SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Newsletter 9:

12 September 2001

SASNET News:

• Invitation: Networking Grants for planning and continued activities in research and/or education programmes

A. Planning grants in support of inter- or intra-disciplinary research and/or education programmes in South Asian studies, which can serve as a basis for the application for grants from various research and/or education funding agencies. Planning activities devoted to bridging the gap between natural sciences, humanities and social sciences in South Asian studies. For this kind of activity the grant can be used for networking in the planning of multi-disciplinary workshops, conferences, seminars etc.
B. Continued networking grants in support of activities that has already been planned, for example, through a planning grant from SASNET (see under A. above).

Full information on the SASNET grants. Last date for applications is November 15, 2001. The allocation of grants will be decided by January 2001 at the latest.

• SASNET´s Board has its first meeting
on 29 August in Lund. The meeting which took a full day discussed several matters of importance for SASNET´s future plans. In a key decision the board took up the three main areas that SASNET shall give priority to, namely:

1. Interdisciplinary networking;
2. Interaction with the media and the schools; and
3. Promoting education on South Asia, including PhD studies.

The board also decided that SASNET during the year 2002 should give grants for planning research and educational programmes and for workshops. Maximum amount should be 125 000 SEK. The grants should be given only for one year, but the applicant may come back and make a new networking application for a second year. Applications will be invited twice a year, closing dates are 15 April and 15 November. Later on, if funds permit, SASNET could give support for three-years programmes.
Finally the board agreed upon planning for a symposium with PhD candidates specialising in South Asian studies during the late summer/fall of 2002.
(The full minutes available as a rtf-file).

• The SASNET workshop about global networking
in South Asian studies took place in Lund on 27-28 August. About 40 persons attended the workshop and gave a good start for SASNET’s global networking. The papers presented by Dr Mats Benner, Dr Rita Afsar, Prof Zulfiqar Bhutta, Dr Piet Terhal, Prof Jan Hjärpe, Prof Jan Lundquist, Prof Ronald Herring, Prof Rana P B Singh, Prof Graham Chapman and Prof Björn Hettne, as well as the fruitful discussions will appear on SASNET Gateway during the fall 2001.

• An article on the future of SASNET appeared in the September issue of LUM, the news bulletin published by Lund University. Read the text.

Community News and conferences:

• The 30th Annual Conference on South Asia,
held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will take place October 18-21, 2001. The Wisconsin Conference, as it is known, is the most important conference of South Asian studies held in the United States. A Pre-Conference seminar which will be held on October 18th entitled: ”Rethinking India's Democracy: The Politics of Social and Institutional Change”.

• The European Association of South Asian Archaeologists
arranged the Sixteenth International Conference on South Asian Archaeology in Paris 2-6 July 2001. Report from the conference.

• Prof. Taran K Biswas from Benares Hindu University
lectures at Lund University, Friday 14 September at 14.15, on ”The Concept of Time and Space in Indian Art”. Venue: Dept of Theology, room 204.

New educational courses on South Asia:

• Museion, at Göteborg University
offers a 20 credits course on ”World history of Everyday life”, with South Asian perspectives in the autumn 2001/spring 2002. More information on the course which started on 10 September, 2001. The course will probably run also in the autumn 2002/spring 2003.

• A Series of lectures on Lanka is held during the fall of 2001, by Prof Peter Schalk, Dept of History of Religions at Uppsala University. The seminars will take place at the Dept of Cultural Anthropology. More information.

Cultural activities connected to South Asia in Sweden

• Indienbiblioteket; The Indo-Swedish Translation Project is inaugurated at Bok- och Biblioteksmässan in Göteborg 13–15 September, 2001. Several renowned Indian writers visit Sweden. See program (in Swedish only). A presentation on the translation project.

 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, International Office,
Lund University, P O Box 117, S-221 00 Lund
Visiting address: Gamla Kirurgen, Sandgatan 3, first floor, room no. 230
Phone: + 46 46 222 73 40
Fax: + 46 46 222 96 65
E-mail: sasnet@sasnet.lu.se
Web site: http://www.sasnet.lu.se
Our office is manned weekdays 9-17, and open to visitors.

Staff: Staffan Lindberg, director/co-ordinator &
           Lars Eklund, webmaster/programme secretary