2018 Rustgi Undergraduate Conference on South Asia
Origins of the Contemporary: November 3, 2018
In person: Capen 107, ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, North Campus
Free and open to the public
Program
8:30 am: opening remarks
8:45-9:45 am: Panel 1: Social and political currents
Chair: Dr. Shaanta Murshid (ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, SUNY)
Abhishek Shah (Northwestern ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½), “Approaches to News Production on and from Kashmir”
Fatima Afzal (Lahore ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ of Management Sciences), “Prime Time 'Akhlaq': Selling Ethics in the Subcontinent”
9:45-11:00 am: Panel 2: Literature and Media: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
Chair: Dr. Natalie Sarrazin (SUNY Brockport)
Brigette Meskell (SUNY Brockport), “Escaping the Fire: The Construction of Female Same-Sex Desire and Identity in Hindi Cinema”
James Batten (ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ of Colorado Boulder), “National Pride, Nukes, and the Meaning of the Mahābhārata”
111:00 - 11:15 am: Coffee break
11:15 am-12:15 pm: Panel 3: Health, Medicine, and Policy
Chair: Dr. Claude Welch (ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, SUNY)
Sailakshmi Senthil Kumar (ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ of California Berkeley), “Lingual Choices”
Madison Weisend (Marymount Manhattan College), “Exploring Water Scarcity Through the Dynamics of Social Power: The Case of the Thar Desert”
12:15-1:30pm: Lunch
1:30 - 2:45 pm: Panel 4: Religions, Theory, and Practice
Chair: Dr. Mark Nathan (ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, SUNY)
Sharmain Siddiqui (Northwestern ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½), “Unani Tibb as Resistance: Bodily Practice at the Intersection of Colonial and Postcolonial Systems of Power”
Ethan Seeley (ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, SUNY), “The Strange Case of Bhagat Singh Thind: Citizenship and Spirituality”
2:45 - 3:45 pm: Panel 5: Art and Diaspora
Chair: Dr. Christopher Lee (Canisius College)
Sarah Robinson (Vanderbilt ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½), “Anarcho-Sufism in America: A Musical Analysis of Omar Waqar”
Courtney Johnson (The Ohio State ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½), “The Bifurcated Bride: Gender, Nationalism, and Identity in Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Bride’s Toilet”
3:45 - 4:00 pm: coffee break
4 pm: keynote talk
Keynote speaker: Sujatha Gidla
Book signing util 6 pm
Sponsors
The first annual Rustgi South Asian Undergraduate Research Conference is made possible by a generous gift from Dr. Vinod Rustgi and his family. The ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Asian Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, Department of English, Department of History, Department of Linguistics, Honors College, Office of International Education, and Humanities Institute have provided additional support and funding.
