SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Newsletter 40:

15 June 2004

SASNET News:

• Welcome to the 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies in Lund in July 2004
Everything is now set for the 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, to be held in Lund, Sweden, 6–9 July 2004. This major conference – the largest gathering of South Asia oriented researchers ever held in Sweden and with a budget of SEK 1.6 Million – is organized by SASNET and Lund University. It has attracted a great interest from researchers from all over the World, out of whom a large number come from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. They will during four days partcipate in 45 panels covering a wide scope of research fields from the social sciences and humanities to medicine and technology.
SASNET was given the task to organize the conference by the European Association for South Asian Studies, EASAS, at the previous conference in Heidelberg, Germany in September 2002.
The conference will have two main venues: • The Academic Society Building (Akademiska Föreningen, AF), the place for registration; inaugural session on Tuesday 6 July (with a key note address by Prof. Dipankar Gupta, Jawarharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, on ”Cultural Politics in South Asia – Processes, Causes, and Futures”); and the joint session on ”Poverty and Human Development in South Asia” on Thursday 8 July; besides being the place for five simultaneous panel sessions every day; and • The Dept. of Sociology, Paradisgatan 5 (house G), 200 metres north of the Academic Society Building, where four simultaneous panel sessions will be held every day, besides housing a computer room.
See a map of central Lund with the conference venues specially marked (as a pdf-file).
The conference has specially assigned Dr. William Radice, renowned scholar and brilliant writer besides being a participant in the panel on Bengal Studies, to portray the conference in a few articles that will be later published. Dr. Radice has written humble articles on earlier EASAS conferences as well. Read his story from the Prague conference in 1998!
A poster advertising the conference is also available (as a pdf-file). Please download it and put it up at your institution/department.
FULL INFORMATION on the Lund conference, including schedules for the panels!

• Applications for SASNET planning grants 2004
In the shadow of the conference preparations a large number of applications for SASNET planning grants for research and educational projects and programmes have been received. The last date for applications is 15 June 2004. The applications will now be scrutinized by a reference group. Decisions will appear in the end of August 2004. SASNET has distributed 40 planning grants since the start in 2001, for projects and programmes involving Swedish researchers in collaboration with colleagues/institutions in South Asia. More information.

Community News:

• Dissertation at KTH on Swedish ironmakers in India
Jan af Geijerstam, Department of History of Science and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, defended his doctoral dissertation on ”Landscapes of Technology Transfer. Swedish Ironmakers in India 1860–1864”, on Friday 4 June 2004. Faculty opponent was Prof Ian Inkster, Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, Faculty of Humanities, The Nottingham Trent University, UK. The thesis deals with the transfer of iron making technology from Europe to India in the 1860s, and is published as a beautiful book in the series called Jernkontorets bergshistoriska skriftserie, published by the Swedish Iron Masters' Federation. Read abstract of dissertation (as a pdf-file).

• Honorary doctorate to Lasse Berg
Lund University awarded the Swedish journalist and filmmaker Lasse Berg with an honorary doctorate at a conferment ceremony in the Cathedral of Lund on Friday 28 May 2004. The Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University made the decision because of Berg’s well-informed and scientifically based portrayals of people and environments in Asia and Africa through books and articles. Lasse Berg is considered to be one of the leading Swedish journalists in the field of development and Third World studies, and his films and books are widely used as course material at Swedish universities.

• Report from SASNET sponsored International Seminar on Fermented Foods
SASNET sponsored an International Seminar and Workshop on ”Fermented Foods, Health Status and Social Well being” organised by the Dept of Dairy Microbiology, SMC College of Dairy Science, Gujarat Agricultural University at Anand, India, 13–14 November 2003. The conference was co-hosted by the Dept of Applied Nutrition, Lund University, Sweden; and partly funded by a planning grant from SASNET. Dr V Kurien, the father of White Revolution in India, inaugurated the seminar on 13 November. Read a conference report (as a pdf-file).

• Stockholm seminar on the Dalit movement in India
A seminar on the Dalit movement in India and Internationally was arranged by the Dalit Solidarity Network in Sweden, and Friends of Village Community Development Society, as part of the Stockholm Social Forum 7–9 May 2004. Among the particpants were Ruth Manorama, Indian National Alliance of Women (NAWO), Indian National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW), Women‘s Voice, Bangalore; Anitha Graga, Womens Education for Liberation (WEL), Tamil Nadu; Eva-Maria Hardtman, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University; and Hans Magnusson, Dalit Solidarity Network – Sweden. Read the seminar report (as a pdf-file, in Swedish)

Conferences and courses

• Conferences connected to South Asian studies arranged all over the World
See SASNET’s page, http://www.sasnet.lu.se/conferences.html#conf

Cultural Events:

• Mini version of the exhibition ”God has 99 names” now tours Sweden
The exhibition ”Gud har 99 namn” that successfully toured Sweden for four years ended in December 2003. A successor project in the form of a network, Nätverket Sveriges Multireligiösa Guider, has however been launched with a colourful inauguration ceremony in Stockholm. A mini version of the exhibition ”Gud har 99 namn” now tours Sweden. More information.

Have a nice Summer,

       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 B, S-223 70 Lund, Sweden
Visiting address: Ideon Research Park, House Alfa 1 (first floor, room no. 2042), 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/co-ordinator & Lars Eklund, webmaster/deputy director