Welcome Back from Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, Chair, South Asian Studies Council

We hope you have all had restful and productive summers and are as excited about the new academic year as we are! We have a lot of interesting talks, discussions, performances, and special events planned for this year that we’re sure you will enjoy. Please join us for as many as possible and visit our website for regular updates. To sign up and receive regular notification of events please write to south.asia@yale.edu.

A number of visiting scholars will be in residence at the South Asian Studies Council this year, including Professor Eungu Lee, an expert on Hindi Literature from Korea, who will be here all year, and Daniela Bredi, an expert on Islam in Contemporary India joining us in Fall 2011 from Italy. Other visiting faculty we have appointed, all historians, will offer courses on different aspects of South Asian History, including Religion and Society in Contemporary Pakistan , Women in Modern India, and Urban History in South Asia. Professor Christophe Jaffrelot, a leading expert on South Asian Politics from Paris, will deliver six lectures as part of a course on Democracy in South Asia in Fall 2011.

The tradition of weekly South Asian Studies Colloquia continues on Wednesdays at 4:30 pm in Luce Hall. Apart from eminent visiting scholars from other campuses in the US and Europe, we will also have several distinguished visitors gracing this colloquium series. The Chief Election Commissioner of India, SY Quraishi, will be here on September 28th to talk about conduct of elections in India, the world’s most populous democracy. Ghazala Shahabuddin, noted environmental scientist and expert on wildlife conservation in India will speak at the colloquium on October 19th as part of our continuing relationship with the New India Foundation that brings one of their Fellows to Yale each year. Renowned poet, translator, and anthologist of Indian writing in English, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, will be on campus on October 26th. Also in October we will host for ten days Girish Karnad, the eminent playwright, actor, film maker, and former Head of the Indian Endowment for the Arts. On the occasion of this visit, there will be a number of events involving the Whitney Humanities Center, Film Studies, and South Asian Studies at Yale. In October-November 2011, noted jurist, and Member of Parliament, Abhishek Manu Singhvi will be in residence for two weeks, as the Trumbull Lecturer at South Asian Studies. There will be many opportunities beyond the South Asian Studies Colloquium for students and faculty to interact with these visitors.

We will continue to have film screenings and classical musical performances and classical dance shows through Fall 2011. Noted performers TM Krishna and Kanyakumari will be on campus giving concerts, while other dance and musical events, some in collaboration with Yale Raga Society continue to be planned. The South Asian Studies Council is working with various colleagues and units to support a range of workshops and conferences, including one on the translation of the Kampan Ramayana organized by our Tamil Program and another on the South Asian Diaspora, organized by colleagues in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. We have already started planning for our annual Modern South Asia Workshop in April 2012, and the annual workshop on South Asian Language Pedagogy and Literatures, which will also be held in April 2012. The international conference for 2011-12 is on New Questions Concerning Land in India and will bring many leading experts from India to campus at the end of April 2012.

And let me also draw the attention of all students to a fine slate of language and non-language courses offered through South Asian Studies this year. You can find them on our web site and on the online catalog, and do come and talk to the DUS South Asian Studies Dr. Tariq Thachil, or the Director of South Asian Languages Program, Dr. Blake Wentworth, in their offices at the Council if you want to learn more about this exciting and important field of study.

Have a great start to the fall semester!