univerCity

Barbara D. Metcalf, the president of the AHA, is a wonderful historian of Islam in South Asia. I recommend reading her short note, Historians and Chemical Engineers, in the February 2010 issue of Perspectives on History.
History may in some ways be primarily the purview of professionals, but it is also an intimate part of personal [...]

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[Acknowledgments: This paper was part of a conference panel; I want to thank my fantastic co-panelists: Abhijeet Paul and Anis Ahmed who wrote about Bengali literature; and the unfailingly insightful Aditya Adarkar, our discussant. I want to especially thank Richard Delacy, whose many keen insights into the use and abuse of Manto have most definitely [...]

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[Sepoy notes: I have badgered Lapata to release some of her academic writings here on CM. They are excellent bits of research and analysis - which deserve a wide, global audience - also because we are talking about a revolution. This paper, Particularities of Partition Literature: Looking Beyond the Master Narratives of Partition [...]

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How is it that it would not occur to a learned person that the theoretical school of Botulism was a hoax?

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This article has been making the rounds; I got it from a twittering Sepoy. I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly the motivation for the lie is. Is it exploitative? (if we don’t have graduate students, we will have to teach Intro to Whatever Studies ourselves!) Evil? (let’s take bright, naïve young people full [...]

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Dear Dr. Lapata
In an effort to speed up the publication schedule and work through our backlog, we are attempting to collect any remaining permissions from authors who are moving up in line for publication. Our records indicate that we still require permissions for the image(s) contained in your article, “(redacted).” Please return these permissions as [...]

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Le Roi de Lahore (1877) was the second opera written by Jules Massenet (1842-1912). The tale depicts the romance of the King Alim and the temple girl Sita against the backdrop of Mahmoud Ghazni’s invasion of Lahore.1

Théodore Pavie (1811-1896) the French traveller and writer of exotica for Revue des Deux Mondes studied Sanskrit in Paris, [...]

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Via Naim Sahib comes the sad news that Simon Digby, 79, passed away in Delhi. Anyone who has touched any scholarly/popular work on medieval to colonial India – esp. aspects of religion and art – has seen the fruits of his amazing intellect reflected in those works.
I will try and find a full biography [...]

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Two great opportunities for students from South Asia to pursue graduate education in NY. It is wonderful, and a testimony to the work of the scholars and administrators behind these initiatives, that even in these economic downturns we have these possibilities.
At Columbia:
Applications are sought for the Ambedkar Sanskrit Fellowship at Columbia University in the City [...]

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I know that I need to do more than just put photos but, some of us are trying to get ready for teaching, ok? In any case, these are cool pictures. So for the commemoration of the official unification of Germany, two giants walked the streets of Berlin from Oct 1-4th.
Die Riesen Kommen by [...]

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Via Manu Bhagavan and the Society for Advancing the History of South Asia:

Please support the establishment of an endowed South Asian History book prize by the American Historical Association!
Historical work on South Asia has become increasingly prominent and influential in the world academy in recent decades. Numerous books written about the region have deeply influenced [...]

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It only took a month, but I am sorta situated now. Just a week or more and then classes begin. I will post my syllabi here, as soon as I finalize them. And we need to have a discussion on the greatest essays in SA history for pdcs. In the meanwhile, enjoy some more snaps, [...]

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I must say that this long hiatus has made me lose my blogging legs. Weird. It’s like I have never done this before. As usual, instead of sitting down and writing a long, thoughtful piece on the art of staying in touch with my ghostly audience, I thought I’d upload some random pics I have [...]

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updated below the fold…
You may have read about the sudden and tragic passing away of a fine scholar, Aditya Behl. It is a great loss not only to his family and friends but also to the field of South Asian Literature. His translation of Shattari’s Madhumalati (2000) was pitch-perfect and a valuable addition to the [...]

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I am still in the weeds. But, classes are about to start around towns and I just got a note from a new blogger and graduate student, Mircae – which reminded me to put up a general call for SA academic blogs. If you have one, or read one, put it up here in the [...]

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K. K. Aziz, 82, one of the most renowned historian of Pakistan, is gravely ill in Lahore. He is one of those cherished individuals who dare speak truth without the fear of consequence. He acted as the nation’s conscious for a long while [See especially, The Pakistani Historian: Pride and Prejudice in the Writing of [...]

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