2018 Conference Program
Precarity, Resistance, and Care Communities in South Asia
You can download the 2018 Conference Program here as a PDF file. You can also read the Conference Abstracts and Biographies here or download them as a PDF file.
Keynote Address: “Precarious Futures, Precarious Pasts: Climate, Terror and Planetarity”
Gaurav Desai, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
SUNDAY: JANUARY 7, 2018
5:00-7:00 PM MEETING: SALA Executive Committee (Carnegie)
DAY 1: MONDAY: JANUARY 8, 2018
7:30 AM onward REGISTRATION (Julliard Foyer)
8:00-8:20 AM CONFERENCE WELCOME: John Hawley, SALA President (Julliard)
OPENING: Sukanya Gupta and Afrin Zeenat, Conference Co-Chairs
8:30-9:45 AM Plenary Session
Panel: Can the Subaltern Speak: Thirty (Insecure) Years Later
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Chair: Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, New York University
1. X Marks the Spot: Critical Notes on Queer Eroticism in Postcolonial India
Rahul Gairola, Independent Scholar
2. One Cannot Speak What One Does Not See: Queer Sexual Identities and Hybridity in Postcolonial Discourse
Robert LaRue, Moravian College
3. Locating Human Labor in the Age of the Anthropocene: Digital Subalternity, Leisure/Work and Digital Financialization
Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University
4. Ethics of Representation and the Figure of the Woman: The Question of Agency in Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
Anirban Bhattacharjee, Santipur College and the University of Kalyani
Respondent: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University
10:00-11:15 AM SESSION 1 (Panels 1A, 1B, and 1C)
Panel 1A: States of Insecurity: Framing New Heuristics for Literature from Northeast India
(Room: Guggenheim)
Panel Chair: Uddipana Goswami, University of Pennsylvania
1. A Botany of Death: Disavowed Pasts and Horizons of Futurity in “Sambhabya Kaal”
Amit R. Baishya, University of Okhlahoma
2. Sub-National Fantasies in Genre Fiction: A Study of Kanchan Barua’s Asimot Jar Heral Sima
Shalim Muktadir Hussain, Jamia Millia Islamia
3. Home, Away from Home: Violence, Womanhood and Home/land in Jahnavi Baruah’s Fiction
Uddipana Goswami, University of Pennsylvania
4. Literary Representation of Conflict and Insecurity: The Case of Nagaland in Temsula Ao’s Short Fiction
Nupur Chawla, Jamia Millia Islamia
Panel 1B: Media Precarities I
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Chair: Nalini Iyer, Seattle University
1. South Asian Bodies in American Television: Representation and Resistance
Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
2. Precarious Politics: Gender-Based Violence in Recent Digital Graphic Novels
Jana Fedtke, American University of Sharjah
3. Qawwali and Resistance: A Study of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Film)
Muhammad Waqar Azeem, Binghamton University-SUNY
Panel 1C: Identity/Resistance Precarities
(Room: Metropolitan)
Panel Chair: Waseem Anwar, Forman Christian College University
1. Precarity and Resistance: Women in Chitra Diva Karuni’s Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs and The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adichie
Saiyeda Khatun, Johnson & Wales University
2. Migration and Sexuality in S. J. Sindu’s Marriage of a Thousand Lies and Rahul Mehta’s No Other World
Maryse Jayasuriya, University of Texas at El Paso
3. Precarious Derealisation as a Mode of Protest in Animal’s People
Sagnika Chanda, University of Pittsburgh
4. The Precariousness of the Afghan Identity in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
Farah Siddiqui, University of Texas at Dallas
11:30 AM-12:45 PM SESSION 2 (PANELS 2A, 2B, & 2C)
Panel 2A: Diaspora Precarities
(Room: Metropolitan)
Panel Chair: Amritjit Singh, Ohio University
1. Sikhs in Afghanistan at the Cusp of Taliban Rule in 1990 and After
Abdollah Zahiri, Seneca College, King Campus, Toronto
2. Unhomely Home: The Precariousness of Being, Belonging, and Becoming
Payel Chattopadhyay Mukherjee, Ahmedabad University
3. South African Gujarati Literature: An Inventory and Critical Commentary
Mrunal Chavda, University of Cape Town
4. Situating Kwai-Yun Li’s The Palm Leaf Fan in Diasporic South Asian Literature
Asha Jeffers, University of King’s College
Panel 2B: Roy Precarities
(Room: Guggenheim)
Panel Chair: Jana Fedtke, American University of Sharjah
1. “By slowly becoming everybody”: Building Community for the Unconsoled in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Pennie Ticen, Virginia Military Institute
2. Precarious Duniyas: Post-Human Subjectivity and Politics in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Rituparna Mitra, James Madison College
3. Post-Magic: The Female Naxalite at 50 in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Meghan Gorman-DaRif, University of Texas at Austin
Panel 2C: Queer Precarities I
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Chair: Umme Al-Wazedi, Augustana College
1. Writing the Bacha Posh & Literary Care Communities
Sukanya Gupta, University of Southern Indiana
2. Coordinated Resistance in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Romy Rajan, University of Florida
3. The Graveyard of Utmost Happiness: Resistance, Resilience, and a Requiem for the “Disappeared” in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happines
Samadrita Kuiti, University of Connecticut
Panel 2D: General Precarities
(Room: Carnegie)
Panel Chair: Amit Baishya, University of Okhlahoma
1. Sanitation and Civility in Rohinton Mistry’s Squatter
Rebecca Kumar, Morehouse College
2. Melancholia and Violence in selected works of Bharati Mukherjee Rima Bhattacharya, IIT Kanpur
3. The Laws and Politics of Precarity
Naila Sahar, SUNY Buffalo
1:00-2:00 PM LUNCH AT HOTEL
2:15-3:30 PM SESSION 3: Graduate Student Professionalization
Panel: The Pragmatics of Professionalism
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Co-Chairs: Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and Moumin Quazi, Tarleton State University
Pennie Ticen, Virginia Military Institute
Robin Field, King’s College
Moumin Quazi, Tarleton State University
Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
3:45-5:00 PM SESSION 4: Mid-Career Professionalization Panel
Panel: Finding New Relationships: Scholarship, Teaching, and Service when Post-Tenure
(Room: Metropolitan)
Panel Chair: Madhurima Chakraborty, Columbia College Chicago
John Hawley, Santa Clara University
Nalini Iyer, Seattle University
Pallavi Rastogi, Louisiana State University
Madhurima Chakraborty, Columbia College Chicago
END OF SESSIONS FOR DAY 1
5:00-6:15 PM GRADUATE CAUCUS (led by Asha Jeffers, University of King’s College)
(Room: Julliard)
6:15-7:30 PM GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING
(Room: Julliard)
7:30-8:15 PM DINNER on your own
8:30-10:00 PM Hamara Mushaira: Literary Arts Event
(Room: Julliard)
Organized and moderated by Amritjit Singh, Ohio University
Tahira Naqvi, New York University
Vandana Singh
Also featuring several members of SALA
DAY 2: TUESDAY: JANUARY 9, 2018
8:15– 9:15 AM REGISTRATION (Julliard Foyer)
9:30-10:45 AM SESSION 5 (PANELS 5A, 5B, & 5C)
Panel 5A: Media Precarities II
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Chair: Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay, Texas A&M University
1. Aspects in the Cinema on Migrants, and the Cross-culture Flow of Concepts
María-Dolores García-Borrón, Independent scholar
2. Mass Rape during the 1947 Partition and its Representation or Silencing in Hindi Cinema
Nidhi Srivastava, University of Western Ontario
3. Feminization of Human and Political Bodies in Aashir Azeem’s Film Maalik
Iqra Shagufta Cheema, University of North Texas
4. Romancing Widows: Insecure Women in Ishqiya and Dedh Ishqiya
Madhavi Biswas, University of Texas at Dallas
Panel 5B: Gender Precarities
(Room: Metropolitan)
Panel Chair: Madhurima Chakraborty, Columbia College Chicago
1. Precarity and Resistance in Zubaan Books’ Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back
Anuja Madan, Kansas State University
2. The ‘Other’ Side of Silence: Resisting Anonymity in Mahasweta Devi’s Draupadi
Amrita De, SUNY Binghamton
3. The Precariousness of Muslim Women in Post-9/11 United States: A Study of Shaila Abdullah’s Saffron Dreams
Zunaira Yousuf, Binghamton University-SUNY
4. Of Personality Grooming Schools and Neoliberalism: Fashioning the New Working Woman
Suchismita Chattopadhyay, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Panel 5C: Economic Precarities
(Room: Guggenheim)
Panel Chair: Moumin Quazi, Tarleton State University
1. Domestic Servants and Feudal Narrators in Attia Hosain’s Short Stories
Ambreen Hai, Smith College
2. Dangerous Liaisons: The Nexus of High Finance and Terrorism in Ayad Akhtar’s The Invisible Hand
Lopamudra Basu, University of Wisconsin-Stout
3. Racialized Encoding: Hari Kunzru’s Transmission, Capitalist Realism, and the South Asian Laboring Body
Alden Sajor Wood, University of California, Irvine
11:00 AM-12:15 PM SESSION 6 (PANELS 6A, 6B, & 6C)
Panel 6A: Queer Precarities II
(Room: Guggenheim)
Panel Chair: Payel Chattopdhyay Mukherjee, Ahmedabad University
1. Gendered Citizenship and the Chitmahals
Umme Al-Wazedi, Augustana College
2. Sports, Desire and Law: Who is Afraid of Forbidden Sex/Body
Gourab Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University
3. Trans-forming the lives of Transgenders in India
Shaweta Nanda, Central University of Himachal Pradesh
Panel 6B: Care Communities & Precarity
(Room: Metropolitan)
Panel Chair: Bonnie Zare, Virginia Tech University
1. Drawing attention: Artists Opening the Way Towards Safe Public Space
Bonnie Zare, Virginia Tech University
2. Precarity, Ressentiment and Negative Solidarity in Zia Haider Rahman’s In the Light of What We Know
Afrin Zeenat, University of Dhaka
3. Creating Communities of Care: Spirituality and Friendship in the Age of Insecurity
Nisha B. Eswaran, McMaster University
Panel 6C: Genre Precarities
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Chair: Pallavi Rastogi, Louisiana State University
1. War of the Words: Fighting out the Geopolitical Disaster
Pallavi Rastogi, Louisiana State University
2. Is the Precarious the same as the Postcolonial
Auritro Majumdar, University of Houston
3. Caring for the Precarious: The Ethics of Retelling Life Stories
Melanie R. Wattenbarger, Bishop Gorman High School
4. Touching, Feeling, Reading: Genre Fiction in the Age of Precarity
Charlotta Salmi, Queen Mary University of London
12:30 PM-1:30 PM LUNCH AT HOTEL
1:30-2:45 PM SESSION 7 (PANELS 7A, 7B, &7C)
Panel 7A: Environmental Precarities
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Chair: John Hawley, Santa Clara University
1. Manohar Mouli Biswas, Amitav Ghosh, and The Great Derangement: Countering Androcentrism in an Age of Precarity
John Hawley, Santa Clara University
2. An Economy of Broken Bodies in Animal’s People
Sukshma Vedere, George Washington University
3. Precarious Poetry: Institutionalized ecological destruction and the changing idea of home in Fijian Literature
Tana Trivedi, Ahmedabad University
Panel 7B: Poetry Precarities
(Room: Metropolitan)
Panel Chair: Melanie R. Wattenbarger, Bishop Gorman High School
1. The Indian Mushairah as Space of Dissent, Solidarity, and Critique
Maaz Bin Bilal, O.P. Jindal Global University
2. The Poetics of Precarity: Images of Indenture in Indo-Caribbean Poetry
Alison Klein, Duke University
3. A Postcolonial Analysis of the Fragments in Akhteruzzaman Elias’s Chilekothar Sepai
Asif Iqbal, Michigan State University
Panel 7C: Hamidian Precarities
(Room: Guggenheim)
Panel Chair: Abdollah Zahiri, Seneca College, King Campus, Toronto
1. Emergency Thrillers and the State of Securit
Ayelet Ben-Yishai, University of Haifa/Cornell Society for the Humanities
2. Of Borders and Magic Doors: New Directions in Pakistani Fiction
Shazia Sadaf, Western University Canada
3. Exit and (Re)Enter: Traversing through Doorways of Insecurities
Jayana Jain Punamiya, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster and University of Mumbai
3:00-4:15 PM SESSION 8 (PANELS 8A, 8B, & 8C)
Panel 8A: Pedagogical Precarities
(Room: Metropolitan)
Panel Chair: Robin Field, King’s College
1. Pedagogical Precarity: Teaching the Precariats of Lit.-Crit. Theory “Queerly” (in Pakistan)
Waseem Anwar, Forman Christian College, and Sameer Afzal, Beaconhouse Systems
2. Humanistic Education, Radical Pedagogy, and Semiocapital
Masood Raja, University of North Texas
3. Considering the Pedagogical Importance of Sri Lankan Literature: Insecurity and Healing in Rohin Mohan’s The Seasons of Trouble
Collen Lutz Clemens, Kutztown University
Panel 8B: Literary Precarities
(Room: Guggenheim)
Panel Chair: Summer Pervez, Lahore School of Economics
1. The Agitator’s Voice: Trials and Tribulations in Regional Muslim Literature in Telugu
M.G. Prasuna, BITS Pilani-Hyderabad
2. New Directions in Pakistani Fiction in English: On the Formation of Care Communities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and Faiqa Mansab’s This House of Clay and Water
Summer Pervez, Lahore School of Economics
3. The Class Called Literary Precariat: The Question of Canon-formation and Literary Elitism in Gujarati Literature
Chirag Trivedi, Ahmedabad University
4. Epistemology of Precarity: A Study of Pakistani Anglophone Writing
Zakia Rashid, Riphah International University
Panel 8C: Problematic Bodies and Precarity
(Room: Julliard)
Panel Chair: Kathleen Fernando, Kenyon College
1. Putting People Back Together: Caring for the militant body and Tamil Femininity in V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Love Marriage
Kathleen Fernando, Kenyon College
2. Dalit Victimisation: Recasting the Nation and Re-Claiming the Pariah Identity in Bama’s Sangati
Khem Guragain, York University
3. Consuming Caste: Dalit Foods, Precarity and Resistance
Ruma Sinha, Syracuse University
END OF SESSIONS FOR DAY 2
6:00-7:30 PM CONFERENCE KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND AWARDS
(Room: Julliard)
SALA 2018 AWARDS CEREMONY
Tahira Naqvi, New York University
SALA Distinguished Achievement in Creative Writing Awardee
Gaurav Desai, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
SALA Distinguished Achievement in Scholarship Awardee
Graduate Student Paper Prize(s)
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE
Precarious Futures, Precarious Pasts: Climate, Terror and Planetarity
Gaurav Desai, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
8:00-10:00 PM SALA CONFERENCE DINNER (tickets $32)
Darbar Grill, at 157 E. 55th St., (between Lexington and Third Avenues)
Dinner entry only with tickets, purchased by Tuesday, Jan 8, 12 noon