SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

---

Newsletter 70:

9 February 2007

SASNET News

• Consolidation the keyword
SASNET’s new board had its first meeting in Lund on Monday 29 January 2007. For the coming year, the board decided that the main priority should be to consolidate and strengthen SASNET’s network in Sweden, but the board also approved that a contact journey to India should be carried out by the Director and Deputy Director in the Fall 2007. Another decision was taken regarding new members to the reference group for the evaluation of proposals for SASNET’s planning, workshop and guest lecture programme grants. The board decided to appoint Arild Engelsen Ruud, Institute for Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo; Ewa Wäckelgård, International Science Programme (ISP), Uppsala University; and Jytte Agergaard Larsen, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen, as members of this group. Read the verified minutes from the meeting (as a pdf-file).

• Applications for the next round of SASNET planning grants
Applications for SASNET’s planning, workshop and guest lecture programme grants 2007 are now invited. Closing date for applications is 15 June 2007. More information.

• Public seminars and lectures in collaboration with Lund University
In collaboration with the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies (ACE), SASNET organises a series a public lectures and seminars during the Spring 2007. The lectures will also be attended by the Lund University Masters students in Asian Studies, as part of their training. See the poster for the public lectures/seminars series.
On Thursday 15 March, 13–15, a seminar will be held with Dr. Muhammad Rab from Bangladesh. He will lecture about ”Community Management of Fisheries in Bangladesh”. Venue: Java Hall, Alfa 1, Ground Floor, Scheelevägen 15 A, Lund.
On Monday 26 March 2007, 13–15, Ravinder Kaur, Post-doctoral Fellow, Roskilde University, will give a lecture about ”Islam between East and West – the political situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan”. Venue: Department of Sociology, Paradisgatan 5, House G, Ground floor Hall 3, Lund.
On Tuesday 3 April 2007, 09–11, Dr. Camilla Orjuela, Researcher at the Dept. of Peace and Development Studies, School of Global Studies, Göteborg University, will lecture about ”Ethnicity and Violent Conflict in Sri Lanka”. Venue: Java Hall, Alfa 1, Ground Floor, Scheelevägen 15 A, Lund.
On Tuesday 17 April, 09–11, Neil Webster, Senior researcher at Development Studies, Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen, will lecture about ”Nepal: Kingdom versus Maoism”. Venue: Java Hall, Alfa 1, Ground Floor, Scheelevägen 15 A, Lund.

• More information about SASNET and its activities
See SASNET’s page, http://www.sasnet.lu.se/sasnet.html

Research Community News

• Panels suggestions invited for the 20th ECMSAS conference
Panels suggestions are now invited for the 20th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies (ECMSAS), to be held in Manchester, UK, 8–11 July 2008. The ECMSAS is the largest gathering of South Asia oriented researchers in Europe, covering all fields from the humanities and social sciences to technology, natural sciences and medicine. The conference is held biannually under the aegis of the European Association of South Asian Studies (EASAS), a professional, non-profit organisation of scholars engaged in research and teaching concerning South Asia with regard to all periods and fields of study. SASNET organised the 18th ECMSAS conference in Lund in 2004 (more information about the Lund conference), and in June 2006, the 19th ECMSAS conference was arranged in Leiden, the Netherlands (read SASNET’s report from the Leiden conference). Suggestions for panels at the 2008 conference are now actively considered. The conference will be hosted by the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures at the University of Manchester, and draws on the vibrant South Asian Studies programmes in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University. Go to the conference web site.

• Licentiate thesis about Nutritional Status Among Elderly People in Bangladesh
Tamanna Ferdous from the Division of Geriatric Epidemiology; Department of Neurobiology, Caring Sciences and Society (NVS); Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm defended a Licentiate thesis titled ”Prevalence of Malnutrition and Determinants of Nutritional Status Among Elderly People: A Population-Based Study in Rural Bangladesh” on Wednesday 31 January 2007. This study reports a high prevalence of malnutrition among elderly people in rural Bangladesh. In order to reduce the proportion of the undernourished worldwide, it is important to address this subset of the population. This research also shows that malnutrition is associated with both disease and non-disease related factors. Venue: Aging Research Center, Gävlegatan 16, Stockholm. More information.

• Uppsala dissertation about the Balochi Language in Turkmenistan
Serge Axenov, Iranian Languages, Section for Asian and African Languages and Cultures, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, defended his doctoral dissertation about ”The Balochi Language of Turkmenistan: A corpus-based grammatical description” on Friday 19 January 2007. Faculty opponent was Dr. Elena Bashir, University of Michigan, Chicago, USA. More information with abstract.

• World Bank resources on India related research
In connection with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, held 24–28 January 2007, the World Bank prepared a special section online with useful information about its India related research. As the theme of the 2007 World Economic Forum has been "The Shifting Power Equation", focusing on how emerging economies are increasingly becoming bigger players in the world arena, India figures prominently in several of the discussions. The web page titled ”India at Davos: Resources from the World Bank” includes information about several research fields, ssuch as: • Economics: New Drivers; • Business: Leading in a Connected World; • Managing India's Youthful Tide; • The City: Managing Rapid Urbanization in Developing Economies; • Empowering Individuals. Go to the web page.

• Swedish consultancy agency specialised on legal issues in the South Asian region
South Asia Experts – Sweden is a new consultancy agency specialised in various legal and socio-economic aspects concerning the South Asian region. SAE-S, based in Stockholm, assists companies and businesses, NGOs, and educational institutes in Human Rights, Child Rights, Corporate Social Responsibility, Labour laws and standards, Competition Law, Intellectual Property Rights, and other similar aspects related to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. It has been launched by Parul Sharma, a human rights lawyer specialised on the legal systems and cultures of South Asia (more information about Parul Sharma). She has written a doctoral thesis about child rights, with India as a case study, now being in the final evaluation at the National Law School of India University (NLS) in Bangalore, India.

• Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies offers free recordings of lectures and seminars
The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) at the University of Oxford has now officially unveiled a unique Online Library of over 100 MP3 recordings of lectures and seminars. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection now has free access to the best of Oxford's teaching about Hindu Culture. The themes vary from Female Yoginis to Christian Ashrams, from Hindu Psychology to the history of NRIs. The OCHS is committed to the idea that academic insights are meant for everyone. The Online Lecture Library is another step in the effort to develop the field of Hindu Studies by sharing the insights of leading professionals in the field who have visited OCHS over the years. Stretching from 2003 to the present and growing with each new term, the library ranges from introductory surveys of major Hindu themes, texts and traditions; single lectures on topics like Women in the Mahabharata or Poetry in the Vedas; discussions with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Scholars, and seminars on Hindi Cinema. Listen to Sir Mark Tully talk about the importance of India's 'Middle Way' approach to cultural tolerance or hear a whole lecture given in Sanskrit. More information, with links to upload OCHS’ lectures and seminars.

• Research papers from Queen Elisabeth House Working Papers Series distributed free of charge
In order to stimulate discussion among the worldwide community of scholars, the Queen Elizabeth House Working Papers (University of Oxford) are distributed free of charge via Internet. Recent papers in the Series related to South Asia include "Commercialisation, Commodification And Gender Relations In Post Harvest Systems For Rice In South Asia” by Prof Barbara Harriss-White, and ”Religious Schools, Social Values and Economic Attitudes: Evidence from Bangladesh” by Mohammad Niaz Asadullah (Reading University) and Nazmul Chaudhury (World Bank).

• South Asia contributions to 10-year project on World Literature History
An ambitious multidisciplinary Swedish research project on ”Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective” was completed in 2006. The aim of the project, initiated in 1996 and launched in 1999 with funding from the Swedish Research Council, was to find suitable methods and approaches for studying and analysing literature globally, emphasizing the comparative and intercultural aspect. It has involved specialists from a large number of disciplines, primarily from the fields of comparative literature, Oriental studies and African studies in Sweden, headed by Gunilla Lindberg-Wada, Professor of Japanese Studies, Dept. of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University.
The project has now resulted in a set of four volumes being published by Walter de Gruyter in Berlin & New York. Each volume is devoted to a special research topic. Volume 1 deals with ”Notions of Literature Across Cultures”, and here Gunilla Gren-Eklund, Professor Emeritus of Indology, especially Sanskrit, Dept. of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, has contributed with an article about ”Traditional Indian learning – text, language and poetics”. In Volume 2 about ”Literary Genres: An Intercultural Approach”, Associate Professor Christina Nygren, Dept. of Theatre studies, Stockholm University, writes about ”Drama for learning and pleasure: Japan, China and India in a comparative perspective”. Volumes 3+4 deal with ”Literary Interactions in the Modern World”. Professor Margareta Petersson, Dept. of Comparative Literature, Växjö University, and an expert on Indian English literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, was the Editor of Volume 3:1, in which she has written an introductory text about ”Encounters between literary cultures in the 19th and 20th centuries”. Finally, Dr. Christina Nygren again contributes to Volume 3:2, with an article about ”Appropriations of European theatre in Japan, China and India”. More information about the Walter de Gruyter publication.

• European Parliament adopted resolution on the human rights situation of Dalits in India
On Thursday 1 February 2007, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the human rights situation of Dalits in India. The resolution came under a special procedure whereby it was passed without voting, and with only a few dissenting voices by MEPs. The resolution was first passed by the parliament’s Development Committee in December 2006, following a hearing where Ruth Manorama, President of the National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW) and winner of the Right Livelihood Award 2006, spoke, and also representatives of the Government of India.
The resolution applauds efforts taken by the Indian government to protect and promote the rights of Dalits, concerning at least 167 million people, including the provisions on the abolition of the practice of untouchability, the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of caste, and political affirmative action through reservations in State-run institutions and political representative bodies; but the resolution is equally concerned about the violence and atrocities being committed on a daily basis against Dalits in India. The resolution quotes a recent study on untouchability in rural India (Shah, Mander, Thorat, Deshpande and Baviskar: ”Untouchability in Rural India”; Sage Publications, India, 2006), covering 565 villages in 11 States, showing that a large proportion of public health workers refuse to visit Dalit homes, Dalits are prevented from entering police stations, and Dalits are denied access to water sources in 48 % of the villages studied because of segregation and untouchability practices. The resolution now urges the European Commission to raise the issue of caste-based discrimination during the EU-India Summits and other meetings as part of all political, human rights, civil society, development and trade dialogues. It also instructs that the resolution should be forwarded to the governments of the Member States, the President, the Government and Parliament of India, the UN Secretary-General, and the heads of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization, the UNICEF, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Read the full text of the resolution adopted by the European Parliament.

• Noragric announces post of Head of Department
The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) calls for applications for the post of Head of Department at Noragric (Department of International Environment & Development Studies). Noragric, the youngest and fastest growing department at UMB, has a unique academic and working environment due to its international and interdisciplinary character. The academic staff come from social and natural sciences and from the global North and the South. The closing date for applications is 12 February 2007. The position will fall vacant in November 2007 when the term of the incumbent Head ends. However, the date of assumption of duties by the new Head is negotiable. Read the official announcement.
More information about the position.

• Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit announces positions for researchers
The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, AREU, invites applications for a position as Rural Livelihoods Researcher, based in Kabul. He/she will be responsible for developing and implementing research in the Rural Livelihoods Programme. The Researcher will manage staff responsible for research activities under the Programme, as well as potentially other staff who may work intermittently on Livelihoods issues. AREU also invites applications for a vacancy as Economics Researcher, responsible for developing and implementing research in Political Economy as one of the main themes in AREU’s research profile. Other current AREU announcements are for a Communications Internship for the Summer 2007, to participate in the editing of AREU’s flagship publication, The A to Z Guide to Afghanistan Assistance; and an Internship for the Gender research programme. Go for AREU’s announcement page.

• ENCARI network invites data from European academics working on India related research
The European Network on Contemporary Academic Research on India (ENCARI) is now building up an extensive database of European academics working on various fields related to India. Individual researchers, as well as research groups/universities/institutions are invited to join the network. However, please note that you can only join the network if you are based in one of the EU member states. The aim of the network is to foster closer cooperation between European research institutions and researchers within the field of contemporary India studies. It also aims to strengthen the ties between the European Union (EU) and India, promote funding for specific types of India-focused research within the field of contemporary social science (something that finally might result in the setting up of a European Centre for Indian Studies), and provide an opportunity and forum for India experts within Europe to pool and exchange information and resources with each other and EU policy-making officials.
ENCARI was formally launched as an European Commission initiative, under the name ANERI (Academic Network for European Research related to India), during the 19th European Conference for Modern South Asian Studies held in Leiden in June 2006. The project was prepared by a team consisting of Dr Willem van der Geest, European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) in Brussels (team leader), Dr Kunal Sen, University of East Anglia, UK (as economic analyst), and Dr Lawrence Saez, London School of Economics, UK (as political analyst). During the Spring 2006 they visited institutions and met researchers all over Europe in order to work out a strategy for the network. On Wednesday 3 May 2006 Dr. Kunal Sen came to Lund for a fruitful meeting with SASNET’s Staffan Lindberg and Lars Eklund. Together they discussed the role SASNET and Swedish researchers could possibly play in the further development of the network. SASNET is now a member institution of ENCARI. More details about the project.

• Room for rent in Delhi for Swedish researcher
A Swedish researcher interested to rent a room in New Delhi, India during 2007 may contact Jan and Rajya Sjunnesson Rao. The room is located in New Delhi residential suburb Vasant Kunj close to Jawaharlal Nehru University, JNU.

• More information about South Asia related research at Swedish and Nordic universities
See SASNET’s page, http://www.sasnet.lu.se/research.html

Educational News

• Six weeks Tamil language summer school in Puducherry
The Puducherry (Pondicherry) Institute of Linguistics and Culture (PILC) invites to its intensive six-weeks Tamil Summer School 2007. It will be organised from 16 July – 25 August 2007. The Tamil Summer School was initiated in 1998 by the Department of Social Sciences, French Institute, Puducherry to offer training to language researchers in Humanities and Social sciences. PILC has been organising this course since 2004. The medium of teaching is English as well as Tamil. The TSS focuses on Spoken Tamil rather than on the classical and written forms being taught in European Universities. Two levels of spoken Tamil courses are offered: Basic and Intermediate. More information (as a pdf-file).

• Nordic Centre in India organises summer course in Hyderabad for the fifth time
For the fifth time the course 'Contemporary India' will be held in the Summer 2007 at the University of Hyderabad, in collaboration with the Nordic Centre in India. The course, running 1 –28 July 2007, is tailor-made for Nordic students and introduces issues of politics, culture and economy. It consists of the following five parts: • Introductory course: The diversity of India: • The political system and questions of identity: • Globalisation and the economy focusing on the city of Hyderabad: • Development, environment and human rights: and • Indian literature and cinema. The students coming from most Nordic countries (and universities that are members of the Nordic Centre in India) are given board and lodging in an excellent guest house. Apply directly to NCI before 1 April 2007. Each member university can nominate 3 candidates and 3 reserves on this course. More information.

• NCI summer course in Bangalore on contemporary environmental issues in India
NCI organises, in collaboration with the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore, a four-weeks course for graduate and post-graduate students from the Nordic countries, titled “Approaching the Environment in India” 23 July–23 August 2007. It is a multi-disciplinary course that seeks to introduce students to recent theories and methods in the study of contemporary environmental issues in India. Apply directly to NCI before 1 April 2007. Each member university can nominate 3 candidates and 3 reserves on this course. More information.

• NCI summer course in Mumbai on Demography, Gender and Reproductive Health
NCI also invites applications for a a five week intensive course in Mumbai on “Demography, Gender and Reproductive Health”, 8 July–4 August 2007. It is an an introduction to population studies in India, organised by the International Institute for Population Science (IIPS) in Mumbai in collaboration with NCI. The course is a multi-disciplinary course that is open for under-graduate and graduate students from the Nordic countries. Apply directly to NCI before 1 April 2007. Each member university can nominate 3 candidates and 3 reserves on this course. More information

• Sida funded English-language educational training programmes at Lund University
Lund University Education – the university's company for commissioned education – offers a number of English-language educational training programmes funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, to be held in the Fall 2007 – Spring 2008.

– A training programme on ”Urban Transport” for professionals in the field. From South Asia, persons from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are welcome to apply for this programme. Closing date for applications: 2 April 2007. More information.
– A training programme on ”Child rights, Classroom and School Management”. It consists of two phases: The first phase consists of 3 weeks in Sweden with studies in the subject area. This should be combined with a project work on a part-time basis during 5 months on a relevant task in the home country. The second phase consists of a follow-up seminar of the project work during 2 weeks in India, during this phase the participants will be asked as a part of the course to develop, discuss and present plans for applying the course content in their work. Finally, a couple of months after the second phase, a follow-up visit will be conducted by the mentor to the participants’ home countries. From South Asia, persons working with pedagogical support and pedagogical development in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka are welcome to apply for this programme. Closing date for applications: 30 April 2007. More information.
– A training programme on ”Sustainable Urban Water and Sanitation”. The overall objective of the programme is to provide the participants with understanding and knowledge about the need for integrated approaches and the organisational and institutional changes that are necessary for a sustainable provision of water supply and sanitation services in urban areas. From South Asia, professionals in the field from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka are welcome to apply for this programme. Closing date for applications: 30 April 2007. More information.
– A training programme on ”Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights – SRHR” runs during the Spring and Fall 2007. The target group is persons working with SRHR, in managing position and that have responsibility to develop capacity and knowledge within SRHR. Participants should have a background as midwives/teachers in the health care sector or gynaecologists/obstetricians. From South Asia, persons from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been accepted for this programme. Closing date for applications was 1 November 2006. More information.

The Dept. of Housing Development and Management at Lund University has already, since several years, organised the same kind of International trianing courses with funds from Sida. Their short courses have been directed to planners, architects, civil engineers, administrators and others working with construction, housing and human settlements. A postgraduate training course on ”Conservation and Management of Historic Buildings” was held in the Fall 2006, in collaboration with the Department of Architectural Conservation and Restoration, Lund University. The first three-weeks part was held in Lund, and the course then continues with a two-weeks tour to Asia or Africa in the spring 2007. More information.

• Inderjit Khurana finalist for the 2007 World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child
Ms. Inderjit Khurana from India is one of the three finalists for the 2007 World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC), with prize money totalling SEK 1 million. Khurana (photo by Kim Naylor) works for the organisation Ruchika School Social Service Organization (RSSO), Bhubaneswar, India. She has run over a hundred schools and two phone help lines for 21 years, helping the poorest, most vulnerable children who live and work on train platforms. The WCPRC, founded by the Swedish organisation Children’s World, empowers children and young people all over the world so that they can make their voices heard and demand respect for their rights in accordance with the UN Child Convention. It has quickly grown into the world's largest annual educational initiative for children on rights and democracy. 11 million students at 20,000 schools in 82 countries participate in the WCPRC, and that number is growing constantly. Around five million of those children will participate in a Global Vote to determine who will receive the Global Friends’ Award 2007. This year’s prize ceremony will be held on 16 April at Gripsholm Castle in Mariefred, where HM Queen Silvia will help the children to give out the prizes. More information.

• More information about South Asia related education at Swedish and Nordic universities
See SASNET’s page, http://www.sasnet.lu.se/education.html

Conferences and courses

• South Asian Travelling Seminar on ”Exploring Masculinities” to be held in Delhi
A so-called South Asian Travelling Seminar titled ”Exploring Masculinities”, will be held in New Delhi 13–14 February 2007. The seminar is both an academic exercise in generating interest for further research on masculinities as well as a campaign to form a network of university communities that are willing to take up issues of gender equality. The travelling seminars on masculinities are organised by Aakar, and as the title suggests, they travel to ten universities across South Asia. The seminar at each location is held in collaboration with a university department. In Delhi, the Department of Sociology, University of Delhi is the co-organiser of the seminar. The speakers include Dr. Jani De Silva, International Centre For Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Imtiaz Saikh, Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Rubina Khilji, Department of Gender Studies, University of Peshawar, Pakistan; and Dr. Nivedita Menon, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, India. More information about the South Asian Travelling Seminar (as a pdf-file).

• Kolkata seminar on Media-Governance Dynamics in 21st Century India
A one-day National Seminar on Restyling Politics: Media-Governance Dynamics in 21st Century India will be held in Kolkata, India, on Saturday 17 February 2007, from 09.30. The workshop is funded by the University Grants Commission of India, and organised by the Dept. of Political Science, Calcutta University. The key speakers and panelists in the seminar include eminent academics, activists and journalists. The sessions are: "Mass Mediated Reality: Media, State and the Civic Space", " ‘Mass’ Media and the Public Domain: Including the Excluded?" and "Mass Mediated Reality: Media, State and the Civic Space". The panel discussion is titled "Do the Indian Mainstream Media Suffer from the Illusion of Omnipotence?" Venue: Calcutta University's Alipore Campus. More information from the seminar coordinator Dr. Dipankar Sinha.

• 11th Annual Scientific Conference of ICDDR,B to be held at in Dhaka
The 11th Annual Scientific Conference of ICDDR,B (the 11th ASCON) will be held at the Centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh 4–6 March 2007, followed by the 40th Anniversary celebrations of the Demographic Surveillance System (DSS)-Matlab, from 7 to 8 March 2007. The Theme of the Conference is “Partnership in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals.” Scientists, health professionals, programme managers, community organizers, and policy-makers are invited to participate in this forum providing an opportunity to disseminate and share results of research, experiences, and lessons learnt from recent research and programmes. The 11th ASCON will especially concentrate on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) No. 1, 4, 5, and 6. Deadline for abstracts has been extended to 30 December 2006. More information.

• Pondicherry conference about Tamil Diaspora
An International conference titled ”Facets of Tamil Diaspora” is held in Pondicherry, India, 14 – 16 March 2007. It will be organized by the Department of Indology, French Institute of Pondicherry and the Department of Tamil Literature, University of Madras. The conference aims at exploring and understanding the issues and problems of the ‘Tamil Experience in Other Spaces’. Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Conference Hall, French Institute of Pondicherry, 11, Saint Louis Street, Pondicherry. More information.

• International Sociology Seminar to be held in Dhaka
An International seminar on ”Fifty Years of Sociology, Fifty Years of Social Transformation: Future of the Past” is held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 28–30 June 2007. It is organised by the Dept. of Sociology at the University of Dhaka, in cinnection with its Golden Jubilee celebrations. Papers are invited from interested participants on growth and development of sociology as a discipline and its role in social transformation covering for example: ”Crisis and Future of Sociological Theory”; ”Media and Post Modern/Post Colonial Society”; ”Globalization, Identity and Risk”; ”Social Inequality, Social Mobility and Class Formation”; ”Poverty, Microcredit, and Rural Transformation”; ”Population, Health, Gender and Reproductive Rights”; and ”Urban Development, Urban Space and Asian Megalopolis”. Venue: Teacher-Student Centre (TSC), University of Dhaka. Limited travel assistance may be provided to South Asian participants. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. More information (as a pdf-file).

• 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

• Stig Toft Madsen lectures in Oslo about Musharraf and Pakistani Prospects
Stig Toft Madsen from the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies (NIAS), Copenhagen, lectures in Oslo on Monday 12 February 2007, 14.15–16.00. Dr. Toft Madsen will talk about ”The Importance of Being Pervez Musharraf: Pakistani Prospects”. In 1972, Herbert Feldman published a book on Pakistan entitled ”From Crisis to Crisis”. Today, too, the country is often perceived as a parking lot of unresolved contradictions. Whether these contradictions originated in the very "Idea of Pakistan", emerged haphazardly contingent upon factors beyond Pakistani political control, or resulted from political errors, seem central to the situation of Pakistan today. Through a portrait of President Pervez Musharraf, the seminar will focus on Pakistan’s re-current crises and their possible resolution. The seminar is organised by the Asian Network (Nettverk for Asiastudier). Venue: Centre for Development and Environment (SUM), seminar rom, 4th floor, Sognsveien 68, Oslo. More information (as a pdf-file).

• Per Ståhlberg presents his project about India as a Global Superpower
Per Ståhlberg, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, will lecture about ”India as a Global Superpower; An Anthropological Study of Future Visions” at Södertörn University College in Huddinge, on Thursday 15 February 2007, 13–15. Dr. Ståhlberg (photo to the right) was recently given a major grant from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Stiftelsen Riksbankens jubileumsfond), for a research project on this topic (more information about Per and his research). The lecture is organised as a higher seminar by Södertörn University’s School of Culture and Communication, which includes departments of Media and Communication Studies, Art History, Philosophy, Pedagogy, English, History of Ideas and Archeology and the Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge. Venue: Primus, C wing, Main campus in Flemingsberg.

• Oslo seminar about ”Emerging India? Challenges and Prospects”
A one-day seminar about ”Emerging India? Challenges and Prospects” will be held in oslo on Friday 9 March 2007, 10.30–17.30. The seminar is organised by the Dept. of Culture Studies and Oriental Language (IKOS), Oslo University, as part of its ongoing research project about ’Political culture in South Asia’. The seminar will focus on the preconditions for India’s economic growth; its effects on social and cultural change, as well as on the environment; and which challenges the state will face in order to secure continued growth. Among the lecturers are SASNET’s Director Prof. Staffan Lindberg, who will talk about 25 years of rural change in Tamil Nadu; Prof. Pamela Price, University of Oslo, about voters preferences, poverty and development; Sten Widmalm, Uppsala University, about decentralization and development; Alf Gunvald Nilsen, Univerity of Nottingham, UK, about social movements and "the reinvention of India". Prof. Hans Blomkvist, Uppsala University, will talk about the challenges that India faces regarding energy security and energy supply; Sirpa Tenhunen, University of Helsinki, about the use of mobile phones in West Bengal; Anne Waldrop, Oslo University College, about women and political mobilisation; and finally Arild Engelsen Ruud, University of Oslo, about India’s problematic relations to its neighbouring countries. More information.

• Uppsala lecture about Category of Evidentiality in South Asian Languages
Prof. Elena Bashir, Dept. of South Asian languages and literatures, University of Chicago, USA, lectures at Uppsala University on Wednesday 14 March 2007, 14.15–16.00. Prof. Bashir will talk about ”The Category of Evidentiality in South Asian Languages”. The lecture is organised by the Dept. of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University. Venue: Engelska Parken, room 2-0024.

• Elena Bashir lectures about Language and Identity Issues in Pakistan
Prof. Elena Bashir, Dept. of South Asian languages and literatures, University of Chicago, USA, lectures at Uppsala University on Monday 19 March 2007, 14.15–16.00. Prof. Bashir will talk about ”Language and Identity Issues: Case Studies from Pakistan”. The lecture is organised by the Dept. of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University. Venue: Engelska Parken, room 2-0024.

• Guest lecture by James Scott at Roskilde University
Professor James Scott, Sterling Professor in Political Science and Director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University, USA, holds a guest lecture about ”Flattening the World: Development as North Atlantic Standardization” in Roskilde, Denmark, on Friday 23 March 2007, 13.15. The lecture is part of a guest lecture series programme organised by the Graduate School of International Development Studies at the Institute of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University. Prof. Scott is specialised on research on political economy, comparative agrarian societies, theories of hegemony and resistance, peasant politics, revolution, theories of class relations and anarchism with a focus on Southeast Asia. Venue: Roskilde University Centre, Big Auditorium 00. More information.

• EU Seminar in Hässleholm about India and China
The Olof Palme International Center organises a so-called EU Forum as a half-day seminar in Hässleholm on Tuesday 27 March 2007. The theme for the seminar will be ”The European Union and China/India”. Among the invited speakers are the former Swedish Ambassador to China, Börje Ljunggren; and Prof. Masako Ikegamo from the Center for Pacific Asia Studies (CPAS), Stockholm University, who will lecture about ”China and India – Energy, Security and Impact on EU”. SASNET’s Director, Prof. Staffan Lindberg, will talk about ”Growth, Poverty and Democratization in India”, and Mr. Robin Sukhia, representative for the Sweden India Business Council (SIBC), will talk about ”Trade and Labour rights in India”.

Swedish Business and Politics related to South Asia

• Prominent guests to the India Business Forum in Stockholm

• More information about South Asia related business and politics in Sweden
See SASNET’s page, http://www.sasnet.lu.se/polbuss.html

South Asia related culture in Scandinavia

• Bhutan exhibition in Stockholm extended into the Spring 2007
The exhibition about the Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm has been extended to be shown also during the Spring 2007. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Swedish Bhutan Society. It is titled ”Bhutan – borgarnas och klostrens rike i Himalaya”, and consists of photos, textiles, costumes and antiquities from private and public Swedish collections. Håkan Wahlquist, Curator for the Asian items at the museum, recently visited Bhutan in order to prepare for the exhibition (see his photo to the right). The exhibition was formally inauguarted by the Bhutanese Ambassador to Sweden (stationed in Switzerland), H.E. Mr Sonam T. Rabgye, on Friday 25 August 2006. Venue: Etnografiska Museet, Djurgårdsbrunnsvägen 34, Stockholm. More information.

• More information about South Asia related culture in Scandinavia
See SASNET’s page, http://www.sasnet.lu.se/culture.html

New and updated items on SASNET web site

• 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 203 departments, with detailed descriptions of the South Asia related research and education taking place! Go to http://www.sasnet.lu.se/environment.html

ƒ East Asia Science & Technology Programme; European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS), Stockholm School of Economics

ƒ Church and Mission studies, Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University

 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, SE-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