The History of Lahore and the Preservation of its Historic Buildings

Cross-posted from the Ancient India & Iran Trust blog, original post by Ursula Sims-Williams

‘The History of Lahore and the Preservation of its Historic Buildings’A Symposium to be held 13^th and 14^th October 2017 at Cambridge


The Ancient India & Iran Trust, in association with the Centre of South Asian Studies (University of Cambridge), is holding a symposium in Cambridge on the history of Lahore and the preservation of its historic monuments, 13-14 October 2017.

The presentations will cover a wide range of subjects, from the earliest history of Lahore and the walled city, via the glory of Mughal architecture, to the colonial period. Keynote lectures will be given by Prof Robin Coningham, Durham University: ‘Lahore’s Rich Architectural Monuments and their Current Threats’ and Fakir Syed Aijazuddin, author and researcher: ‘Lahore: Past, Present and Future’.

This will be a two-day symposium, and it is hoped that delegates will stay for both days. Sessions will take place at the Lee Seng Tee Hall, Wolfson College, Cambridge CB3 9BB and the Riley Auditorium, Clare College Memorial Court. If you would like to attend, please reserve your place by completing the registration form and sending it as an attachment to conference@indiran.org or by mail to the Conference Administrator, Ancient India & Iran Trust, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 8BG

Provisional Programme

Registration form

The Conference organisers are grateful for support from The Bestway Foundation, Kirsten Rausing, The Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre, The Pakistan Society and the Thriplow Charitable Trust


Conference organisers: Nicholas Barrington, Trustee AIIT
Abdul Majid Sheikh, Wolfson College, Cambridge

Image: A picture showing the Lahore Fort and Hazuri Bagh Pavilion in 1870

Call for papers for 2016 conference on South Asian manuscripts

CALL FOR PAPERS

New approaches to manuscript variations in South Asia

A panel at the European Conference on South Asian Studies, Warsaw, Poland, 27-30 July 2016

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 30 November 2015

Convenors: Neeraja Poddar (Philadelphia Museum of Art) and Arthur Dudney (University of Cambridge)

The papers in this panel will explore the themes of copying, repetition and reproduction in the context of early-modern South Asian manuscripts in order to understand how such books were valued, used and disseminated. We hope to include manuscripts in both pothi and codex format—with and without illustrations—ranging from literature and religious treatises to dictionaries and indexes. Common to them is the fact that multiple versions and editions of each were made through copying by hand. The result of such non-mechanical reproduction is that copies might not be "perfect" with variations introduced by artists and scribes, either deliberately or inadvertently. The purpose of this panel is to explore the significance of such variations. Rather than thinking of them as merely discrepancies or mistakes, we regard them as junctures where the authors' or artists' engagement with contemporary sectarian concerns, literary trends, artistic strategies and popular culture may be manifest.

Papers might compare different editions or versions in order to investigate issues such as: What is the core of a text? Which viewpoint is preferred at a particular historical moment? How are narratives transformed as they are copied? What is the impact of scribal error when such an error becomes sanctified by usage? We invite proposals from scholars who work in a variety of disciplines including Art History, Literature, and Religious Studies, especially welcoming proposals that draw upon methodologies from Digital Humanities.

To submit a proposal, go to http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easas/ecsas2016/cfp.shtml. Our panel is number P33. Please contact either of the convenors at the links above if you have any questions. Please note that in order to attend the conference you have to be a paid up member of the European Association for South Asian Studies (you can join here: http://www.easas.eu/Becomeamember). 

--

Arthur Dudney / University of Cambridge
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (2015-18)

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Phone (UK): +44 (0) 7508832935

Voicemail (US): +1 831 320 0935

Visual Anthropology and Contemporary South Asian History conference

Right hand image from Tymms 8, Royal Commonwealth Society Film collection,
copyright Cambridge University Library

Registration is now open for the interdisciplinary conference ‘Visual Anthropology and Contemporary South Asian History’, http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25024, which takes place at CRASSH, University of Cambridge, 4-5 April 2014.

Conveners
Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes (University of Cambridge)
Professor Marcus Banks (University of Oxford)

Summary
The ‘Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history conference’ aims to offer historians, anthropologists and postgraduate history students a unique opportunity to share and strengthen their scholarship within a cross-disciplinary research network concerned with the crucial relevance of applying theories of visual anthropology to the study of contemporary South Asian history. This conference is the result of the positive feedback and detailed suggestions received during the ‘Exploring modern South Asian history with visual research methods’ pre-conference seminar series organised in February-March 2013 by the Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS) in collaboration with the CRASSH and the Royal Anthropological Institute, and led by historians, anthropologists and postgraduate students (podcasts available here). Accordingly, this conference has two objectives. First, it will examine the ways in which scholarship in the field of visual anthropology informs historiographical methodologies pertinent to re-interpreting, producing, distributing, and repatriating visual records of South Asian history. Second, it will create a strategically innovative research and practice-based framework for postgraduate history students at the University of Cambridge interested in experimenting with, and advancing new cross-methodological approaches. These objectives will be achieved by securing the participation of some of the key scholars in the fields of visual anthropology and South Asian history, and by organising a special pre-conference workshops which will introduce the theme of the conference and help postgraduate history students explore new ways in using visual research methods. 

Keynote addresses will be delivered by Professor David MacDougall (Australian National University) and by Professor Elizabeth Edwards (Vice-President of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Director of Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University). Professor Alan Macfarlane (University of Cambridge) will present a special contribution. Other invited speakers include Professor Christiane Brosius (Heidelberg University), Professor Malavika Karlekar (Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi), Dr Lotte Hoek (University of Edinburgh), Dr Zoe Headley(Institut Français de Pondichery), Dr Vron Ware (Open University) and Dr Mandy Rose (UWE).

The conference will host a special session titled ‘Tamil Societies and Visibility' in association with the Fondation Maison Science de l’Homme, Paris, and Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge. Speakers include Dr Raffaela Cucciniello, Dr Sujit Sivasundaram, Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes.

The pre-conference workshop will be dedicated to ‘Writing South Asian history with visual research methods’. Prof. Marcus Banks and Dr Motrescu-Mayes will advise on the methodology used by ten postgraduate history students who will work with unique visual records selected from the collections held by the CSAS. The aim of this workshop is to introduce history students to using theories of visual anthropology to the study of contemporary South Asian history. The research findings and short visual essays produced by the students during the workshop will be subsequently presented and discussed during a three-hour special conference session chaired by Professor Banks. Also, CRASSH Digital Humanities network will participate in designing and developing the pre-conference postgraduate student workshop with a view to expand and integrate similar practice-based learning strategies within digital humanities programs. As a result, building on the valuable on-going collaboration between CRASSH and CSAS, ‘Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history’ conference will continue to advance and strengthen the dynamic, international and cross-disciplinary research network formed by scholars of historical and visual anthropological studies of South Asia.'

Sponsors: Supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), the Smuts Memorial Fund, the Centre of South Asian Studies (University of Cambridge), the Fondation Maison Science de l’Homme, Paris, and the Thriplow Charitable Trust.

The Future of South Asian Collections: UK and South Asia Perspectives, 30th April - 2 May 2014

A date for your diaries, and a call for papers...

The Sainsbury Institute for Art is organising a conference to be held at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, 30th April - 2 May 2014, entitled:

'The Future of South Asian Collections: UK and South Asia Perspectives'

Conference organisers, Emily Crane (UEA) & Diana Grattan (SADACC), write:

There are numerous and varied South Asian collections held both in the UK and in South Asia.  They range from public or government institutions to privately held collections; some are world renown and firmly established, whilst some are newly formed or a small part of bigger institutions.  Moreover, there are some collections that are well-funded but, certainly within the UK, ever-increasing financial restraints have become a major issue.

Over the last decade there have been shifts in museum practices and thinking about these particular types of collections.  Issues of conservation, documentation, storage and research remain pragmatic concerns for many. Recent collecting practices have tended to be either non-existent, predicated on existing material, in response to particular audiences or linked to specific exhibitions.  Museums have attempted to deliver programs in response to different audiences, with changing expectations and levels of participation.  Does the breadth and complexity of these issues perhaps require the need for an increasingly collective and comprehensive approach?

The conference celebrates the affiliation of the South Asian DecorativeArts and Crafts Collection (SADACC) with the Sainsbury Institute for Art (SIfA) at the University of East Anglia. The notions of 'craft' and 'world art' are explored across the SIFA institutions.  Craft has been considered as the interrelation of form, function, material, process and meaning, mediated through social, economic and cultural influences. Craft is also inextricably linked to concepts of skill and craftsmanship. This understanding of ‘craft' has certainly informed the selection and collection of objects that now form the South Asian Decorative Arts and Craft Collection.  Is it, therefore, a useful device to interpret and consider objects found in South Asia Collections? Furthermore, how do notions of 'craft' relate to debates surrounding 'world art'?

This conference aims to promote collaboration and exchanges between professionals working with collections of South Asian arts and crafts, nationally and internationally.  By sharing knowledge and experiences, it is envisaged that the conference will build and strengthen networks, and foster new partnerships.

Call for papers

Emily and Diana welcome proposals for a range of possible contributions. These may be 30 minute plenary papers or an idea for running a 50 minute discussion group. These discussion groups may be organised around a particular theme, include shorter presentations by organisers, or address a particular issue or question that fits with the theme of the conference. Furthermore, if you have ideas for shorter contributions but do not wish to run a discussion session, we will try to fit these into groups based loosely around the questions outlined on the website, led by members of the host institutions.

Please send any proposals or queries to sifaconference.sasia@gmail.com by 28 February 2014.

Please see the conference webpage for further information.

https://www.uea.ac.uk/art-history/news-and-events/south-asian-collections-conference

Dynamiques des industries culturelles indiennes, CEIAS, Paris

Kriti Arora, installation ‘Spinning wheel’, India Art Summit 2008

Fancy a trip to Paris before Christmas?  An opportunity to practice your French, whilst learning about the dynamics of Indian cultural industries? If the answer is yes, then you may be interested in an event organised by the Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud, on Monday 9th December 2013, entitled: Dynamiques des industries culturelles indiennes.

Regular SAALG speaker, Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes (Lecturer and Research Associate, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge) will be presenting a paper entitled: An intimate craft of national memory: amateur filmmaking in post-colonial India.

For further details and the full programme see: http://actualites.ehess.fr/nouvelle5896.html

Date: Monday 9 December 2013
Location: au CEIAS, salles 638-640, 190 avenue de France, 75013 Paris

Call for papers: ‘Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history’

Call for papers: ‘Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history’ Conference, University of Cambridge, 4 – 5 April 2014 (http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25024)

CFP deadline: 3 January 2014

Conveners: Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes (University of Cambridge) and Prof. Marcus Banks (University of Oxford).

The Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS), University of Cambridge, and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) are organising the international conference on 'Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history’.

This conference aims to offer historians, anthropologists and postgraduate history students a unique opportunity to share and strengthen their scholarship within a cross-disciplinary research network concerned with the crucial relevance of applying theories of visual anthropology to the study of contemporary South Asian history. Invited speakers, panelists and delegates will examine the ways in which scholarship in the field of visual anthropology informs historiographical methodologies pertinent to re-interpreting, producing, distributing, and repatriating visual records of South Asian history. Moreover, the conference will create a strategically innovative research and practice-based framework for postgraduate history students interested in experimenting with and advancing new cross-methodological approaches. During a pre-conference workshop dedicated to ‘Writing South Asian history with visual research methods’ ten postgraduate history students will work with unique visual records selected from the collections held by the CSAS.

Keynote addresses will be delivered by Prof. David MacDougall (Australian National University) and by Prof. Elizabeth Edwards (Vice-President of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Director of Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University). Prof. Alan Macfarlane (University of Cambridge) will present a special contribution. Other invited speakers include Prof. Christiane Brosius (Heidelberg University), Prof. Malavika Karlekar (Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi), Dr Lotte Hoek (University of Edinburgh), Dr Zoe Headley (Institut Français de Pondichery), Dr Kriti Kapila (King's College London), Dr Vron Ware (Open University) and Prof. Mandy Rose (UWE).

The conference will host a special session titled ‘Tamil Societies and Visibility' co-funded by the Fondation Maison Science de l’Homme, Paris, and the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge. Speakers include Dr Sujit Sivasundaram, Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes, and Dr Remo Reginold.
 Also, CRASSH Digital Humanities network will participate in designing and developing the pre-conference postgraduate student workshop with a view to expand and integrate similar practice-based learning strategies within digital humanities programs.

The conference invites contributions addressing the following topics:


     Perspective on visual anthropology and South Asian history

     The use of visual records in producing new histories of South Asian identities
     Digital anthropology and representation of contemporary South Asian societies
     Practice-based research methods combining visual and historical studies relevant to South Asia


The organisers invite proposals for papers or presentations of 20 minutes in length. Abstracts of 300 words and an author biography (incl. institutional affiliation) should be submitted via email to vacsah.conf.2014@gmail.com by 3 January 2014. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 20 January 2014.
Any questions and concerns can be directed to Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes at vacsah.conf.2014@gmail.com 

Why South Asia? British Academy, 17 May 2013

The conference Why South Asia? is to be held at the British Academy on 17 May 2013 from 9.45am until 5.30pm.

The British Academy is running a series of events to explore the current state and continuing importance of South Asian Studies in the UK.  The series opened with a lively roundtable discussion about the present state of the academic study of South Asian Studies in the UK and included an interdisciplinary conference on Space and Spatiality in South Asia (see http://www.britac.ac.uk/intl/Space_and_Spatiality_in_South_Asia_Conference.cfm).

As the third of these events, Why South Asia?draws upon debates in the two earlier events to assess the wider relevance and value of South Asian Studies today. It looks beyond the South Asian Studies ‘community’ in the UK to seek to examine what on-going interest in the South Asia region means to a wider constituency of ‘users’ -- in government and NGOs, in research institutions, publishing and the media. It explores the relevance of the concept of South Asia to the social sciences and to issues of policy and engagement in the UK, and asks what can be gained from the study of South Asia elsewhere in Europe and experience and in South Asia itself. Speakers include  Jo Beall from the British Council; Amita Batra from Jawaharlal Nehru University; Gita Dharampal-Frick from Heidelberg University; Lucy Rhymer of Cambridge University Press; Nira Wickramasinghe from Leiden University; and Penny Brook of the British Library. The  provisional programme is set out below.

The conference is free and open to the public but places will be limited and prior registration is, therefore, essential. Please circulate details among your contacts. To register, or for further information, please email Debbie Soothill at d.soothill@britac.ac.uk.

Dr. Debbie Soothill
International Senior Policy Adviser
The British Academy
10-11 Carlton House Terrace
London  SW1Y 5AH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7969 5276
Email: d.soothill@britac.ac.uk

British Academy

Why South Asia? The Relevance of South Asian Studies Today

A Conference to be held at the British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH on 17 May 2013

Draft programme

9.45                 Coffee

10.00               Introduction and Welcome

Helen Wallace, Foreign Secretary, British Academy

10.15               Why South Asia?

                        David Arnold, Chair, South Asia Panel, British Academy

10.30 - 12.15   Session 1: South Asia and the Social Sciences

                        Chair: Lawrence Saez, Politics and International Studies, SOAS

Matthew McCartney, Director, Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, Oxford

Mukulika Banerjee, Anthropology, LSE

Kunal Sen, Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester

12.15-1.00       Lunch

1.00-3.00         Session 2: The Uses of South Asia

                        Chair: Barbara Harris-White, Development Studies, Oxford

                        Penny Brook, Lead Curator, India Office Records, British Library

Lucy Rhymer, Commissioning Editor, Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press

Jo Beall, Director, Education and Society, British Council

Mark Robinson, Research and Evidence Division, DFID

Yolanda Foster, South Asia Team, Amnesty International

3.00-3.30         Tea

3.30-4.45         Session 3: International Perspectives

                        Chair: Christopher Bayly, Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge

                        Gita Dharampal-Frick, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg

                        Nira Wickramasinghe, Asian Studies, Leiden

                        Amita Batra, School of International Studies, JNU, Delhi

4.45-5.30         Closing Discussion

                        Chair: David Arnold

Exploring South Asian history using visual research methods

The Centre of South Asian Studies and CRASSH are organising the first international conference on 'Exploring modern South Asian history with visual research methods: theories and practices', 15-16 March 2013. The call for papers is now open, see http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2066/

Shakta Traditions - Oxford Conference, 10–11 September 2011

A conference on Shakta traditions, organised by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies in collaboration with the Section for the Study of Religion at Aarhus University, will take place at Somerville College, Oxford on 10th and 11th September 2011.  Registration costs £15 for the weekend. All are welcome.
See: http://ochs.org.uk/research/sakta-traditions

The conference aims to present an interdisciplinary survey of Śākta history, practice and doctrine in its diversity as well as to convey something of the Śākta religious world view that is distinctive and sets ‘Śāktism’ apart from other South Asian religious traditions.

For a detailed programme of speakers and talks, see: http://ochs.org.uk/research/sakta-traditions

The Southeast Asia Library Group and early printing in Burma

Street in Wuntho by Felix Beato, 1889-1891.
(Cambridge University Library Y3029A-014)

This is a post to introduce the Southeast Asia Library Group. A  pan-European group, SEALG hosts an annual meeting, publishes an annual newsletter and maintains a JISC mail list  as well as linking to some incredibly useful Southeast Asian digital collections, cataloguing tools and members' initiatives on its website.

In its latest newsletter San San May (Curator for Burmese, British Library) writes about early printing in Burma (see pages 32-40) and includes a list of books held at the British Library which were printed at Maulmain, Tavoy or Rangoon before 1855.

SEALG's next meeting will be held in Cambridge,  9th-10th September, in collaboration with the 26th ASEASUK conference.  For further information, go to SEALG's home page, and look under the Meetings tag.  Alternatively, contact Jana Igunma (Henry Ginsburg Curator for Tai, Lao and Cambodian) at the British Library.

For a British Library resource guide to their Southeast Asian collections, see: http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/seasia/searesources.html

Sri Lanka at the cross-roads of history

A major conference on the historiography of Sri Lanka will be held in Cambridge from Friday, 3 June 2011 to Saturday, 4 June 2011.  The full programme and online registration form are available at: 
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1403/programme/

Sri Lanka lies at the centre of the Indian Ocean, where it has served as a node between Indian ocean trades: to the west, to West Asia and Africa, and to the east, to the Bay of Bengal and South-east Asia. Its location at the southern tip of India has ensured that it has received waves of conquerors, settlers, traders, dynasties and holy men. 

Sri Lanka has also been a major participant in the Theravada Buddhist ecumene extending to Southeast Asia. And its strategic location was partly why it was colonized by three successive imperial regimes: the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. Yet Sri Lanka's history has remained marginal to debates in world and imperial history. The island provides a good opportunity to reconsider questions of locality and generality, connection and comparison, from a specific place.

One objective of the conference is to help to re-energize research into the history of Sri Lanka in the UK by bringing researchers whose work has touched on the island into contact with one another and with leading international scholars. However, speakers will be invited to move beyond national history by locating their work within broader and more imaginative conceptions of space, and wider debates in world history. Some speakers will be approaching their subject through 'connected history', by considering the island's place in extensive webs of empire, trade, and travel, the transnational flows of ideas, styles and goods. Others will use the island in a more strictly comparative vein too. 

NACIRA conference

"Expect the unexpected : hidden resources [on Asia] in the UK" - NACIRA's 2009 conference will take place at the Royal Asiatic Society on Tuesday 8th December 2009, with an excellent panel of speakers from the National Maritime Musuem, Victoria & Albert Museum, National Archives, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.