SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK
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Contents:
SASNET News
• Announcement for SASNET Director
The position as Director of SASNET – Swedish South Asian Studies Network, based at Lund University is hereby announced for the period 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2009. The position is 50 % of full time. The Director should be a highly qualified South Asia researcher, university teacher, supervisor, administrator and programme builder, with well established research contacts in, and familiarity with the South Asian region. She/he should have position in a Swedish academic institution, and young applicants are especially invited. The Director is expected to spend most of his working time at the root node in Lund. Last date for application is 15 June 2006. More information.
• SASNET work report for 2005
All Administrative reports regarding SASNET’s work from the first planning process in 1999 till today are available at SASNET’s web site. The latest report to be added is the Administrative report no. 6, for the period 1 January – 31 december 2005. Go for the Work Report.
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• SASNET guest lecture about microfinance in Sri Lanka
SASNET arranged a guest lecture with Prof. Sirimevan S. Colombage and Dr. Chandrabose from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Sri Lanka Open University, on Tuesday 18 April 2006, 13.15–15.00. They lectured about ”The role of microfinance in fighting rural poverty in Sri Lanka”. Prof. Colombage is an eminent economist specialised in macro-economic processes in Sri Lanka, and Dr. Chandrabose is regional economist specialised in the tea plantation economy. Since 2003 they have been engaged in a study of microfinance and rural poverty in Sri Lanka, a research project financed by a Swedish Research Links grant in 2002 . The project has been carried out in collaboration with Associate Professor Alia Ahmad, Dept. of Economics, Lund University.
• Time to apply for three forms of SASNET grants
Applications for the next round of SASNET planning grants are now invited. In addition to the existing Networking grants for planning and continued activities in research and education programmes/projects SASNET now introduces two other forms of grants: Interdisciplinary Workshop Grants for organising an interdisciplinary South Asia related research workshop in Sweden or in South Asia; and a Guest Lecture Programme, offering grants for inviting a guest lecturer from South Asia, to give lectures at more than one Swedish university. Closing date for applications is 15 June 2006. More information about the new SASNET grants.
Research Community News
• Doctoral dissertation about selfishness in a Tamil Nadu village
Björn Alm from the Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, defends his doctoral dissertation titled ”The un/selfish leader. Changing notions in a Tamil Nadu village” on Friday 5 May 2006, at 10.00. The thesis explores notions of selfishness, as they were perceived by people in the village of Ekkaraiyur, Tamil Nadu, India, at a time they associated with thorough changes in their lives. It focuses on the censure of the alleged corruption of their leaders, and is based on fieldwork carried out in Ekkaraiyur between 1988 and 1990. Faculty opponent is Dr. Jens Lerche, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, UK. Venue: Auditorium 4, House B, Stockholm University, Frescati. Read the abstract (with a link to the full-text dissertation).
• Doctoral dissertation about the 1990s anti-arrack campaign in Andhra Pradesh
Marie Larsson, also from the Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, defends her doctoral dissertation titled ”When Women Unite!. The Making of the Anti-Liquor Movement in Andhra Pradesh, India” on Friday 9 June 2006. It deals with the anti-arrack campaign started in the early 1990s among poor village women in Andhra Pradesh in Southern India, primarily among Scheduled Castes (formerly Untouchables) and Muslims. Faculty opponent will be Prof. Shalini Randeria, Ethnologisches Seminar, Universität Zurich, Switzerland. Venue: Auditorium B 4, Universitetsvägen 10, Stockholm University, Frescati. Read the abstract.
• DIN magazine invites for articles about Indian religion
The Norwegian journal for religion and culture, DIN, invites for articles to a planned special issue dealing with Indian religion (in a wide sense) in late 2006. The articles shouid be maximum 20 pages, be written in a Scandinavian language, and either be pieces of original research material or consist of a popularised version of a research work already published in Norwegian or English. Deadline for manuscripts is 18 September 2006. More information to be given by the editors of DIN: Professor Knut A. Jacobsen, Dept. of History of Religions, University of Bergen, or Dr. Jeanette Sky, Institute of Archaeology and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim.
• Rana P B Singh visiting professor in Karlstad
Rana P.B. Singh, Professor of Cultural Geography at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, will again be a visiting professor at Karlstad University, during the period 18 May – 19 June 2006. During his stay he will hold seminars and workshops on ”Sacred and Ritual landscapes of Holy Cities of India”, and on ”Changing Indian Village”. Together with Prof. Gerhard Gustafsson, Dept. of Human Geography, he will also co-organise a panel on ”Spirit of Place, Landscape and Place Ballet” in a conference on ”Space, Haunting, Discourse” to be held at Karlstad University: 15 – 18 June. Prof. Singh then goes to Denmark, where he will hold lectures on similar topics at Copenhagen University, before proceeding to the 19th ECMSAS conference in Leiden, where he chairs a panel on ”Pilgrimage Landscape, Cosmogram and Planning the Heritage Cities”. More information.
• Best scientific paper award to researcher from Karolinska Institutet
The Indian PhD candidate Koustuv Dalal from the Division of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, has won the best scientific paper award of the 8th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, held in Durban, South Africa 2 – 5 April 2006. It is the largest conference in the field of injury prevention and safety promotion. Koustuv’s paper dealt with cost calculation of violence (injury) in developing countries. Most families in developing countries are dependent on one persons’ income. If that person is injured then the whole family is affected. Considering those conditions, in his model Koustuv has introduced six new variables and negated the traditional concepts of cost calculation of injury, using by several experts including WHO mannual. Koustuv has tested this model in India and shown that the traditional system has under-estimated the cost of injury by about 80%.
Conferences and courses
• Researcher Training Course on Postcolonial sexualities to be held in Roskilde
A PhD Researcher Training Course on ”Postcolonial sexualities: Politics and discourses” is held in Roskilde, Denmark, 2–6 May 2006. The course merits 7 ETCS points, and is organized by The Graduate School of International Development Studies, Roskilde University in cooperation with the Research Program on Sexuality, Gender and Society in Africa (run by the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala). One of the teachers will be Tejaswini Niranjana, Director for the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society in Bangalore, India. She will lecture on ”Indian Nationalisms and the Sexuality Question: History and the Present in India and Trinidad”. More information.
• 20th anniversary of the Pakistan Workshops
The Pakistan Workshop 2006 is held 5–7 May 2006 at Took How in the Lake District of the United Kingdom. This will be the 20th in a series of Pakistan workshops, bringing together anthropologists and sociologists whose research involves Pakistan and the Pakistani diaspora. Thetheme will therefore be ”Reflections and Directions of 20 Years of the Pakistan Workshop 1986–2006”. The Pakistan Workshop is intentionally kept small and intimate. Normally there will be 25 or fewer participants. More information from Marta Bolognani, University of Leeds. Read the programme for the workshop.
• Amsterdam conference about Artificial Languages in an Asian Perspective
A conference on ”The Generosity of Artificial Languages in an Asian Perspective” will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 18–20 May 2006. It will be the second in a series of workshops on Asian contributions to the formation of modern science. The first was called “The Emergence of Artificial Languages” and took place in Leiden in 2002 under the auspices of the International Institute of Asian Studies, IIAS. The 2006 workshop will address questions that are more conceptual in nature but that are studied in the same scientific and historical context. More information.
• Oxford workshop about Gender in Texts of Hinduism
A workshop titled ”Towards Equality: Writing/Reading Gender in Texts of Hinduism” is held at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) on Friday 19 May 2006, 11.00–16.00. It will seek to address the question how women are represented within Hinduism and the question of women’s agency in the history of the Hindu traditions. These issues are closely linked to broader questions of power in the history of Hinduism and roles within clearly demarcated boundaries that go against the spirit of modernity. The lecturers include Dr. Sanjukta Gupta, Prof. M. Bose, and Prof. T. Rukmani. Venue: OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen Street, Oxford, UK.
• Birkbeck conferenece of the Gujarat Studies Association
The UK-based Gujarat Studies Association invites participants for its first bi-annual Conference, with the theme ”Home and Away: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives”, 19–20 May 2006. The conference aims at creating a lively forum for discussion on the dynamic dimensions of the realities and possibilities of the global Gujarati community, and will be held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, in Birkbeck. The keynote speakers include Lord Professor Bhikhu Parekh, Prof. Azim Nanji, Prof. Itesh Sachdev and Suda Bhuchar. Registration should be done before 17 March. More information.
• Copenhagen Researcher-training course on labour in developing countries
A Researcher-training course on ”Globalisation and the impact of outsourcing on firms, industries and labour in developing countries” is arranged on Copenhagen 31 May–2 June 2006. The course is jointly organised by the Centre for Business and Development Studies, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and the Dept. of International Development Studies, Roskilde University. It iso pen to all PhD students. The aim of the course is to present and discuss selected theoretical approaches to understand globalisation and the impact of outsourcing on firms, industries and labour in developing countries, discuss associated methodological issues and identify strategies and policies at firm, sector, national and international level.
• South Asian participants at Small Hydropower Association conference in Scotland
The European Small Hydropower Association (ESHA) organises HIDROENERGIA 2006 in Crieff, Scotland, UK, 7–9 June 2006. This biannual conference brings together specialists and stakeholders in the field of small hydropower from all over the world. Several papers to be presented during the conference deal with South Asia. P Jayakody from the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanks will talk about ”Paddy to Hydropower – A Conflict Between Uses: Case Study in Kaltota, Sri Lanka”; K D W Nandalal, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, about ”Evaluation of Hydropower Project Alternatives Based on System Dynamics Based Model: Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project”; D C Tripathi, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Lt, India, about ”Approach Towards Rehabilitation, resettlement and Compensation due to Construction of a Hydroelectric Project”; and Rana Pratap Singh, Dept. of Electrical Engineering. Institute of Engineering, Kathmandu, Nepal, about ”An economic analysis of Agretar micro hydro Power plant: a case study”. More information about the conference.
• Third session of the World Urban Forum (WUF3) in Vancouver
The third session of the World Urban Forum (WUF3) will be held in Vancouver, Canada, 19–23 June 2006. The World Urban Forum (WUF) is an international conference sponsored by UN-HABITAT, held every other year to encourage the sharing of experience and knowledge about issues of urban sustainability. What makes WUF unique is that discussions are kept informal to encourage dialogue among government leaders, local authorities, non-governmental organizations, grassroots movements, urban professionals, youth and the private sector. WUF3 will mark the 30th anniversary of the first UN conference on human settlements, which was also held in Vancouver and led to the creation of UN-HABITAT. The theme will be ”Our Future: Sustainable Cities: Ideas to Action”, and have the following sub-themes: ”Urban Growth and the Environment”, ”Partnership and Finance”, and ”Social Inclusion and Cohesion”.
Participants in the Sida funded Advanced International Training Programme on ”Urban Shelter – Design and Development”, organised by the Division of Housing Development and Management; Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Lund University will take part in WUF3 as part of their training course. (Applications for the course should be submitted before 30 April 2006). More information.
• Panel on fieldwork in India in the age of globalization at 9th EASA conference
The 9th EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists) Biennial Conference will be held in Bristol, UK, 18–21 September 2006. The theme for the conference will be ”Europe and the World”. One of the workshops, No. 72, deals with ”Changing approaches to fieldwork in India in the age of globalization” (read full information about the panel). It is organized by Prof. Shalini Randeria, University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Paolo Favero, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. Paper proposals are welcome. Venue: Wills Memorial Building, Bristol University.
• Allahabad seminar on ”Sacred Places, Sacred Journeys” coinciding with Kumbh Mela
The 4th International Seminar on ”Sacred Places, Sacred Journeys” will be held in Allahabad, India, 11–13 January 2007, coinciding with the Ardha Kumbna Mela, the most sacred and the biggest bathing festival, held every sixth year at the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna in Allahabad, attracting more than 30 million pilgrims from all over the world. The seminar is jointly organised by the Indian Society of Pilgrimage Studies and the IGU Initiative on Culture & Civilization for Human Development, established by the International Geographical Union, and based in Rome, Italy. Deadline for registration and abstracts is 30 August 2006. More information.
• Huddinge conference 2007 about Religion on the Borders
A conference on ”Religion on the Borders: New Challenges in the Academic Study of Religion” will be held at at Södertörn University College south of Stockholm, 19–22 April 2007. The ambition with the conference is to gather scholars from different academic disciplines to engage in discussions on religion and borders in the past and the present, in theory and in practice. It is organized in collaboration with IAHR (International Association for the History of Religions) and SSRF (Swedish Society for the Study of History of Religions). The Keynote speakers include Professor Gavin Flood, Academic director at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Professor of Religion, University of Stirling, UK; and Professor Caroline Humphrey, Head of the Dept. of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University, UK. Deadline for abstract submission is 1 October 2006.
• Other conferences connected to South Asian studies arranged all over the World
See SASNET’s page, http://www.sasnet.lu.se/conferences.html#conf
Important lectures and workshops
• Oslo lecture about Indian political mass mobilisation
Professor Gopal K. Karanth, Head of the Centre for Study of Social Change & Development at the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore, India, lectures in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday 2 May 2006, 10–12, and Wednesday 3 May 2006, 14–16. The 2 May lecture is a presentation of a paper titled ”Crowds for Hire: Making Sense of Political ‘Melas’”, describing the multiple facets of mass mobilisation through the political rallies (Melas) in India’s political processes. The 3 May lecture is a presentation of a paper titled ”Caste Politics and Caste in Politics: Myths and Mysteries”, putting forth a few hypotheses about caste and caste in politics in India. The lectures are organised by the Dept. of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) at Oslo University. Venue: Auditorium 3, Eilert Sundts hus, Moltke Moes vei 31, Oslo. More information.
• Stockholm seminar on Afghanistan and Cluster Bombs
The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, and the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) jointly organise an International full-day seminar on ”Afghanistan and Cluster Bombs” in Stockholm on Friday 5 May 2006, 9.30–16.30. The seminar, with several internationally expert participants, will discuss how the World society should act to reduce the human suffering in Afghanistan due to bombs. A special focus is put on women’s situation. Venue: Alla kvinnors hus, Svartensgatan 3, Stockholm. More information.
• Copenhagen lecture about gene manipulation and religiosity in India
Dr. Stig Toft Madsen from Nordic Institute for Asian Studies (NIAS) in Copenhagen, lectures about gene manipulation and religiosity in India (”Genmanipulation og religiøsitet i Indien”) in Copenhagen on Friday 5 May 2006, 15.30. Venue: Chester Bogcafe, Strandgade, just opposite the Danish Foreign Ministry. The lecture is part of the 24 hours Researchers Day and Night event organised by Copenhagen University 5–6 May. NIAS is taking part in this event by arranging an informal afternoon seminar featuring six researchers who present their work and relate it to an overall theme, namely ”Is Asia of another world?”. Most of the presentations will be in Danish. More information about the NIAS seminar.
• Uppsala workshop about Neoliberal economy and the impact of popular protest
The Seminar for Development Studies at Uppsala University invites for a workshop titled ”Does Mobilisation Matter? Neoliberal economy and the impact of popular protest”, on Thursday 12 May 2006, 13–16. The workshop deals with recent neoliberal reforms have led to significant waves of protests against the privatisation of natural resources and goods all around the world. It begins by targeting current tendencies and theories concerning popular protest, then moving on to the particular fields of contestations within the electricity and water sectors. Specially invited speakers are Marco Giugni and David Hall, both internationally renowned for their work on social movements and policy studies. Chairman of the discussion will be Fredrik Uggla, Researcher at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. No registration is required. Venue: University Main Building, Room 1. More information.
South Asia related culture in Scandinavia
• Performances and workshops in Lund by Kutiyattam dance troupe
The Kutiyattam dance troupe from the Natana Kairali Research and Performing Centre for Traditional Arts in Irinjalakuda, Thrissur District, Kerala, India, again visits Sweden in May 2006. This time the Natana Kairali dance troupe will give two public performances of the play ”Pudhana Moksham”, a well-known story about how king Kamtsa’s attempted killing of the god Krishna, at Teater Sagohuset in Lund, Saturday 6 May and Sunday 7 May, at 19.00. Two seminars/workshops with the group’s artistic leader, Mr Gopal Venu, will also be arranged on the same days, in the afternoon. This is the same dance troup that visited Sweden in the summer 2005, and gave four performances of the ancient Sanskrit drama Sakuntala in the Wooden Theatre of Järvsö in Hälsingland. More information on the Lund performances.
• Debashish Bhattacharya performs at Södra Teatern in Stockholm
The world’s leading Slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya performs in Stockholm on Wednesday 10 May 2006, 19.30. Bhattacharya who hails from Kolkata, India, and was awarded the ”President of India Award” already in 1984, will play at Södra Teatern together with the Tabla master Subhasis Bhattacharjee, and Christian Ledoux on Tampura. More information.
• Second Annual Day celebration for Saraswathy Kalakendra in Huddinge
Saraswathy Kalakendra Institution of Fine Arts in Huddinge invites for its second Annual Day celebration on Saturday 13 May 2006, from 16.00. The Bharata Natyam dance school was started in 2004 by Usha Balasundaram, originally from Kerala and trained at the famous dance institution Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts in Chennai, India. Currently the school has 60 students of Indian, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Swedish, Russian, Polish and Brazilian origin. Performances have been frequent during the past two years in the Stockholm region, most recently for example at functions organised by the Hindu temple Association in Stockholm, by Karolinska Institutet, and the Indo-Swedish Association. Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, Ambassador of India to Sweden, will be the guest of honour at the Annual day celebration. Venue: ABF Auditorium, Kommunalvägen 26, Huddinge. More information on Saraswathy Kalakendra Institution of Fine Arts and the Annual day celebration.
New and updated items on SASNET web site
• More Swedish departments where research on South Asia is going on:
Constantly added to the list of research environments at Swedish universities, presented by SASNET. The full list now includes 174 departments! Go to the presentation page
ƒ Image Analysis Group, Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg
ƒ Division of Paediatrics, Dept. of Clinical Sciences at Sahlgrenska Academy, Göteborg University
ƒ Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm
ƒ Department of Chemical Physics, Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lund University
• Several new articles recommended for reading
Look at http://www.sasnet.lu.se/recreading.html for suggestions on interesting new articles on South Asia in International media. Many new items added, especially on Pakistan, India, and the South Asia region.
Best regards,
Staffan Lindberg Lars Eklund
SASNET/ Swedish South Asian Studies Network
SASNET is a national network for research, education, and information about South Asia, based at Lund University. The aim is to encourage and promote an open and dynamic networking process, in which Swedish researchers co-operate with researchers in South Asia and globally.
The network is open to all sciences. Priority is given to co-operation between disciplines and across faculties, as well as institutions in the Nordic countries and in South Asia. The basic idea is that South Asian studies will be most fruitfully pursued in co-operation between researchers, working in different institutions with a solid base in their mother disciplines.
The network is financed by Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) and by Lund University.
Postal address: SASNET – Swedish South Asian Studies Network, Scheelevägen 15 D, S-223 70 Lund, Sweden
Visiting address: Ideon Research Park, House Alfa 1 (first floor, room no. 2040), in the premises of the Centre for East and South East Asian Studies at Lund University (ACE).
Phone: + 46 46 222 73 40
Fax: + 46 46 222 30 41
E-mail: sasnet@sasnet.lu.se
Web site: http://www.sasnet.lu.se
Staff: Staffan Lindberg, director/coordinator & Lars Eklund, webmaster/deputy director
