New Perspectives on the Comparative Study of South Asia and the Middle East
Friday, January 29, 2016, 10:00am - 5:00pm
Teleconference Hall, Alexander Library, 169 College Ave
Some of the most innovative and influential works in the humanities and the social sciences in the last two decades were those that cast "comparative perspectives on South Asia and the Middle East." This conference will focus on scholarship that typically goes beyond area studies models despite working within specific areas, and while displaying social scientific scrutiny, also frames larger historical and theoretical contexts of global, humanistic relevance. Its questions and contexts, which seem to have formed common discursive grounds as we speak, range from "minority" in multiple Middle Eastern and South Asian social and religious, historical and contemporary frames (South Asian, "Islamicate," Persianate, Ottoman, Indian etc.) to the rather more provocative issue of the theoretical relevance of the "Jewish question" in South Asia; from the question of "global Arabic" and the particularities of non-Western secularisms to the globalization of "caste injustice" and the alternative modernities of India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel in a comparative setting. In addition to outlining the common discursive grounds that "comparative perspectives on South Asia and the Middle East" have developed in the last decades, this trans-disciplinary conference will also address specific historical and theoretical questions that currently occupy scholars from different fields to enrich our understanding of the common grounds in question.
Guests include: Aamir Mufti (UCLA) Jassal Smita (Middle East Technical University, Ankara) Mujib Rehman (Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi) Rajeev Bhargava (CSDS, Delhi) Sebnem Akcapar (South Asian University, Delhi) Shail Mayaram(CSDS, Delhi)
Sponsors: The Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs (GAIA) • The Office of the Executive VicePresident for Academic Affairs • The Office of the Dean of Humanities • African, Middle Eastern, and South AsianLanguages and Literatures (AMESALL) • Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) • South Asian Studies Program (SASP)
Contact :
For full details, visit:http://www.amesall.rutgers.edu/calendar-of-events/icalrepeat.detail/2016/01/29/48/-/new-perspectives-on-the-comparative-study-of-south-asia-and-the-middle-east