India Update

Conference dates: Thurs 15 - Fri 16 November 2018

Conference venue: Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 1, Hedley Bull Centre (130), Garran Road, Australian National University, Canberra

Event contact: yanhong.ouyang@anu.edu.au

Convenors:  Dr Shameem Black and Dr Chaitanya Sambrani, South Asia Research Institute (ANU)
 

PROGRAM

Day 1 Thursday 15 November

Venue: Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 1

9-9.10am Acknowledgement of Country and welcome to the Update

• Dr Shameem Black and Dr Chaitanya Sambrani, ANU

9.10-9.30am Welcome remarks

• H.E. Dr A.M. Gondane, High Commissioner, High Commission of India

9.30-10.45am Keynote address

Professor G.N. Devy: People’s linguistic survey of India
‘Memory, language and aphasia: the future of human speech’

• Chair: Professor Nick Evans, ANU

10.45-11.15am Morning tea

11.15am-12.45pm Crises in public goods

• Chair: Dr Paul Kenny, ANU
• Associate Professor Assa Doron, ANU – Superbugs and sanitation in India
• Professor Robin Jeffrey, Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore – Open defecation and Swachh Bharat – Where ‘Clean India’ is and why it’s hard
• Shaheen Ahmed, Monash University- ‘Fetishising’ the clean body: the presences and absences in representations of the female consumer in Indian advertisements, 1930 -1980

12.45-1.45pm Lunch

1.45-3.15pm ‘Others’ in the post-colony: religious minorities in the Indian subcontinent

• Chair: Professor Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ANU
• Dr Joyce Das, ANU – Constructing ‘minorityness’: Christians in post-colonial Bangladesh
• Sana Ashraf, ANU – Blasphemy accusations in Pakistan: familiar others and the enemy within
• Dr Alex Davis, La Trobe University – The ‘Modi Doctrine’?: foreign policy performance and domestic identity building
• Felix Pal, ANU – Making Good Muslims in the Hindu right: preparing for hindu rashtra

3.15-3.45pm Afternoon tea

3.45-5.15pm Sex, gender and the body

• Chair: Dr Babita Bhatt ,  ANU
• Professor Richa Nagar, University of Minnesota – Gender, movement, and theatre: after playing with fire
• Dr Amanda Gilbertson, The University of Melbourne- From health to pleasure: the politics of sexuality education in India
• Dr Annie McCarthy, University of Canberra, and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ANU – Bleeding in public? Reframing narratives of managing menstruation
• Dr Ahonaa Roy, Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay). – Enduring the carnage: the theory and rhetoric of the benign palimpsest of gender transgression

5.15-5.45pm SARI book celebration: author’s roundtable

• Chair: Dr Nicholas Farrelly, Associate Dean (Development and Impact), ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
• Participants: Associate Professor Assa Doron, ANU;  Dr Amanda Gilbertson, The University of Melbourne; Professor Robin Jeffrey, Australia India Institute; Dr Andy Kennedy, ANU; Dr Paul Kenny, ANU; Professor Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ANU; Professor Richa Nagar, University of Minnesota; and McComas Taylor, ANU.

5.45-6.45pm Reception (Hedley Bull Foyer)

7pm India Update dinner (by invitation)

Day 2 Friday 16 November

Venue: Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 1

10-11am Chai and chats: an undergraduate conversation

This session offers a chance for ANU undergraduates to have an informal conversation with researchers in South Asian studies about the complexities of navigating careers and personal lives.

• Note: This session will be held in Hedley Bull 3
• Participants: Dr Aditya Balasubramanian, ANU; Dr Alicia Mollaun, DFAT; Dr Meera Ashar, ANU; and Dr Shameem Black, ANU

11-11.30am Film screening followed by Q&A with Professor Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt – ‘Precarious labour in stone quarrying in India’

The fieldwork for the film was funded by an ARC Discovery Project ‘Beyond the Resource Curse’.

11.30am-12.30pm Plenary lecture – Dr Sushil Aaron: Turbulence: will India’s domestic politics shape its career prospects?

• Chair: Dr Meera Ashar, ANU

12.30-1.30pm Lunch

1.30-3pm The rise of India in a changing world

• Chair: Dr Cecilia Jacob, ANU
• Dr Andy Kennedy, ANU – India’s rise in technology: powerhouse or pretender?
• Dr Alicia Mollaun DFAT – Australia and India: strengthening ties
• Dr David Brewster, ANU – Between giants: Sino-Indian competition – its consequences for the region

3-3.30pm Afternoon tea

3.30-5pm Urban incoherence: promises and contestations

• Chair: Dr Shameem Black, ANU
• Dr Chaitanya Sambrani, ANU – City, nation and world in the work of Gulammohammed Sheikh
• Gigi Scaria, independent artist – Imagined spaces, constructed realities
• Associate Professor Rupali Gupte, School of Environment and Architecture – Spatial interrogations of contemporary Indian urbanity

5-5.15pm Concluding reflections

Venue: Molonglo Theatre, J.G. Crawford Building (#132), Lennox Crossing, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT
 

CONVENORS

Chit Win

Research Scholar
Department of Political and Social Change
The Australian National University
E chit.win@anu.edu.au

Gerard McCarthy

Research Scholar
Department of Political and Social Change
The Australian National University
E gerard.mccarthy@anu.edu.au

Justine Chambers

Research Scholar
Department of Anthropology
The Australian National University
E justine.chambers@anu.edu.au

Nicholas Farrelly

Director, Myanmar Research Centre
The Australian National University
E nicholas.farrelly@anu.edu.au