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2024 Conference Program

SOUTH ASIAN LITERARY ASSOCIATION (SALA)
ANNUAL MEETING
April 6-7, 2024

“Ethics of Representation, Forms of Resistance, and Narratives of Discomfort“
Virtual Conference Link: https://sacredheart-edu.zoom.us/j/92592933800?pwd=Nmd2TzRIRzh2cTRkeGZDUEdVNDNpUT09

Conference Co-Chairs: Ruma Sinha, Rider University
Billie Guarino, St. Anselm College
Nidhi Shrivastava, Sacred Heart University

Conference Schedule

SALA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Friday, April 5, 7:00 – 9:00 pm EDT
6:00-8:00 pm CDT; 5:00-7:00 pm MDT; 4:00-6:00 pm PDT; Saturday, 4:30-6:30 am, India

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Saturday, April 6, 12:45 -2:00 pm EDT
10:15 pm India; Sunday, 12:45 am Singapore; 6:00 pm UAE; 6:45 pm Finland
Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Dalit activist and Executive Director of Equality Labs
(Introduction: Ruma Sinha)

GRADUATE STUDENT VIRTUAL MEETUP (hosted by Zachary Bordas)
Zoom link: https://lsu.zoom.us/j/6242460860?omn=95808630354
Saturday, April 6, 6:00-7:00 pm EDT
Sunday, 3:30 am India; Sunday, 6:00 am Singapore; Sunday, 2:00 am UAE; Sunday, 12:00 am Finland

GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING
Zoom link: https://esu-online.zoom.us/j/93125696419
Sunday, April 7, 12:00 pm -1:00 pm EDT
9:30 pm India; Monday, 12:00 am Singapore; 8:00 pm UAE; 6:00 pm Finland

AWARDS CEREMONY AND CONFERENCE CONCLUSION
Sunday, April 7, 5:15-6:15 pm EDT
Monday, 2:45 am India; Monday, 5:15 am Singapore; Monday, 1:45 am UAE; 11:15 pm Finland

PANELS

Panel 1 A: Revisiting Arundhati Roy: Queer Identity, Subalternity, and Form of Resistance
Chair: Ruma Sinha, Rider University

1. Jana Fedtke, Northwestern University, “Peripheral Urbanization as Queer Identity in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” 

2. Sheetal Majithia, NYU Abu Dhabi, “Re-scripting Subalternity and scale with The God of Small Things”

3. Madhure Akilla. C, Jawaharlal Nehru University, “The Ethics of Representation of Crisis, Forms of Resistance, and Narratives of Discomfort in  Arundhati Roy’s novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”

Panel 1 B: Violent Fictions and Spectralized Bodies: Representing The Invisible and Unseen
Chair: Billie Thoidingjam Guarino,  Saint Anselm College

1. Sean Weaver, Louisiana State University,“In the Absence Of: The Spectral Daddy and the Violent Myth of Masculinity in Shastri Akella’s The Sea Elephants”

2. Azharuddin, Louisiana State University,  “‘All this to make them speak?’—Representation of Indian Muslim Subalternity in Raj Kamal Jha’s Fireproof (2006)”

3. Ankita Rathour, Georgia Institute of Technology, “How to Tell a Dead Girl Story?”

Panel 2: Workshop on Getting Published in South Asian Review
Chair: Dr. Nalini Iyer, Seattle University.

1. Nalini Iyer, Seattle University. Editor-in-Chief, South Asian Review
2. Robin E. Field, King’s College. Managing Editor, South Asian Review
3. Amit Rahul Baishya, University of Oklahoma. Book Review Editor, South Asian Review

Panel 3 A: Aesthetics of Silence and Resistance in Partition Narratives
Chair: Nidhi Shrivastava, Sacred Heart University

1. Turni Chakrabarti,  O. P. Jindal Global University, “Representing Violence and Resistance: Epical Indian Femininity and the Modern Indian Short Story”

2. Fatima Naveed, University of Exeter, “Progressive Partition Literature & Women’s Rehabilitation in the Indian Subcontinent: “Lajwanti” by Rajinder Singh Bedi (1956)”

3. Bhawya Wadera, University of McMaster, “Displacement, Communal Violence, and the Predicament of Children”

4. Deeksha Pareek, Lehigh University, “The Queer Child Growing Sideways: Reading Ismat Chughtai’s The Crooked Line”

Panel 3B: Embodiments of Minority Identities and the Ethics of Representation
Chair:  Ruma Sinha, Rider University 

1. Talat, National Institute of Technology, “Reclaiming The Self: Trauma and Memory in Dalit Women Narratives”

2. Pooja Sancheti, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, “Women and Magical Realism: Oppression and Resistance in the novels of Mohammad Hanif”

3. Shabeeh Rahat, Independent Scholar, “Place-ing the Politics of Marginalization: The Everyday Precarity of Dalit Muslims in India”

Panel 4A: Interrogating Violence: Hindu Nationalism, Terrorism, and Communalism
Chair: Bede Scott, Nanyang Technological University

1. Bede Scott, Nanyang Technological University, “On Stuplimity: Terrorism, Communal Violence, and Literature”

2. Rituparna Mitra, Emerson College, “Dissent and a New Aesthetics of Entangled Witnessing in Hariharan’s Fugitive Histories”

3. Srikanth Mallavarapu, Roanoke College, “On Labor Politics and Alienation in Jagadish Mohanty’s Battles of Our Own”

Panel 4B: Exploring Cinema: Gender, Violence, and Masculinity
Chair: Nidhi Shrivastava, Sacred Heart University

1. Siddharth Arora, Oklahoma State University, “The Threat of Excess: Animality and Nationalism in Eeb Allay Ooo by Prateek Vats (2019)”

2. Payel C Mukherjee, IIIT Delhi, “Rape, Violence, and Hyper-masculinity: The (un)holy trinity of Representation in contemporary Indian Narratives on screen”

3. Mahima Raj C, Central University of Karnataka, Kalaburagi and Sumit Ghayal, Central University of Karnataka, Kalaburagi, “Male Representation through Violence: A Critique of the ‘Anti-hero’ in Indian Popular Films”

Panel 5A: Diasporic Entanglements, Gender Justice, and Resistance
Chair: Robin Field, King’s College

1. Robin Field, King’s College, “When Nothing Means Everything: Rescripting Expectations about Gender Violence in Tom Koshy’s film ‘An Independence Day’”

2. Apala Kundu, University of Pittsburgh, “Devi’s and Spivak’s ‘Draupadi:’ Looking at Representation and Resistance through the Lens of Translation”

3. Wardah Malik, University of Cambridge, “Diaspora Engagement and Gender Justice: An Inclusive Approach to Social Change?”

4. Muhammad Manzur Alam, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, “‘Decaffeinated Revolution,’ Troubled Identity, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland”

Panel 5B:9/11, Islamophobia and the Rising Hate Against Minorities
Chair: Harveen Mann, Loyola University

1. Sini Eikonsalo, Metropolitan University, Prague, “Dynamics of suspicion, stereotyping, and East-West relations in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist”

2. Harveen Mann, Loyola University, “‘See No Stranger:’ Sikh Ethics and Valarie Kaur’s Grassroots Activism”

3. Namrata Dey Roy, Georgia Institute of Technology, “Diseased Bodies and Unheard Voices: Bheed, A Movie Voicing the Unheard”

Panel 6: Workshop on Conflict Resolution: Dissent in the Academic Workplace

1. Robin Field, King’s College
2. Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
3. Moumin Quazi, Tarleton State University

Panel 7A: Protest Narratives, Resilience, and the Politics of Representation
Chair: Billie Thoidingjam Guarino, Saint Anselm College

1. Kalpana Bora, Cotton University, “Resistance and Resilience: Protest Narratives from India’s North East”

2. Clara Joseph, University of Calgary, “Narratives of Faith and Decolonialism: A Thomas Christian Perspective on the Image of the Christian in Northeast India”

3. Udita Banerjee, IIT Gandhinagar, “Interrogating the Politics of Representation and Resistance in Narratives from Assam”

4. Rai Kamlini Mukherjee, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, “Everyday Aesthetics of Partition Violence and Resistance in Sabitri Roy’s Nowhere People (2017)” 

Panel 7B: Graphic Subversions, Narrative Violence, and Multivocal Critique
Chair: Zachary Bordas, Louisiana State University

1. Abhirami Prasanth, Indian Institute of Technology,  Mandi and Neethi V Alexander, Indian Institute of Technology,  Mandi,“Graphic Echoes: Narrative Resonance of Resistance and Discomfort in Orijit Sen’s River of Stories”

2. Leenu Sugathan, George Washington University, “The Ethno-Graphic Form, Human Rights Imaginary, and Narrative Violence in Vanni: A Family’s Struggle through the Sri Lankan Conflict”

3. Deblina Rout, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, “Graphic Subversions: Visualising the Resisting Female Body in Comics”

4. Samarth Singhal, University of California, Riverside, “Redefining Adivasi Visual Availability: Bhajju Shyam’s The London Jungle Book”

Panel 8A: Deconstructing Discomforting Narratives, Deviance, and Disobedience 
Chair: Hans-Georg Erney, Georgia Southern University

1. Hans-Georg Erney, Georgia Southern University, “A Tale of Two Obedient Fathers: Akhil Sharma Returns to the Scene of the Crime”

2. Palash Naskar, Sushil Kar College, “Re-representing the Naxal Women: Deconstructing the Narratives”

3. Dheebika P, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, “Memories Carved in Flesh: Unearthing the Affective Embodied Memories in The Story of a Brief Marriage”

Panel 8B: Tropes of  Womanhood, Transnational Feminism, and Translating Resistance
Chair: Masrufa Ayesha Nusrat, University of Texas at Dallas

1. Masrufa Ayesha Nusrat, University of Texas at Dallas, “Women’s Documentary from Bangladesh: Interpreting Rising Silence and The Poison Thorn from the Terrain of Trans/national Feminism”

2. Partha Debanath, Research Scholar, Sikkim University, “The Representation of Resistance through Female Gaze: A Critical Reading of a Bengali Woman’s Travelogue of Japan”

3. Shyamasri Maji, Durgapur Women’s College, “Reading the Anglo-Indian Woman as Wife in Indian English Fiction”

4. Sushree Routray, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, “Magic Realism and Queer Defamiliarization: Decolonialisation of Hijras in Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand”