Michaelmas Term 2021

CRITICAL VOICES FROM MYANMAR: Contexts & Concerns after the 2021 Coup d'État

Date/Time: Monday | 13 December 2021 | 12 noon 

A Roundtable discussion organised by the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre & the LSE South Asia Centre, reflecting on the current situation in Myanmar and its future.

Speakers: Nyi Nyi Kyaw (@NyiNyiK08083161) is Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen, Germany; Ja Htoi Pan Maran (@hpakawn_kaw) is Deputy Minister of Education, National Unity Government of Myanmar; Jayde Lin Roberts (@JaydeThissa) is Visiting Fellow at the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, and Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney;  Tayzar San (@TayzarSan) is a Burmese physician, politician, and pro-Democracy activist, and is Executive Director, Yone Kyi Yar Knowledge Propagation Society.

Chair: Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Director, LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (@LSESEAC), and Professor of Geography & Urban Studies at LSE. 

This event was was not recorded. 

GEOPOLITICS BEYOND BORDERS 4

AFGHANISTAN: BACK TO THE FUTURE? 

Date/Time: Thursday | 9 December 2021 | 3.30pm UK

Four months after the Taliban's complete takeover of Afghanistan, where is it all going? This Roundtable of experts will discuss this, its implications for the geo-security of the region, and what may lie ahead for Afghanistan and her South Asian neighbours. 

Speakers: C. Uday Bhaskar (@theUdayB) is Director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi, and one of India's leading experts on geo-security, and publishes extensively on the subject; Antonio Giustozzi (@AntonioGiustoz2) is Visiting Professor, King's College London, Fellow at RUSI, and the author of several books on the Taliban in Afghanistan including The Taliban at War: 2001-2018 (2019); Michael Kugelman (@MichaelKugelman) is Deputy Director & Senior Associate for South Asia,  Wilson Center, Washington DC, and a commentator on US strategy in South Asia; Romain Malejacq (@afghanopoly) is Assistant Professor, Radboud University, Nijmegen, and the author of Warlord Survival: The Delusion of State Building in Afghanistan (2020); Ayesha Siddiqa (@iamthedrifter) is Research Associate, SOAS South Asia Institute, an expert on security studies in Pakistan, and author of Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy (2007).

Discussant: Christopher Coker is Professor & Director, LSE IDEAS (@lseideas), an expert on war, US security & terrorism, and author of Why War? (2021).   

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

This event is in collaboration with LSE IDEAS. 

Click here to watch a video-recording of the event.

WOMEN & THE FUTURE OF WORK IN SOUTH ASIA 

Date/Time: Thursday | 2 December 2021 | 3.30pm UK

As demographic changes, technology & post-Pandemic 'return to work' reshape global labour markets, this panel will discuss emerging trends, need for contextualised solutions and the future of work for women in South Asia.

Speakers: Prithwiraj Choudhury (@prithwic) is Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and is especially interested in the Future of Work;  Rubana Huq (@Rubanahuq) is Chairperson & Managing Director of Mohammadi Group in Dhaka; Uzma Quresh (@UQuresh) is Senior Social Development Specialist (Gender) at The World Bank in Pakistan. 

Chair: Alnoor Bhimani (@AlnoorBhimani) is Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE), Professor of Management Accounting at LSE, and author of Accounting Disrupted: How Digitalization is Changing Finance (2021).

Click here to watch a video-recording of the event. 

BANGLADESH @ 50

GENDER & LABOUR MARKETS IN SOUTH ASIA: FEMINIST ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVES

Date/Time: Thursday | 25 November 2021 | 3.30pm UK | 9.30pm Dhaka

Three feminist economists reflect on: the interaction between economics & culture in the segmentation of labour markets in Bangladesh; factors explaining frequency of entry-exit in women’s labour force participation in India; and how the ‘recognition’ of women’s work in agriculture in Pakistan feeds into policy redistribution.

Speakers: Ashwini Deshpande (@AshwDeshpande) is Professor of Economics, Ashoka University, Sonipat, and author of The Grammar of Caste: Economic Discrimination in Contemporary India (new edn, 2019); Haris Gazdar (@HarisGazdar) is Senior Researcher at the Collective for Social Science Research, Karachi.

Discussant: Naila Kabeer (@N_Kabeer) is Professor of Gender & Development at LSE, author of Gender & Social Protection Strategies in the Informal Economy (2014), and co-editor (with Caroline Sweetman) of Gender and Inequalities (2018). 

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

Click here to watch the video-recording of the event.  

FACT & FICTION

STATUES: CAN HISTORY BE TOPPLED? 

Date/Time: Thursday | 18 November 2021 | 3.30pm UK

Focused on a recently published book, this panel will discuss the raging debate on statues of historical figures & their place in public spaces and histories.

Speakers: Edward Anderson (@edanderson101) is Senior Lecturer in History, Northumbria University; his views on historical statues & related issues can be read here & here; William Beinart, formerly Rhodes Professor of Race Relations, is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford (@StAntsCollege; @AfricaOxfordUni)); his official Report on the Rhodes statue to Oriel College can be found here (pp 98-126); Haroon Khalid (@awhitetrail) trained as an anthropologist, writes extensively on historical cultural heritage in Pakistan, and is author of the acclaimed Imagining Lahore: The City That Is, The City That Was (2018); Alex von Tunzelmann (@alexvtunzelmann), historian, is author of Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues that Made History (2021).    

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

Click here to watch a video-recording of the event. 

SELF & SPACE: SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORIC PRACTICES

Date/Time: Thursday | 11 November 2021 | 11.30am UK

How does the South Asian diaspora negotiate and navigate identity? Through what practices -- food, education, art, lifestyle? This panel discussion will explore these complex issues in South and Southeast Asia. 

Speakers: Sean McLoughlin (@LeedsUniHajjRes) is Professor of the Anthropology of Islam (Muslim Diasporas) at the University of Leeds; Sandhini Poddar (IG: @sandhini.poddar) is an art historian from the Global South, and will discuss the art of Zarina Hashmi, whose work speaks strongly to diasporic identity; Venka Purushothaman is Deputy President & Provost, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore (@LASALLESG), with a specialism in cross-cultural creativity between South & Southeast Asia.   

Discussant: Zehra Jumabhoy is Lecturer in Asian art histories, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore (@LASALLESG).  

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

This event is in collaboration with LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore.

Click here to watch a video-recording of the event. 

DIGITALISING SOUTH ASIA: WHO BENEFITS?

Date/Time: Thursday | 28 October 2021 |  3.30pm UK

South Asian countries are rapidly advancing digital transformation strategies across economic sectors and governmental services. While the step from analog to digital remains relatively unproblematic, wider issues arise when digitalisation results in changed cultural precepts, new economic activities and altered people-to-systems modalities. This Roundtable will discuss these, and much more. 

Speakers: Anir Chowdhury (@anirchowdhury) is Policy Advisor to the a2i Programme (ICT Division), Government of Bangladesh;  Dibyendu Maiti is Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (@DelhiSchoolOfEC); Ammar Malik (@MalikAmmar) is Senior Research Fellow at Evidence for Policy Design, Harvard Kennedy School; Jagath Seneviratna is Programme Head -- Monitoring & Evaluation, Information & Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Sri Lanka (@icta_srilanka). 

Chair: Alnoor Bhimani (@AlnoorBhimani) is Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE), Professor of Management Accounting at LSE, and author of Accounting Disrupted: How Digitalization is Changing Finance (2021).

Click here to watch a video-recording of the event. 

IRELAND@100 -- INDIA@75

INTERNATIONALISM AND EMPIRE

Date/Time: Thursday | 21 October 2021 | 3.30pm UK

This specially curated Roundtable commemorates the centenary of Ireland and the 75th anniversary of India's independence; it explores a less known connection between Ireland & India in the interwar period -- internationalism, and the League against Imperialism.

Speakers: Disha Karnad Jani (@DishaKJani) is a Doctoral Researcher in modern European & global/international History at Princeton University, and has a particular interest in internationalism; Michele Louro (@LouroMichele) is Associate Professor of History at Salem State University, Massachusetts, and author of Comrades against Imperialism: Nehru, India and Interwar Internationalism (2018); Eunan O'Halpin is Professor of Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College Dublin, and author of Spying on Ireland: British Intelligence and Irish Neutrality during the Second World War (2008); Fredrik Petersson is Lecturer in History, Stockholm University,  Associate Professor in Colonial & Postcolonial Global History at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, and has published on the League Against Imperialism (2017).

Discussant: Martin Bayly (@mjbayly) is Assistant Professor in International Relations Theory at LSE, and author of Taming the Imperial Imagination: Colonial Knowledge, International Relations, and the Anglo-Afghan Encounter, 1808-1878 (2016). 

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

Click here to watch a video-recording of the event. 

TOUGH TALK 3

DECOLONISING HISTORY: METHOD OR FACT?

Date/Time: Thursday | 7 October 2021 | 4.30pm UK

This 'Tough Talk' asks historians: is 'Decolonisation' a 'method'/'school' of historical interpretation, or is it what trained scholars have been doing all along -- examining, analysing & interpreting archives for newer and nuanced narratives that correct current wisdom?

Speakers: Caroline Elkins is Professor of History, Harvard University (@Harvard_History), and author of the acclaimed Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (2005); Priya Satia (@PriyaSatia) is Raymond A Spruance Professor of International History, Stanford University, and author of Time's Monster: How History Makes History (2020); Kim Wagner (@KimAtiWagner) is Professor of Global and Imperial History, Queen Mary University of London, and author of Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre (2020).  

Discussant: David Arnold is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Warwick (@WarwickHistory), and author of Burning the Dead: Hindu Nationhood & the Global Construction of an Indian Tradition (2021).  

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

Click here to watch a video-recording of the event. 

2021: DOES GANDHI MATTER?

Date/Time: Thursday | 30 September 2021 | 3.30pm UK

This Roundtable will focus on the contemporary relevance of Gandhi, Father of the Indian nation & global icon of non-violence. Is the younger generation aware of the dramatis of Gandhi's ideas & appeal, or is he just an icon in their minds, appearing on currency, postage stamps &c? Speakers will discuss Gandhi's ideas, and its place in the globalised universe of social media. 

Speakers: Akash Banerjee (@TheDeshBhakt) is a journalist, and Founder & Host of 'The Deshbhakt',  a social media platform (on Facebook; Instagram; Twitter; YouTube) which uses satire to disseminate news; Faisal Devji is Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford; Mridula Mukherjee is a historian of modern India, and retired as Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Discussant: Sanam Arora (@arora_sanam) is an LSE alumnus, and Chairperson of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK (@NISAU_UK).

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

This event is in collaboration with LSESU India Society & the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK. 

Click here to watch a video-recording of this event.