THE NEW SCHOOL'S 24th SOCIAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE SERIES PRESENTS "INDIA'S WORLD"May 10-11, 2011 in New York |
NEW YORK, May 6, 2010—The New School for Social Research's Center for Public Scholarship and its flagship journal, Social Research: An International Quarterly, will host "India's World," from May 10 to 11 at The New School. Bringing together a many of the world's leading scholars of India, the conference will focus on how India's politics, economy and culture are changing the nation and influencing the world. "As the world's largest democracy, contemporary India represents an unprecedented experiment in popular governance and nation-building," said conference co-director Arjun Appadurai, Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Public Knowledge. "While there have been many efforts to write India's obituary, it is more alive today than it has ever been. This conference seeks to map the current Indian landscape in all its complexities, by sparking discussion among leading voices on the topic from across the academy." Appadurjai is leading the conference with Arien Mack, director of the Social Research series, editor of Social Research and the Alfred and Monette Marrow Professor of Psychology at The New School for Social Research. On Tuesday, May 10, the conference opens with "China and The Making of Modern India," a keynote address by noted Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh. Author of The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, and Sea of Poppies, among others, Ghosh has received a host of literature's major honors, including the 2010 Dan David Prize, the 2007 Asian-American Literary Award, the 1999 Pushcart Prize, as well as a place on the shortlist for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. The conference continues on Wednesday, May 11, with three consecutive sessions focusing on major social topics defining India today. Session one, "Science, Technology, and Education," features an address by Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman, managing director, and CEO, Rediff.com, entitled "India's IT Industry: The Beginning of the End." Session two, "Literature, Culture, and Media," includes presentations and a panel discussion featuring Columbia University's Sheldon Pollock, University of California Berkeley's Lawrence Cohen, Jawaharlal Nehru University's Ranjani Mazumdar, and the University of Chicago's Wendy Donniger. The final session, "Law, Sovereignty and Justice," features London School of Economics' Mukulika Banerjee, Jawaharlal Nehru University's Gopal Guru, and the University of Pennsylvania's Suvir Kaul. To view the complete conference agenda and speakers, visit www.newschool.edu/india. All papers presented at the conference are being published in a special conference issue of Social Research and will be available at the conference. This conference is made possible by generous support from the Ford Foundation in collaboration with The New School's India China Institute. |
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About Social Research, An International Quarterly - An award-winning journal, Social Research has been mapping the landscape of intellectual thought since 1934. Most issues are theme-driven, combining historical analysis, theoretical explanation, and reportage in rigorous and engaging discussion by some of the world's leading scholars and thinkers. Articles cover various fields of the social sciences and the humanities and thus promote the interdisciplinary aims that have characterized The New School for Social Research since its inception. Recent issues have focused on such themes as "Happiness," "Migration Politics," and "The Religious-Secular Divide." The Social Research conference series was launched in 1988 and aims to enhance public understanding of critical and contested issues by exploring them in broad historical and cultural contexts. For more information, visit www.newschool.edu/cps. The Center for Public Scholarship - The Center aims to bring the best scholarship and expertise to bear on current, pressing social issues in a way that makes the scholarship accessible to the public and simultaneously deepens understanding of what may be at stake and how to proceed. It seeks to become a catalyst for events that draw on the humanities, social sciences, design, and public policy and have the potential of accomplishing our mission, namely, enhancing the public's understanding of the significant issues of our time. The Center is dedicated to promoting academic freedom and freedom of inquiry, goals that are rooted in the earliest history and ideals of The New School. About The New School - Located in the heart of New York's Greenwich Village, The New School is a center of academic excellence where intellectual and artistic freedoms thrive. The more than 9,600 matriculated students and approximately 5,300 continuing education students come from around the world to participate in a wide range of undergraduate to doctoral programs in art and design, the social sciences, management and urban policy, the humanities and the performing arts. When The New School was founded in 1919, its mission was to create a place where global peace and justice were more than theoretical ideals. Today, The New School continues that mission, with programs that strive to foster engaged world citizenship. For more information, visit www.newschool.edu. ### |
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