2018 Rustgi Undergraduate Conference on South Asia
Origins of the Contemporary: November 3, 2018
In person: Capen 107, University at Buffalo, 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 (University at Buffalo, SUNY)
Abhishek Shah (Northwestern University), “Approaches to News Production on and from Kashmir”
Fatima Afzal (Lahore University 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 (University 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 (University at Buffalo, SUNY)
Sailakshmi Senthil Kumar (University 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 (University at Buffalo, SUNY)
Sharmain Siddiqui (Northwestern University), “Unani Tibb as Resistance: Bodily Practice at the Intersection of Colonial and Postcolonial Systems of Power”
Ethan Seeley (University at Buffalo, 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 University), “Anarcho-Sufism in America: A Musical Analysis of Omar Waqar”
Courtney Johnson (The Ohio State University), “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 University at Buffalo 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.
