May 4, 2011
South Asia Center presents speaker series on Persian language
The South Asia Center at the Jackson School of International Studies is presenting a speaker series in May on the topic of the Persian language and the vernaculars of South Asia.
The lecture series is being presented in conjunction with a senior seminar on the same topic taught by Heidi Pauwels, professor of Asian languages and literature, and was co-organized by Purnima Dhavan, history; and Jennifer Dubrow and Jameel Ahmad, Asian languages and literature.
“Scholars and students from history, comparative literature and Asian languages and Literature have an interest in the shaping of new social identities in South Asia resulting from the interaction of cosmopolitan languages, such as Persian, and the vernaculars in the wider Indo-Muslim sphere,” Pauwels said.
She said the group hopes to deepen its engagement with primary texts and recent scholarship in under-explored areas of literary history by inviting scholars working at the forefront of the field. The schedule includes:
- Rajeev Kinra, Northwestern University, Reading the Epistolary Arts Back into Mughal History: Letters from a Punjabi Brahman in King Shah Jahan’s Court, 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12, 226 Communication.
- Muzaffar Alam, The Politics of Piety: Of Some Sufi Critiques of Religious Truth and Mughal Regime, 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 19, 202 Communication.
- Sunil Sharma, Boston University, Persian-Urdu Literary Cultures in Eighteenth Century North India: The Divans of Fa-iz Dihlavi, 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 26, 317 Thomson.
The series is free and open to the public. More information is available online.
