South Asia related conferences in the Nordic countries

May 2013

Oslo Morgenstierne Lectures on Culture, Power, Water in India

The Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) at University of Oslo invites to a new series of Fokus INDIA: Oslo Morgenstierne Lectures, addressing topics related to India's past and present, politics, religions and cultures. The theme for this spring term’s last two lectures lies on ”culture–power–water in India”.
On Tuesday 21 May 2013, at 16.15, Jürgen Neuss from Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, will speak about ”Faith in God – Faith in Progress. Religion and Politics in the Narmada Valley”. Venue: PA Munchs Hus, room 11, Oslo. More information.
On Wednesday 5 June 2013, at 16.15, Jörg Gengnagel from South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany, will speak about ”Changing Sacred Waterscapes: The north-Indian Pilgrimage Center Varanasi between Purity and Pollution”. Venue: PA Munchs Hus, room 11, Oslo. More information.
The lectures will be followed by informal discussions with light refreshments.

Malmö seminar on changing EU relations to China and India

Malmö University hosts a seminar entitled ”The End of the Euro-Complacency? Global Implications of Europe’s Crisis” on Tuesday 28 May 2013, 10.00–12.30. It is organised jointly by Malmö and Roskilde Universities, and is the eight seminar out of a series of 12, entitled 'Europeanization and Globalization', that is held in collaboration with The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) in Copenhagen. Venue: Building G 8, room 104, Citadellsvägen 7, Malmö.
Since the seminar deals with changed global power relations between European Union and the emerging Asian nations such as China and India, one of the invited speakers is Professor Sanjay Seth from Goldsmiths University in London, UK. He will speak about ”The Western Education of Colonial India”. Professor Catarina Kinnvall, Dept of Political Science, Lund University, will be a commentator on the seminar presentations. More information about the seminar.

Copenhagen workshop on Development Challenges in Bhutan

Aalborg University, Denmark, invites to an international workshop on ‘Development Challenges in Bhutan’, to be held in Copenhagen 29–30 May 2013. The title of the workshop shows that we will be witness to a kaleidoscope of topics and views at this interesting gathering. The occasion is ongoing Research and PhD programmes involving Danish and Bhutanese researchers, jointly funded by Danida and the Royal University of Bhutan. Five PhD candidates from Bhutan, and five senior researchers from Bhutan and Denmark, respectively, will take part in the workshop plus additional participants.
Issues which will be covered are: Assessment practices in Schools, Health and Education; ICT; eGovernance; Foreign policy; and the Status of Gross National Happiness. A keynote lecture on ‘Sociocultural and political developments in Bhutan since 1990: reflections from a distance’ will be delivered by Professor Michael Hutt, SOAS, University of London, UK. Abstracts should have been submitted before 15 April. The organisers plan to publish the papers from the workshop afterwards. More information.
June 2013

Ishtiaq Ahmed lectures on the Pakistani Garrison State

The Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) and its Asia Program invites to a seminar with Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University, on Wednesday 5 June 2013, 10.00 – 12.00. He will speak about ”Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011)”, a presentation based on his recent book with the same title. To attend, register to Ms. Silvia Pastorelli before 4th June. Venue: ISDP, Västra Finnbodavägen 2, Stockholm-Nacka.
Abstract: In 1947, the Pakistan military was poorly trained and poorly armed. It also inherited highly vulnerable territory vis-à-vis the much bigger India, aggravated  because of serious disputes with Afghanistan. Defence and security were therefore issues that no Pakistan government, civil or military, could ignore. The military did not take part in politics directly until 1958, although it was called upon to restore order in 1953 in the Punjab province. Over the years, the military, or rather the Pakistan Army, continued to grow in power and influence, and progressively became the most powerful institution. Moreover, it became an institution with de facto veto powers at its disposal to overrule other actors within society including elected governments. Simultaneously, it began to acquire foreign patrons and donors willing to arm it as part of the Cold War competition (the United States), regional balance-of-power concerns (China), and ideological contestants for leadership over the Muslim world (Saudi Arabia, to contain Iranian influence). A perennial concern with defining the Islamic identity of Pakistan, exacerbated by the Afghan jihad, resulted in the convergence of internal and external factors to produce the ‘fortress of Islam’ self-description that became current in the early twenty-first century. Over time, Pakistan succumbed to extremism and terrorism within and was accused of being involved in similar activities within the South Asian region and beyond. Such developments have been ruinous to Pakistan’s economic and democratic development. More information.

Critical Perspectives on Growth at Fifth Asian Dynamics Initiative Conference

The Asian Dynamics Initiative (ADI) at University of Copenhagen announces its fifth international conference on 'Growth: Critical Perspectives from Asia' to be held on 13-14 June 2013. The conference will take place over two days and feature distinguished keynote speakers as well as panels examining the notion of growth from an Asian perspective and from multi-disciplinary vantage points – cultural, economic and social.
This year the focus is mostly on East Asia. However, the keynote lecture is given by Professor Edward Farmer, History Department, University of Minnesota, USA, and is entitled ”Eurasia and the Path to Global Growth”. Among the panels, one on ”Exploring local pathways of economic growth” is convened by PhD candidate Siddharth Sareen from the Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Science. Other panels deal with ”The social consequences of growth and transformation on the margins”; ”Economic growth in emerging economies”; and ”‘Cultural Growth’: Asian notions of civilization”. Read more about the ADI Conference.

SASNET/Lund University seminar on Indian Cultures and Diasporas

Gurinder Singh Mann, Amit Kumar Mishra and Gibb Scheffler.

An open seminar on ”Indian Cultures and Diasporas” will be held at Lund University on Monday 17 June 2013, 15.00–19.30. It is jointly organized by SASNET, the Nordic Centre in India (NCI), and Lund University’s Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (CTR). Venue: CTR, Room 118, Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8, Lund. See the workshop programme.
Invited guest speakers are Professor Gurinder Singh Mann from the Center for Sikh and Punjab Studies at University of Californa, Santa Barbara, USA, who will speak about "The Sikh Panth: From Kartarpur to Anandpur (1500-1700)”; Dr. Amit Kumar Mishra from the Centre for the Study of Indian Diaspora at University of Hyderabad, India, who will give a lecture on ”Indians in Diaspora: A Social-Cultural Continuum?”; and Dr. Gibb Schreffler from Pomona College in Claremont, California, USA, who will speak about ”The Punjab Dhol (Drum) Tradition and its Modernization in Post-Indenpendence Indian Punjab”. The seminar will also include a screening of the documentary film “The Sikhs of Kabul: A Forgotten Community” directed by Mr. Bobby Singh Bansal in 2012. The film is about Afghan Sikhs who have been a part of the culture and heritage of Afghanistan since the seventeenth century and how they have been caught in political crossfire since the rise of the Taliban regime to power in 1992.
The seminar is arranged in connection with the conference ”Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Identity, Tradition and Authority” held in Lund 18–19 June 2013 at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University. Participation by invitation only. Full information about the conference.

Lund conference on Young Sikhs in a Global World

The Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University organises the conference “Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Identity, Tradition and Authority” on June 18 to 19, 2013 at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8, Lund, Sweden.
The conference is organized as a part of the Nordcorp project Sikh Identity Formation, in which Dr. Kristina Myrvold (Lund University), Prof. Knut A. Jacobsen (University of Bergen), Dr. Ravinder Kaur (University of Copenhagen), Prof. Hanna Snellman (University of Helsinki), and Dr. Laura Hirvi (University of Jyväskylä) participate. More information about the project.
The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars to discuss current research on young Sikhs with multicultural and transnational life-styles and how they interpret, shape and negotiate religious identity, tradition, and authority on an individual and collective level. The conference will also provide a forum for discussions about future collaboration between researchers in Europe, Asia and North America, and give young researchers an opportunity to discuss their projects with senior colleagues. Close to 40 doctoral students and researchers from 15 countries will participate in the event. In connection with the conference the film maker Bobby Singh Bansal will show his documentary from 2012, “The Sikhs of Kabul – A Forgotten Community”, about the surviving Sikh community of Afghanistan who has been caught in political crossfire since the rise of the Taliban regime to power in 1992. More information.
August 2013

2013 World Water Week focuses on Cooperation and Partnership Building

The 2013 World Water Week in Stockholm will be held 1–6 September 2013. The theme being ”Water Cooperation – building partnerships”. As ususal, the 23rd World Water Week is organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). The World Water Week is the leading annual global meeting place for capacity-building, partnership-building and follow-up on the implementation of international processes and programmes in water and development, with large relevance to South Asia.
On Tuesday 3 September, a regional focus day will take place, with sessions specifically oriented towards Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Middle East.
2013 has by the UN General Assembly been declared the "International Year of Water Cooperation". The questions to be addressed in 2013 include: why do we need to cooperate, on what, for what aim, at what level, with whom and, not least, how?
With an expected world population of more than 9 billion people by 2050, basically depending on the same finite and vulnerable water resource as today for sustaining life and wellbeing, our inter-dependence is growing every day. In 2015 we shall take stock of the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and a process of developing a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has been initiated as an outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, "Rio +20", in June 2012. The Rio +20 outcome document clearly states water as one key area for achieving sustainable development and thus on important part of the upcoming SGDs and post 2015 development framework.
Perspectives for building partnerships, advance future water cooperation and find solutions to the world’s water related challenges will be explored.
Early bird registration is possible from 15 April till 30 June 2013. Full information about the 2013 World Water Week.
September 2013

Caste in focus for University of Oslo's 5th Annual Contemporary India Seminar

University of Oslo hosts its 5th Annual Contemporary India Seminar, "Caste Today", on Thursday 12 September 2013. This year’s seminar is organised by Geir Heierstad, Kenneth Bo Nielsen and Uday Chandra with support from the Department for Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS); the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM); the Network for Asian Studies; and the Nordic Forum for South Asia (NoFSA).
The reason for choosing Caste as the seminar theme is the fact that once being a staple of Indian sociological and political analysis, caste has today been curiously marginal in recent academic discourses on India. The contemporary marginality of caste owes undoubtedly to the opening up of new areas of study concerning gender, neoliberalism, conflict, development and more. Yet caste continues to be a significant force in Indian society and politics, taking on new guises even as older pervasive hierarchies continue to seep into the present. To interrogate caste in contemporary India in its many forms and aspects, this seminar invites papers from scholars working on this subject across disciplines. Participants are encouraged to address the contemporary workings of caste, and the practices and ideas associated with it, from an empirical point of departure. 
Contributions from younger scholars are particulary welcomed. As are papers that deal with the significance of caste in parts of India such as West Bengal, where caste hierarchies are generally seen as ‘weak’; or among social strata were the influence of caste is believed to be on the wane or subject to important transformations. 
Deadline for abstract submission is 1 May 2013. More information. 
October 2013

Helsinki symposium focusing on sex and gender in Asian art and performance

The Asian Art and Performance Consortium (AAPC) of the Academy of Fine Arts (Kuva) and the Finnish Theatre Academy Helsinki (Teak) will host a symposium focusing on manifestations of sex and gender in Asian art and performance: "Shifting Dialogues II: Objects of Desire: Sexual Artifice in Asian Art and Performance", to be held during October 17-19, 2013 at the University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland. This is the second symposium organised under the ongoing research project, Shifting Dialogues – Asian Performance and Fine Arts. The project is funded by the Academy of Finland in 2011-2014.
This time the focus of the symposium will be on sexual practices and gender roles in Asian art, film, video art, installation, live art, and dialogical work. The organisers are looking for new framings of sexuality and gender, beyond orientalism, the tattered dualisms of "East vs West", and into the specificity of the fetish object and its social context. How are various social practices, from religion to bureaucracy to economics to politics and terror sexualised and fetishised? 
The symposium will be small, intimate and dialog-based, rather than formalized panel presentations. Presentations can be in the form of papers or well-researched interventions and provocations. There are no parallel sessions, so the number of presentations will be small. Presentations reflecting practice-based artistic research relevant to the symposium topic are strongly encouraged. Deadline for proposals is May 17, 2013. More information. 
December 2013

Delhi conference on Work Environment, Stress and Health in India

The Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University, and the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) in Mumbai, India, jointly organise a conference on ”Work Environment, Stress and Health in India”, 9 – 11 December 2013. Venue: Taj Ambassador Hotel and Conference Centre, New Delhi.
Stress and poor working conditions have repeatedly been shown to be bad for the health and well being of the workforce. However these studies have largely been conducted in Europe, Japan and North America. We know little about whether these factors are prevalent in India or whether they impact on the health of workers in India in the same way. These are crucial questions given the rapid economic growth of the Indian economy and the transformation of the workforce. Employment in agriculture has declined from around 72% of the workforce in 1971 to just over 50% in 2008. This has been coupled with a dramatic rise in the number of people employed in the service and IT sector. How these changes and the new environments in which these employees work might impact on their health are key questions. This conference will bring together researchers from two of the world's leading centres on work environment and health and researchers from India to discuss these crucial issues. More information.
 
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