Tuesday 10 May 2011

SAALG 85th Conference, Edinburgh, July 2011



© Edinburgh University Library
The next SAALG conference will take place at Edinburgh University Library on Friday 1st July (10.30-17.15). The theme will be Scottish connections and our speakers will explore various links between South Asia and Scotland. During the day there will also be an opportunity to take a tour of Edinburgh University Library and to view a selection of South Asian materials in the Centre for Research Collections.


In addition to our Friday programme we are also delighted to be able to offer a behind the scenes tour of the South Asian collections of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh with Dr Henry Noltie on Saturday morning 2nd July from 10.30-12.00.

Speakers for Friday 1st July include:



Ragamala (Hyderabad, c.1770), Or Ms 114,

© Edinburgh University Library
Professor David Finkelstein (Research Professor of Media and Print Culture, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh) whose talk 'There and back: a book's voyage through colonial India' will use the circulation of an 1870s novel, originally published in Edinburgh, from Scotland to India and back again, to look at how nineteenth century texts were circulated, received and read in the South Asian colonial world.

Inbal Livne (University of Stirling) who will talk about the Tibetan collection of Lt. Colonel F.M. Bailey now held by the National Museums Scotland. Inbal will look at the nature of Bailey's collecting activities, his life as a Trade Agent for the British government in Tibet and his relationship with his home support network in Edinburgh.

Dr Avril Powell (Emeritus Reader, History Department, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) whose talk 'Scottish Orientalists and India: a family case study' will examine the 'distinctiveness' of the Scottish participation Empire by focusing on two brothers from Kilmarnock who both became 'scholar-administrators' in India's North-West Provinces in the nineteenth century. 

Dr Margaret Mackay (former Director of the School of Scottish Studies Archives, University of Edinburgh) will introduce us to the work and South Asian collections of John Levy (1910-1976) in the School of Scottish Studies Archives. Levy was an independent ethnomusicologist who made over 700 field recordings in Asia and gathered associated visual material in the 1950s and 1960s. Dr Mackay's talk will include extracts of some of the recordings he made in North and South India and also material from Sri Lanka and Bhutan.  


The price of the conference will be £20 payable on the day and this will include a buffet lunch. If you are interested in coming please contact Rachel Rowe or Helen Porter for the full programme or to book a place. If you need to book accommodation we can also provide a list of recommended places on request.

Rachel Rowe, SAALG Chair, Smuts Librarian for South Asian and Commonwealth Studies, University of Cambridge.

Helen Porter, SAALG Secretary, Assistant Librarian, Royal Asiatic Society.
Email: hp@royalasiaticsociety.org Tel: 020 7391 9424


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