SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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SASNET Regional News:

Seminar with the Pakistani ambassador to Sweden

• The Pakistani ambassador to Sweden, Mr Shahid A Kamal, visits Lund University on Monday 4 February 2002. SASNET arranges an Open House seminar between 14–16 at the Dept of Sociology, Paradisgatan 5, House G, conference room 1. All interested are welcome to take part in the seminar, which will be focused on ”Possible themes for Pakistan–Sweden co-operation in the fields of research and education”. SASNET director Staffan Lindberg gives an introduction about higher education and research in Sweden that might be of relevance to future research co-operation.

• Mr Shahid A Kamal will later on in the evening hold a public lecture on ”The conflict in Afghanistan, and the Pakistan-India relations”. The lecture starts at 19.30 at Eden´s hörsal, Dept of Political Science, Paradisgatan 5, and lasts for about one hour. This arrangement is organised by SASNET in collaboration with the Lund Association of Foreign Affairs.
The ambassador, who received his higher education in London, Paris and Lahore, has a rich and varied experience from the world of diplomacy and international relations. He has for more than 20 years worked in the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the Prime Ministers Office, the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and at Pakistani diplomatic Missions in Paris, New York and Washington before he came to Sweden last year.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he served as Director for India from 1991 to 1994, and as Desk Officer for India from 1978 to 1979 he worked on India-Pakistan relations. During his work for the OIC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 1995 to 1998, he headed the Political Department, and served as Coordinator of the OIC Assistance Mobilisation Group for Bosnia and Hercegovina established after the Dayton Peace Accord. He was also involved in OIC´s peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan, Somalia and Tajikistan.

Seminar on Water Rights and Rural Development in India

• A lecture and seminar with Dr. A. Rajagopal, Research Coordinator, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWaters), is arranged on Friday 8 February, at 13.15–15, jointly by SASNET and the Development Studies Seminar at Lund University. The title of the lecture is ”Water Rights and Rural Development in India”. Venue: Conference Room 1, Dept. of Sociology, Paradisgatan 5, House G. All interested are welcome.
Dr. Rajagopal is development economist who studied at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrium, and worked for many years at Madras Institute of Development Studies. He is a specialist on Water Management in agriculture but also worked extensively on general problems related to rural development in South India. His doctoral thesis deals with water management problems in an interdisciplinary perspective with particular emphasis on farmers’ collective action in managing a common property resource like water. He is currently involved in a SASNET sponsored research programme on “Water and Poverty in South Asia” organised by the Department of Water and Environmental Studies at Linköping University.

Research co-operation on the Nicobar islands wanted

• The Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF) at the University of Vienna, Austria, seeks through its Research Fellow Mr Simron Jit Singh, who presently is a doctoral candidate at the Human Ecology Division at Lund University, research co-operation with an interested academic (as scientific advisor) with expertise in analysing and interpreting rituals.
Since 1999, the IFF conducts socio-ecological research in the Nicobar Islands, an Indian archipelago close to Indonesia. Having amassed a large amount of primary material, the researchers now plan to analyse society-environment relations through common ritual, which is a central feature in the Nicobars. It would be an added advantage to the project if the interested scholar has previous experience with rituals in the region of Indonesia, Burma or Malaysia. The project is still in its preparation phase and funds are yet to be raised. Interested researchers should contact Clemens Grünbuhel or Simron Jit Singh.

 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