Columbia     Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures
 

Events

Monday, November 16, 2009
Secularism in Contemporary India
A panel discussion with Christophe Jaffrelot, Thomas Blom Hansen, and Rajeev Bhargava
International Affairs Building, room 1512
10:30 am - 12:30 pm
A discussion with CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT, Alliance Visiting Professor at Columbia and Professor of Political Science at Sciences-Po, Paris, THOMAS BLOM HANSEN, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, and RAJEEV BHARGAVA, Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi and Director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies.

Co-sponsored with the Alliance Program; the South Asia Institute; the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures; and the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion.

Monday, November 16, 2009
Thou Shalt Not Translate Me
A lecture by Abdelfatta Kilito, Professor of French and Arabic Literature
19 University Place, NYU | 1st Floor Great Room
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Abdelfattah Kilito teaches literature in the Faculty of Arts at the Université Mohammed V, Rabat-Agdal. He has published, among other works: La Langue d?Adam, Le Cheval de Nietzsche, La Querelle des images. Two of his books have been translated into English: The Author and His Doubles and Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language.  His lecture will examine the relationship of Arabic literature, past and present, to European literature in light of questions posed by translation.

for location:   http://adabnyu.wordpress.com/maps/


Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Identity, Ethnicity and Democracy: the case of Pakistan
A talk by Farzana Shaikh from teh Royal Institute of International Affairs
Knox Hall, room 208
6:00 - 7:30 pm
More than sixty years after its creation in 1947, Pakistan remains plagued by fierce ethnic divisions and the absence of stable democratic institutions. Explanations for their persistence vary widely with attention focused overwhelmingly on the conditions of unequal access to state power that favor some ethnic groups over others and on repeated interventions by the military, which have eroded the foundations of popular democracy. The speaker will argue that the uncertain terms of Pakistan's national identity and the state's vexed relationship with 'Islam' have been at least as important in deepening ethnic discord and negating plural definitions of 'the Pakistani'. This uncertainty and the chronic lack of consensus over 'Islam', the speaker will suggest, have been no less responsible for fuelling exclusionary political discourses.

They, in turn, have affected constitutional development by encouraging the country's governing elites to seek a monopoly over the expression of Islam in an attempt to generate power that lies for the most part beyond the reach of mass democratic politics.

Farzana Shaikh is an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London. She was a Scholar in Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2006-07, and has lectured on Pakistan and Islam in South Asia at universities throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. She is the author of Making Sense of Pakistan (2009) and Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860-1947 (1989).

Tuesday-Wednesday, November 17-18, 2009
Religion, Conflict and Accommodation in India
A workshop led by Sudipta Kaviraj and Rajeev Bhargava
Heyman Center for the Humanities | Second Floor Common Room
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
A workshop led by Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, and Rajeev Bhargava, Director of the Centre for Studies in Developing Societies (Delhi). Discussion will focus on the role of religion in India throughout its history, particiularly the dynamics of conflict and accommodation between Buddhists and conventional Vedic religion and among Saivas, Vaisnavas and Jains in ancient and medieval society.

Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion and the Heyman Center for the Humanities.

For directions to the Heyman Center, click this link: ttp://heymancenter.org/visit.php

Saturday, December 5, 2009
Iran After the Election
A Conference hosted by the SIPA and the Middle East Institute
Altschul Auditorium, IAB 417
8:30 am - 7:00 pm


Click Here to Visit Website

The recent elections in Iran, and subsequent challenges to their legitimacy, have been a matter of enormous internal conflict in Iran, and of seemingly endless debate in the rest of the world. As protesters continue take to the Iranian street to voice their opposition to elections, fault-lines are emerging amongst the ruling elite.  These momentous events constitute a significant challenge to the legitimacy of the Iranian regime and the future of the Islamic Republic. 

The conference will be an opportunity to have leading Iranian scholars and analysts discuss the impact of the recent elections, Iran's relationship with the international community and the theocratic foundations of the Islamic Republic.

Participants will include: Richard Bulliet, Ervand Abrahamian, Asef Bayat, Hamid Dabashi, Shahla Talebi, Farideh Farhi, Gary Sick, Wayne White, Judith Yaphe, Houchang Chehabi, Hossein Kamaly, Fioozeh Kashani-Sabet, Mansour Farhang, and Abdolkarim Soroush.

Click here to register