Urdu Conference - CFP

[David Magier]

The following conference announcement and call for papers is being
posted to your mailing list or listserv from the EVENTS CALENDAR
section of SARAI. Please contact organizers directly for any further
information.

David Magier
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/area/sarai

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Urdu Scholarship in Transnational Perspective

Call for Papers

On September 28-30, 2001, the Southern Asian Institute at Columbia
University will host an international conference in honor of retiring
Professor C. M. Naim of the University of Chicago. The occasion will
publicly recognize Prof.  Naim's contributions to Urdu and South Asian
studies as a teacher, scholar, translator, and man of gracious ways
and liberal views. It will also provide an opportunity to reflect
retrospectively on the expansion of transnational, interdisciplinary
scholarship based in Urdu-language sources in the United States,
Europe, India, and Pakistan over the last forty years. The array of
scholarly presentations will reassert the centrality of Urdu, defined
inclusively and through its plural contexts, as a tool of knowledge in
the production of a wide-ranging and influential body of research.

The conference seeks to bring together social scientists and humanists
who have examined the cultural histories, social and political
debates, and literary developments in north India, Pakistan, and the
global community of Urdu speakers. Prof.  Naim's engagement with
historians, anthropologists, and political scientists as well as
scholars of literature, language, religion and other subjects will be
reflected in the selection of papers for inclusion in the program. The
best of the collected papers will be published as a scholarly volume
by a major university press, and therefore no previously published
work or work already submitted for publication will be accepted.

Papers are invited that present original findings and new
perspectives.  Presentations are also welcome from translators,
publishers, editors, educators, and administrators who work in the
Urdu field. Proposals may be submitted for organized panels,
roundtables, or individual papers. Each proposal should consist of a
250-word abstract as well as the name of the contributor or
contributors, together with institutional affiliation, address, phone
number, and e-mail address.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is August 15, 2000.

Selection of papers will be made and presenters notified by October 1,
2000. Completed papers will be due August 15, 2001, approximately six
weeks before the conference.

Travel assistance will be offered for leading scholars from South
Asia, pending the outcome of fundraising efforts. United States and
Europe-based participants are expected to finance their own travel
from institutional or personal sources. A small block of rooms has
been reserved in East Campus Housing at Columbia University for the
duration of the conference. Gratis accommodation will be offered to a
limited number of presenters on the basis of financial need. Other
paper presenters may avail of subsidized rates for these rooms or for
rooms in hotels with which Columbia has contractual arrangements for
accommodating visitors. The conference expects to host a dinner
reception and provide meals during panel sessions. Registration fees
will be kept to a minimum.

To submit a proposal for a paper, panel, or roundtable, please e-mail
abstracts (no attachments) to:

Dr. Kathryn Hansen
Chair of the Organizing Committee
kghansen at aol.com

or send hard copy to:

Dr. Philip Oldenburg
Southern Asian Institute
420 West 118th Street, MC 3334
New York, NY 10027

To make inquiries or add your name to an e-mail list for further
announcements, send a message to Ezra Kover, ek527 at columbia.edu

ANNOUNCEMENT WEBPAGE:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/area/sarai/conf/9.01Urdu-cfp.html