Seminar Series

"South Asia without Borders" is a high-profile seminar/speaker series featuring distinguished scholars. The series crosses conventional borders of colonies, nation-states and area studies as well as disciplinary frontiers to explore comparisons and connections of South Asia with other regions of the world and bring the best of interdisciplinary and comparative South Asian scholarship to faculty and students at Harvard.

The aim of this series is to place our understanding of South Asia in the larger context of historical and contemporary processes of globalization and the inter-regional arena of the Indian Ocean rim. The series is chaired jointly by Sugata Bose and Homi Bhabha. Invited speakers are leaders of the field who have through their border-crossing work on South Asia contributed to wider theoretical debates and arguments. Each invitee is asked to give a prepared lecture on a suggested theme and is engaged in a conversation initiated by Sugata Bose and Homi Bhabha's comments.

For the South Asia Without Border Collaborative Research Program, click here.

2006-7 Seminars:

Friday, October 13, 2006
South Asia Without Borders musical performance: Purabi: The East in its Feminine Gender - The Music of Rabindranath Tagore
Pramita Mallick, recording artist.
Time: 8:00-9:45 pm.
The Thompson Room, The Barker Center.
Pramita Mallick is a leading exponent of the music of Rabindranath Tagore, the great Bengali poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. She has recently recorded a CD with Professor Sugata Bose to accompany a book of translations of Tagore's poems and songs to be published in March 2007. She will perform nine songs from that CD in a special 'South Asia without Borders' concert in the Thompson Room of the Barker Center on Friday, October 13, 2006, at 8 pm. Professor Bose will read the English translations of the songs. The concert by Pramita Mallick will feature Siddharth Bhattacharjee on the tabla and Dipankar Deshmukh on the esraj.
Co-sponsored by Harvard Sangeet.

Friday, October 20, 2006
South Asia Without Borders Seminar: Indo-US Nuclear Cooperation: Genesis, Prospects, Problems
Hon. Jaswant Singh, Former Indian Minister of External Affairs, Former Indian Minister of Finance, Senior Fellow, Harvard Asia Center
Time: 4:00-6:00 pm.
The Tsai Audotorium, CGIS South S010.
Hon. Jaswant Singh is the Former Indian Minister of External Affairs, Defense, and Finance. He is a seven time member of Parliament and one of the architects of India 's Nuclear Doctrine. Additionally, his diplomatic efforts led to thawing of India 's relations with Pakistan and China. Mr. Singh is currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Asia Center and the South Asia Initiative.

Monday, October 30, 2006
South Asia Without Borders: The Indian Economy in the Global Context
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission, and Tarun Das, Chief Mentor of CII
Time: 2:00-4:00 pm.
Harvard Faculty Club Library.
Reception to follow.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia was the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office from 2001-2004, when he was appointed Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission. Prior to taking up his position at the IMF, Mr. Ahluwalia was a Member of the Planning Commission in New Delhi as well as a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. He had previously served as Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Commerce Secretary; Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; and Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance.
Tarun Das has spent his entire working career in industry associations, starting with the predecessor body of CII in November 1963 and has been the Chief Executive of the permanent secretariat since April 1974 when CII (formerly AIEI) was formed. Mr. Das has been conferred an Honorary CBE by Her Majesty for his contribution to the Indo-British Partnership. He is also the non-executive Chairman of The Associated Cement Companies Ltd., India; and Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd, India; non-executive Director on the Boards of John Keells Holdings Ltd., Sri Lanka and GIVE Foundation. He is also a member of Board of Trustees of The Aspen Institute, USA and member of the International Advisory Board of the Coca Cola Company Ltd., USA.

Friday, March 16, 2007
South Asia Without Borders: Bridging Hearts: A Road to Better Health from New Delhi to Kabul
Dr. Ravi Kasliwal, Director of Cardiology, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi.
Time: 4:00-6:00 pm.
Robinson Hall Lower Library.
PLEASE NOTE REVISED DATE AND LOCATION.
Dr. Kasliwal has been working with Escorts Heart Institute in New Delhi since 1987, and is currently the Director of Non Invasive Cardiology, Director of the Community Out-reach Program, Program Director of the DNB (Diplomat National Board, Cardiology). He also runs the Post Graduate Diploma in Community Cardiology with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Dr. Kasliwal is an editorial advisor and International advisor for national & international organizations including the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India, and the Delhi Medical Council (2005–2009).
Dr. Kasliwal is the Founder and Director of Academic Programs at the Escort Heart Institute and Research Center, and has rceived over 150 awards and Honors in the field of Cardiology on Professional & Academic front. He has contributed chapters and text for approximately 25 books on cardiology and 150 scientific research papers in Indian and international medical journals.

Friday, April 20, 2007
South Asia Without Borders: Musical Subjects Across and Beyond the Atlantic: Indian-Caribbean Conversations
Tejaswini Niranjana, Director and Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore.
Time: 4:00-6:00 pm.
Robinson Hall Lower Library.
Tejaswini Niranjana is Director and Senior Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society in Bangalore . She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, her M.A. from the University of Bombay, and her B.A. from Bangalore University .
Ms. Niranjana is the author of Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism and the Colonial Context (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992); the editor, with P.Sudhir and Vivek Dhareshwar, of Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India (Calcutta: Seagull, 1993); the editor, with Seemanthini Niranjana of Streevaadi Vimarshe , in Kannada (Bangalore: Kannada Sangha, Christ College, 1994). She is currently coordinating the project on Gender and Modernity for CSCS.
Ms. Niranjana was the recipient of a Sephis Postdoctoral Fellowship (1997-99) for a project on Mobilizing ' India ': Gender and Ethnicity in Trinidad and South Africa .
Ms. Niranjana has published widely on cinema, translation theory and feminist theory. She has lectured at universities in the West Indies, Brazil, South Africa, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom and the USA. She has taught at the University of Hyderabad and the University of Chicago .

2005-6 Seminars:

Friday September 23, 2005

‘Medical culture in transition: the Mughal gentleman physician and the 'native doctor' in early
modern India'.
Seema Alavi, Jamia Millia University, Delhi.
Venue: Robinson Hall Lower Library. Time: 4-6 pm.

Friday October 14, 2005

‘Burma, India and the Decolonization of Asia'.
C.A. Bayly, University of Cambridge.
Venue: Thompson Room, Barker Center. Time: 4-6 pm. Reception to follow.

Friday October 21, 2005

‘Poverty and Development in India and China'.
Jayati Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Venue: Robinson Lower Library. Time: 4-6 pm. Reception to follow.

Friday April 28, 2006

‘Narratives of Hannoi Intelligentsia Life in the Worlds of International Socialist Modernity'.
Susan Bayly, University of Cambridge
Robinson Lower Library. Time: 4-6 pm.