Ireland India Institute header
Ireland India Institute
Ireland India Institute Annual Conference

8th Annual South Asia Conference

to
Campus
All Hallows
Target Audience
All Welcome
Is registration required?
No
For more information contact
india@dcu.ie

Schedule

10:00 - 12:00 
AHC SG 05

Registration:  John Hand Room

14:00 - 15:30 

Four Parallel Sessions

  

Room: AHC PG 02

Panel 1 Writing from the Periphery 
Chair: Dr. Tapasya Narang, National Library of Ireland / UCD School of English, Drama and Film 
Panel Administrator: Cathal O’Leary 

  1. Talking To/Talking Back: Memory Activism in Yashica Dutt’s Memoir Coming  Out As Dalit - Rashi Maheshwari, University of Maryland, USA. 

  2. The Domestic and the Outside: Negotiating Desire and Societal Expectations in  Stories of Nighat Abdullah - Adiba Khan, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of  Information and Communication Technology, India. 

  3. Subaltern Sublime: The Gothic Charge of Mahasweta Devi’s Allegory of Adivasi  Suffering - Agam Balooni, Northwestern University, Illinois, USA. 

  4. Red Tape and the Hijra Self: Degrees of Indian Citizenship and Enfranchisement - Arshad Said Khan, University of Alberta, Canada

Room: AHC PG 01

Panel 2 Politics in South Asia 
Chair: Professor Iain McMenamin School of Law and Government, DCU
Panel Administrator: Marcel Schwarz 

  1. “Soft Hindutva”, “Deeper State” and Anti-Christian Violence in Chhattisgarh - Nidah Kaiser, SOAS, University of London, UK 

  2. Exclusionary and Inclusionary Dimensions of Pakistani Populism - Fizza Batool,  SZABIST Islamabad University, Pakistan. 

  3. Narendra Modi and the Performance of National Ceremonies - Andrew Wyatt,  University of Bristol, UK. 

  4. Caste, Class, and Leadership: Political Dynamics in India—The Case of Bihar's  Hajipur Parliamentary Constituency - Manish Kumar, Mahatma Gandhi Central  University, Motihari, Bihar, India

Room: AHC PG 10

Panel 3 Non-traditional Research Outputs 
Chair: Dr. Harikrishnan Sasikumar School of Law & Government, DCU
Panel Administrator: Toshali Chattopadhyay 

  1. The Living Room and the South Asian Diasporic Family Album - Kamal Badhey,  University of Brighton, UK 

  2. A Thematic Content Analysis Of Pakistani Folk Tales: A Sociological Literary  Critique (With Reference To Balti, Siraiki, Balochi, Punjabi And Sindhi Folk Tales) - Kaneez Fatima, Bahria University, Pakistan 

  3. Embodied Landscapes: Photography as a Site of Ecological and Political  Resistance in Northeast India - Mridu Thulung Rai, University College London,  UK

Room: AHC PG 09

Panel 4 Locating Migration in South Asia 
Chair: Dr Alicia Castillo Villaneuva, School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies, DCU
Panel Administrator: Sukanya Shukla 

  1. Circular Labor Migration from Rural India: A Special Driven on Rickshaw  Pullers in Lucknow city - Milind Sen, University of Hyderabad, India. 

  2. Beyond Borders and Gender: Rohingya Women’s Struggle for Rights within  Hostile Migration Policies - Jumani Pathak, Central University of Kerala, India/ 

  3. Buried Voices: Dislocation and the Inheritance of Trauma, Violence and  Rejection - Siddhartha Biswas, University of Calcutta, India. 

  4. Between Roots and Routes: Navigating Nepali Identity and the Search for Home  Beyond Nepal - Ranu Sherpa & Thirthankar Chakraborty, Indian Institute of  Technology, Mandi, India.

15:30 - 16:00 

Tea/Coffee Senior House Main Restaurant 

16:15 - 17:30 
AHC SG 05 
(John Hand Room) 

Official opening of the conference 
Professor John Doyle, DCU Vice President for Research 

Keynote Speaker
Professor Rajinder Dudrah, Birmingham City University, UK 

Creating Diasporic Art Beyond the Homeland: Slanguages, Theatre, Thinking and Doing 
Rajinder Dudrah is Professor of Cultural Studies and the Creative Industries in the College  of English and Media at Birmingham City University, UK. He has researched and  published widely across film, media and cultural studies and is currently a recipient of a  Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship working towards his next book, entitled ‘E Bollywood: Popular Hindi Cinema in the Age of New Media’. He is the founding Co Editor of the scholarly journal, South Asian Popular Culture published with Taylor and  Francis and his recent books include: Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto (co-edited  with Katrin Kohl et. al., 2020), Graphic Novels and Visual Cultures in South Asia (co edited with Emma Varughese, 2020), South Asian and Creative Cultural Industries (co edited with Khaleel Malik, 2020), and The Evolution of Song and Dance in Hindi Cinema (co-edited with Ajay Gehlawat, 2019). In April 2023 Professor Dudrah was honoured by  the South Asian Literary Association (USA), with the award of Distinguished  Achievement in Scholarship to the Field of South Asian Studies. 

Official launch of an immersive audio-visual art installation - The City at Ten  Kilometers an Hour  
Room AHC PG 11 

Toshali Chattopadhyay, PhD candidate (School of History & Geography, DCU), Mel  Galley & Clara McSweeney (art curator, producer, and writer). 

The audio-visual installation is a collaboration between Toshali Chattopadhyay, a researcher,  and artists Clara McSweeney and Mel Galley. Bridging the gap between artistic practice and  academic inquiry, the project seeks to blur boundaries between ways of researching to create a  sensory experience to question time, memory and sustainability through the lens of the  Calcutta tramway system. 

 

 

 

09:30 - 11:00 

Three Parallel Sessions

Room: AHC PG01

Panel 5 Urban and the Built Environment 
Chair: Dr. Kathleen Stokes School of History and Geography, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Toshali Chattopadhyay 

  1. “Unruly” Time(s): The Fractured Experience of Industrial Time-Discipline in  the Transport Sector of Late Colonial Calcutta (1920-1940s) - Amartyajyoti  Basu, Dr BR Ambedkar University, India 

  2. Reimagining the Slum: Exploring Built Environment and Lived Experiences in  Dharavi - Rhea Kotrashetti, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands 3. Internal Migration and Urban Informality: Mediated Claim-making in the  context of digitalising Welfare Infrastructures in India - Harshita Sinha,  University of Tumkur, India

Room: AHC PG 02

Panel 6 Cultural Encounters of South Asia 
Chair: Dr. Jonathan Kearney School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music, DCU
Panel Administrator: Vidushi Kaushik  

  1. Advaitic Orientalism and the Construction of the ‘Islamic Other’: Ontological  Hegemony, Islamophobia, and the Colonization of Kashmir - Shafat Wani,  University of Delhi, India & Juveria Asif, University of Delhi, India 

  2. Intersection of Historical Events & Mental Narratives: A Case Study on the  Bengal Partition - Angira Dhar Presidency University, India 

  3. The Role of Institutions and Social Structures in Determining Economic and Life  Choices of the Kumbhāran Potters of Kerala - Sudev PS BITS-Pilani, India

Room: AHC PG 09

Panel 7 Voices of South Asia 
Chair: Professor Eugene McNulty School of English, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Rituparna Banerjee  

  1. Of chandoo-khanas, Chinatowns and chá: Articulations of the Chinese-Indian  experience - Abhilasha Roy, University of Delhi, India 

  2. From Agrarian Fields to Literary Discourses: Crossing the Rubicon (1930-50) - Aakhya Isha, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India 

  3. The Radif Rider: Inshā Allah Khan Inshā's Ghazal-Sets - Seton Uhlhorn,  Harvard University, USA 

  4. Cities Of Conflict: Comparative representations of Srinagar and Belfast in the  poetry Agha Shahid Ali and Ciaran Carson - Maria Shawl, SRM University,  Andhra Pradesh, India

11:00 - 11:30 

Tea/Coffee Senior House Main Restaurant 

11:30 - 13:00 

Three Parallel Sessions

Room: AHC PG 01

Panel 8 Urban Cultures 
Chair: Professor Ruth McManus School of History and Geography, DCU
Panel Administrator: Rituparna Banerjee 

  1. Cosmopolitanism, Civility, and Urban Compromise: Negotiating Inter-caste  Relations in a Delhi Neighbourhood - Rama Devi, Centre De Sciences  Humaines (CSH) Delhi, India 

  2. Untouched Tales: Anti-Caste Movement and the Political History of Urban  Spaces in South Asia - Yashashwani Srinivas, University of Leeds, UK

Room: AHC PG 02

Panel 9 Global Histories of South Asia 
Chair: Professor Marnie Hay School of History and Geography, DCU
Panel Administrator: Seán Rainford 

  1. Indians in Britain at War: The Indian Workers Association, Anticolonialism and  the Politics of the Indian Diaspora in Second World War Britain - Ciara  Garcha, University of Cambridge, UK  

  2. The Unfolding of Narrative: The Dissemination of Information within the Dutch  East India Company about South Asia - Sailaja Mundakkal, Leiden University,  Netherlands 

  3. The forgotten artery: Rediscovering the Himalayan Salt Route in South Asian  trade histories - Ritika Joshi, Gautam Buddha University, India.

Room: AHC PG10

Panel 10 Technology and Inclusion 
Chair: Professor Sharon O’Brien Dean of Graduate Studies, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Priyanka Borpujari  

  1. Bridging the Digital Divide: Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s prose and the  Accessibility of Women Writers in India's Independence Era - Pallavi Singh&  Yashee Singh, Free University of Berlin, Germany 

  2. Towards Gender-Sensitive AI Policies in India: Addressing Risks and Promoting  Inclusivity - Uma Maheshwari P. University of Maryland, US & Harshini Raji  Veerapandi Palanisam, Anna University, India 

  3. Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing ‘Access to Justice’ in SAARC  Nations: A Critical Appraisal - Daksha Sharma South Asian University, India 4. AI and Caste: Bias and Inclusivity in Machine Learning Models Impacting Dalit  Communities - Chettupally Anvesh University of Delhi, India
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch Break: Senior House Main Restaurant 
14:00 - 15:30 Three Parallel Sessions

Room: AHC PG 01

Panel 11 Climate resilience and climate justice in South Asia 
Chair: Dr. Jimmy O’Keefe School of History and Geography, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Nithya Kothenmaril  

  1. Utilising a system dynamics framework to investigate eco-anxiety amidst rapid  climate change and hydropower developments in a Trans-Himalayan River Basin - Isha Smiti Thakur, Dublin City University, India 

  2. Sustainability Transition experience in South Asia: Understanding the transition  through Social Practices in Kerala, India - Shahla Palat University of  Hyderabad, India 

  3. Are Human-Wildlife Conflict Management Interventions Reaching Back to the  Starting Point? A Case from the Western Ghat Region of Wayanad, Southern  India - Vipindas Puthiyaveedu University of Kannur, India  

  4. Reviving Traditions or Reproducing Inequalities: Caste and the Indian  environmental discourse - Ritika Chaudhary Presidency University, India

Room: AHC PG 02

Panel 12 South Asian Portrayals in Film 
Chair: Dr. Giovanna Rampozza Graduate Research Office, TU Dublin
Panel Administrator: Ashly Isac 

  1. Breaking the Fourth Wall: Hindu Nationalism and the New Filmography of  Hindi Cinema - Waseem Ahad, Kocaeli University, Istanbul 

  2. The Bengal Partition on Screens - Israt Jahan, East West University,  Bangladesh 

  3. Unmasking the peripheries: Intersecting ‘Middlebrow’ and ‘New Generation’ in  Malayalam Cinema - Nidhila S IIT-BHU, India 

  4. “Narrating 'Their' Story: Struggles, Opportunities, and Triumphs in South Asian  Cinematic Sports Narratives” - Manisha Poonia Panjab University, India

Room: AHC PG 09

Panel 13 Gender in South Asia 
Chair: Professor Eileen Connolly School of Law and Government, DCU
Panel Administrator: Somya Dixit 

  1. Intersecting Identities: Caste and Women’s Empowerment in Household Food  Security in Eastern India - Shakuntala Ghadai, Centre for Development Studies  (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India 

  2. Contours and Conundrums of Feminist Imagination(s): Pedagogical Insights  from NGO Interventions on Masculinities in India - Neharika Mahajan &  Biraja Nandan Mishra, Independent researchers. 

  3. Legality and Prostitution: A Foucauldian Perspective - Ahmed Mudassar,  Independent Researcher, University of London 

  4. Bodily Autonomy and the Politics of Honor: A Feminist Reading of Reproductive  Choices in India - Priyanka Tripathi, Indian Institute of Technology Patna,  India

15:30-16:30 

Tea / Coffee - Senior House Main Restaurant 

16:30 - 17:30
AHC SG 05 
(John Hand Room)

Diaspora, Migration and Creativity 

A roundtable discussion with: 
Rajinder Dudrah, Cauvery Madhavan, Miriam Nyhan & Tapasya Narang Rajinder Dudrah (see Keynote biography above), Birmingham
Cauvery Madhavan: Indo-Irish novelist, Dublin 
Miriam Nyhan: Historian of the Irish diasporic experience, Limerick. Tapasya Narang, Research Ireland Enterprise Scheme Postdoctoral Fellow, National  Library of Ireland.

10:00 - 11:30 

Three Parallel Sessions

Room: AHC PG 01

Panel 14: Colonial and Post-Colonial struggles of liberation and resistance 
Chair: Professor William Murphy School of History and Geography, DCU
Panel Administrator: Isha Thakur  

  1. The Significance and Limitations of the Bhakti Movement as a Women's  Liberation Movement: With Reference to the Lives of Female Bhaktas - Hyung Jin An, University of Delhi, India 

  2. “I would like to bring to the notice of the House a parallel case” Discussion of  Ireland in the Indian Constituent Assembly Debates - Martin O'Donoghue, Max  Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Germany 

  3. Comparing the Colonial Famines: Counter-Hegemonic Failures in W. B. Yeats’  The Countess Cathleen and Bankim Chandra’s Ananda Math - Amrita Bakshi,  The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA  

  4. An essay on the category of ‘Political Crime’ in late colonial India - Kamalpreet Kaur, University of Manchester, UK

Room: AHC PG 02

Panel 15 Cultures, Religions, and Traditions of South Asia 
Chair: Dr. Peter Admirand School of Theology, Philosophy and Music, DCU
Panel Administrator: Seán Rainford 

  1. Imagining inter-civilisational dialogue - Philip McDonagh, Dublin City  University, Ireland 

  2. “Common in Community?”: ‘Becoming’ Through Ambedkar’s Re-socialization - Pratishtha Maurya, Indian Institute of Technology, India. 

  3. Divinity as Practiced: Ek Saran Hari Naam Dharma of Barpeta Satra in Assam - Namrata Hazarika, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. 

  4. How do traditional beliefs, and superstitions influence political culture in South  Asia, with a focus on the Kerala context - Ambareesh Thandassery Saseendran, Mahatma Gandhi University, India.

Room: AHC PG 09

Panel 16: Politics and Security in South Asia 
Chair: Dr. Jivanta Schottli, School of Law and Government, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Vidushi Kaushik  

  1. Impact of the War on Terror in Afghanistan on Combatants’ Families from Dir,  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan - Tariq Amin Pakistan Study Centre, University  of Peshawar, India 

  2. Detangling India’s Strategy in Afghanistan and Taliban 2.0: Navigating the Challenges of India's Foreign Policy towards Afghanistan. - Shazia Shaikh,  Independent Researcher, Ireland. 

  3. Can renewable energy sources bring energy security in the Asia-Pacific region? - Arindam Paul IIT-Bhubaneshwar, India 

  4. Living the Indo-Naga politics: The Tribe hoho as governing institution in a  plural system - Timmayo Thumra Dublin City University, Ireland 

11:30 - 12:00 

Tea/Coffee Senior House Main Restaurant 

12:00 - 13: 30 

Three Parallel Sessions

Room: AHC PG 01

Panel 17: Diplomacy and Policy  
Chair:Dr. Markus Pauli School of Law and Government, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Marcel Schwarz 

  1. Beyond Shared Enmity: The Domestic Sources of Pakistan’s China Policy - Mohammad Shoaib, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan 

  2. Delicate Diplomacy: India's Balancing Act toward Israel and Palestine - Mushtaq Hussain, BITS Law School, BITS Pilani, India 

  3. Cooperate to Counter: Counterterrorism as a Policy Opportunity for  Cooperation amongst South Asian Nations - Pranav Joshi, King’s College  London, UK 

  4. Decoding India’s Data Diplomacy: Evolving Patterns and International  Implications - Aakansha Natani, IIIT Hyderabad, India.

Room: AHC PG 02

Panel 18 Queering South Asia 
Chair: Dr. Kit Fryatt School of English, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Ashly Isac 

  1. Negotiating Representation: Body Politics and Queer Identity in Manipuri Films - Heisnam Olivia Devi, Tezpur University, India 

  2. Axes of Framework: Intersectionality and Diaspora Subjectivities in Queer  Diaspora Literature - Anju Upendran, Kannur University, India. 

  3. Quiet Queerness as an Everyday Practice of Resistance - Aakanksha Singh,  University of York, UK

Room: AHC PG 09

Panel 19 Health, Inequality and Care in South Asia 
Chair: Professor Matthias Urban, School of Language, Literacy & Early Childhood  Education. DCU 
Panel Administrator: Kusumika Ghosh  

  1. Framing Childhood: Constructing Children as Object of the State - Priya  Darshini, Dr. B.R. University Delhi, India 

  2. Extracting Care, Exploiting Compassion: An Intersectional Analysis of Nurses’  Affective Labor in Northeast India’s Healthcare System - Lamneithem Haokip,  Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India 

  3. Layers of Inequalities: Accessing Nutrient-Dense Foods (NDFs) in the Rural  Food Environment - Shriya Bajaj, University of Sheffield, UK

13:30 - 14:30 

Lunch Break Senior House Main Restaurant 

14:30 - 16:00 

Four Parallel Sessions

Room: AHC PG 01

Panel 20 Gendering Politics 
Chair: Dr. Arpita Chakraborty School of Law and Government, DCU
Panel Administrator: Kusumika Ghosh  

  1. Traditional Myths About Dalit Women's Voting Behaviour in India's Panchayat  Elections: With Special Reference to Basti District of Uttar Pradesh - Suraj  Kumar Verma, IIT-BHU, India & Amarnath Paswan IIT-BHU, India  

  2. Gendered Realities of Marginalized Communities: Study of Hanji and Watal  Women in Kashmir - Najam Us Saqib Central University of Kashmir, India 3. Gender and Interactional Developments: Comparative Perspectives on Women’s  Political Participation in South Asia and Southern Africa - Antonetta Lovejoy  Hamandishe United Nations University for PEACE, Zimbabwe.

Room: AHC PG 09

Panel 21 Labour, Technology and Employment in South Asia 
Chair: Dr. Arash Aloosh Business School, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Sukanya Shukla 

  1. Code and Control: AI Systems' Influence on Labor Dynamics in South Asia's  Platform Economy - Arun Kumar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India 

  2. The Spectre Of Female Unemployment: Dimensions Influencing Working Status  Of Women in The Indian Household - Anindyo Kamal Sen, Madras School of  Economics, India. 

  3. Factors Influencing the Adoption of Climate Smart Technology in Agriculture:  Evidence from Household Data - Dukhabandhu Sahoo, Indian Institute of  Technology, Bhubaneswar, India. 

  4. 'Work is Worship' : Elite Tech Workers in India - Roshni Kadam, Indraprastha  Institute of Information Technology, India

Room: AHC PG 02

Panel 22 Marginalisation and Mobility  
Chair: Dr. Valesca Lima School of Law and Government, DCU 
Panel Administrator: Somya Dixit 

  1. “University Challenge": Exploring Aspirations And Experiences Of Transnational Education Mobility Among Dalits - Ritu Kochar, London School  of Economics & Political Science, UK 

  2. From Margins to Governance: Dalit Women's Pathways into Local Government  Institutions - Nithya Kothenmaril, Dublin City University, Ireland 

  3. Dalit Women's Double Jeopardy: The Praxis of Intersectionality in the Global  South - Anamica Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,  Maharashtra, India & Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 

  4. Locating Scheduled Caste Women in Indian Labour Market - Anju C Mohan,  University of Calicut, India.

Room: TBC

Panel 23 The Question of National Identities in South Asia - Decolonial Perspectives 
Chair: Professor Jude Lal Fernando, Irish School of Ecumenics, School of Religion,  Theology, and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin. 
Panel Administrator: Jivanta Schottli

  1. Land, Racism and Coloniality in Sri Lanka - Elil Rajendram, Trinity College  Dublin, Ireland 

  2. Paradoxical Synthesis - Decoloniality and Islamophobia in South Asia - Shifana  Mohamed Niyas, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

  3. Illiberal Democracy and Hindutva in India - Saji Mathew Palamkunnel,  Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

  4. Hindu Nation, Islam and Caste in India - Hegemony Appropriated - Zahra  Khalid, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

  5. Hindutva Politics - Constitution vs. Judiciary - Arun Mozhi Ramesh, Trinity  College Dublin, Ireland

17:00 onwards 

Reception & Cultural Event
Senior House Main Restaurant