationality, Environmental Justice, and Indigenous Perspectives”
Amiya Sharma, Indira Gandhi Nehru Open University, “Search for Social Justice in the Personal Essays of Mahadevi Verma”
2B. Cinematic Justice
Chair: Toral Gajarawala, New York University
Meenakshi Bharat, University of Delhi, “A Call for Justice: Transformed/Transforming Apparatus for Social Change in Indian Films”
Reena Dube, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, “Remaking Caste, Class, Masculinity, and Social Justice: The Cinematic Tradition of the Devdas Films”
Manjula Jindal, Independent Scholar, “Gender, Orientalism, and Legal Narrative in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen”
Kaustav Mukherjee, Michigan State University, “Social Justice in Swades: The Question of the Individual against Cultural Purity”
2C. Interrogating Nationalism
Chair: Amritjit Singh, Ohio University
Angshuman Kar, Burdwan University, “Interfacing Social Justice and Gender in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura”
Tirthankar Das Purkayastha, Vidyasagra University, “The Owners (?) of History: Focus on Shashi Tharoor’s Riot”
Saadia Toor, College of Staten Island, CUNY, “’Chale chalo ke woh manzil abhi nahin aayi’: Literary Politics in Pakistan in the Aftermath of Independence”
Wednesday, December 27
7:30-8:30: Coffee/Tea and Danish
Conference Registration
8:30-10:00: Session 3
3A. Colonialism and/in Performance
Chair: Henry Schwarz, Georgetown University
Sayan Bhattacharyya, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “The Idea of Revolution in the Plays of Rabindranath Tagore”
Parmita Kapadia, Northern Kentucky University, “Marginalizing Political Activism: Postcolonial Shakespeare Theater and the Academy”
Nandi Bhatia, University of Western Ontario, “Re-presenting the Courtesan in the 1857 ‘Mutiny’”
3B. Justice Without Borders
Chair: Lopamudra Basu, University of Wisconsin, Stout
Monia Acciari, University of Manchester, “If Cultures Coexist, Can We Hear (and See) Social Justice with Borderless Superimposition of Ethnicities?”
Esra Mirze, University of Tampa, “Disorientation in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia”
Jalal Uddin Khan, University of Qatar, “Shelley’s Orientalia: Indian Elements in His
Poetry”
Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University, “’The kind of writing you like’: Shifting Frames in
Manto’s ‘Letters to Uncle Sam’”
3C. Between Nations
Chair: Sukanya Banerjee, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Nyla Khan, University of Nebraska, Kearney, “Islam, Women, and the Violence In Kashmir: Between India And Pakistan”
Ashmita Khasnabish, Brandeis University, “Negotiating the Humanitarian Identity in Shalimar the Clown”
Rajender Kaur, William Paterson University, “Who Speaks of the Komagata Maru? Cultural Memory, Identity Talk, and Social Justice”
Alia Somani, University of Western Ontario, “Srivinas Krishna’s Masala and the Politics of Mourning”
10:00-10:15: Coffee/Tea
10:15-11:45: Session 4
4A. Contemporary Theatres of Resistance
Chair: Nandi Bhatia, University of Western Ontario
Seema Malik, Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, “Injustice, Resistance, and Subversion: A Study of Selected Plays by Indian Women Playwrights”
Roopika Risam, Emory University, “Budhan’s Theatre of Pedagogy: Formal Strategies and Political Interventions”
Henry Schwarz, Georgetown University, “Is Indian History Indian History Yet? Revolution and Reaction in Recent Indian Narrative”
4B. Colonialism and its Aftermath
Chair: Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University
Sukanya Banerjee, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, “’Coolies,’ ‘Arabs,’ and Indentured Labor: Indians in Colonial South Africa”
Surekha Dangwal, H. N. B. Garhwal University, “’I must never behave as though I am staying’: Shifting Epistemologies in Naipaul’s Half a Life”
Arthur Dudney, Columbia University, “Greco-Roman Social Justice and Early Colonial India”
Abdollah Zahiri, University of Toronto, “The Naxalite Justice in Naipaul’s Magic Seeds”
4C. Representations of Dalits
Chair: Joseph Jeyaraj, Liberty University
Toral Gajarawala, New York University, “The Dalit Limit Point: Realism, Representation, and Crisis in Premchand”
Vijaya Singh, Government College for Men, Chandigarh, “The place of Dalit Women in Dalit Aesthetics and Literature”
Babu Suthar, University of Pennsylvania, “Politics of Migration and Migration of Politics in Gujarati Dalit Short Stories”
11:45-1:15: Session 5
5A. Women in/and Diaspora
Chair: Robin Field, King’s College
Cynthia Leenerts, East Stroudsburg University, “American Nightmares in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices and Queen of Dreams”
Gita Mohan, University of Salford, “Struggles of Immigrant Women: Expanding Literary Polysystems through Translations”
Amulya Kishore Purohit, Ravenshaw University, “Moral Agency and Social Justice in Bharati Mukherjee’s Short Fiction”
Parama Sarkar, Michigan State University, “’The old rules aren’t always right’: Redefined Gender Roles in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Narratives”
5B. Family and the Female Body
Chair: Saadia Toor, College of Staten Island, CUNY
Sarbani Bose, University of South Carolina, “The Family and the Gender Politics of the Body: A Reading of Aparna Sen’s Parama”
Shirin Edwin, Sam Houston State University, “The Indian Family: A Microcosm of Socioeconomic and Political Injustice in Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting”
Kathleen Fernando, York University, “’Dirty’ Bodies, Everyday Life, and Social History: Emancipatory Narratives of South Asian Women’s Writing in the Vernaculars and in English”
Hafiza Nilofar Khan, University of Southern Mississippi, “Wifely Agency in the Fiction of Subcontinental Muslim Women Writers”
5C. Ideologies of Caste
Chair: Babu Suthar, University of Pennsylvania
Joseph Jeyaraj, Liberty University, “Ethos and Caste: The Rhetoric of Silence in Diasporic Discourses”
Roger McNamara, Loyola University of Chicago, “Towards a Dalit Secularism: Bama’s Kurukku and the Possibilities of an Internal Critique”
Prabhjot Parmar, Royal Holloway College, “’Zabaan sambhal kar baat kar, kutte!’ [‘Watch your tongue, you dog!’]: Mangal Pandey and Caste Politics”
K. D. Verma, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, “Coolies and Untouchables: Mulk Raj Anand’s Sense of Social Injustice”
2:30-3:30: Plenary Panel with John Hawley and Revathi Krishnaswamy, moderated by Karni Pal Bhati and Nivedita Majumdar
3:30-4:00: Tea and reception for Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
4:00-4:30: SALA 2007 Achievement Award (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)
4:30-5:30: Keynote Address: Prof. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Global Distinguished Professor of English, New York University.
6 Comments:
Say it ain't so!
Looking down the list of moderators and presenters one finds a preponderance of names that are identifiably Indian, some that might be common in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, and a few Western ones. With such a membership it is ironic, if not mind-boggling, that this group has adopted the name South Asian Literary Association. What were they thinking? Whose brother-in-law you say? Surely there is ROOM for improvement. Herewith, my suggestions for a name change :
ASAL - The real article for Hindustanis
ALAS - The European chapter, sadly defunct
LASA - The unaspirated Tbetan chapter
SAAL - The annual tree - an arborist's nightmare
SALI - The institution of choice for my sister-in-law, the critic
SALS - My society gal's cryptic suggestion - almost, but not a dance of Cuban origin
SALANA - The North American chapter, which meets annually
SALA(D) - The liberal chapter of antipasti chefs
SALA(R) - The chapter for ageing Republicans in leadership
SALA(I) - The chapter for incensed independents demonstrating on a Chennai avenue
SALGA - The American guild for practitioners of SA lit-crit / Exit subjunctively, please!
SALSA - Que se gustan bailar en todas partes de América - y en la sociedad Índiana tambien, ¡picantíssima!
¿...y más...?
Is this a joke or is this Conference for real?
I couldn't agree more with you Narayan...this is more of a Conference on what the "Indian American" imagines to be South Asian Literature...Roy, Ghosh, Naipaul and then some Mahasweta Devi and Manto.
you know what-- i agree with the name change proposal.....i love their conferences and make it a point to attend them....actually will be presenting my paper this year as well.....but the name really should be changed :)
Amardeep:
I have nothing to say about the quality or quantity of the conference's contents. I hope you have a great time - your own topic should be fun.
But may I add that Narayan's comment qualifies as the funniest in the nearly two years of my regular visits to Amardeep Singh?
Narayan:
Do you have a blog? Please let me know.
Ruchira :
Alas, I am of your parents' generation and the statute of limitations on blogging has long since expired on me. Besides, my interests and preferences are so perversely arcane that fellow desis have tended to keep me at arm's length - which is often not such a bad thing. I am here thanks to a chance encounter with Amardeep. If you have a blog I'll be glad to respond.
Narayan:
Let me assure you with complete confidence that you are NOT of my parents' generation. I proudly qualify as one of Amardeep's rare but ardent "Auntie" admirers.
That however did not keep me from taking the precipitous leap into the world of blogging. I do have a blog and I explained in my inaugural post why I launched one. (I now have several younger co-bloggers whose contributions keep things balanced). Do visit.
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