Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · 16h

Our student Shaila Grey spent her summer in Mumbai interning at Pundole's Art Auction House and the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation. From M.F. Husain's paintings to murals on city walls, she found art everywhere! 🖼️🇮🇳

Her reflection is now live on our website!

www.southasiacenter.upenn.edu

1

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · 8d

We’re excited to welcome Rabbia, a second-year undergraduate student to the South Asia Center team! 🎉

Have questions, ideas, or want to get involved? She’s happy to connect!

Visit our website for more details.

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · 9d

Mark your calendars for October 15th! We’re excited to host the launch of Dalit Studies, Volume Two: Dalit Journeys for Dignity – Religion, Freedom, and Caste.

Join us for an afternoon of learning and community, featuring insights from two of the editors! All are welcome!! 📚🎙️

1

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · 23d

Step into 19th-century India tomorrow (3:30–5 PM, Cohen 204) with Professor Qasim Zaman from Princeton University for a rare chance to hear one of the leading scholars on law, religion, and society!

All are welcome!

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Sep 10

Join us TOMORROW at 12 PM for the opening event of the CASI Fall 2025 Seminar Series!

Will Glover from the University of Michigan will present "A Stealth Urban History from the Countryside: Punjab's Early-Twentieth-Century Canal Colonies as Urban Space."

All are welcome!!

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Sep 10

The CASI Seminar Series returns this fall with a powerful lineup of speakers exploring history, caste, politics, labor, and the environment in South Asia.

Join us on the following dates at noon for critical conversations that bring new perspectives to the study of the region!

1

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Aug 26

The South Asia Center is hiring a student worker! 🎉

💰 $15/hour, up to 15 hours a week
📚 Must be a UPenn student
🌏 Interest in South Asia
📱 Social media/marketing experience a plus

Flexible hours & a chance to be part of our community.

Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/172694

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Aug 26

Tomorrow: Prof. Dr. Kama Maclean @kamamaclean.bsky.social (Univ. of Heidelberg) begins 5-part lecture series.

🎙️ Lecture 1: Sound and Mass Mobilisation before the Microphone, 1921–1927
🗓 Aug 27, 4:30 PM
📍 Cohen Hall 402 | 249 South 36th Street

1 2

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Jun 12

🌱 From language study to life-saving action.

FLAS Fellow, Jahin Rahman, launches Health Navigation Project in Bangladesh—tackling climate-driven health crises through screenings, education, and clean water access.
www.southasiacenter.upenn.edu/news/2025/06...
#FLAS #PublicHealth #ClimateAction

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Jun 2

Shout-out to the 24–25 FLAS Fellows as their fellowship comes to a close!

They took four courses in South Asian languages and area studies this year 🎓🌍

Big congrats to our graduating fellows: Suhitha, Nadia, Ian, and Adil 💐

Funded by @usedgov.bsky.social

#FLAS #LanguageLearning #SouthAsia

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · May 12

Direct registration link: docs.google.com/forms/d/1ncI...

RSVP for Jinah Kim's talk "Transporting Visions, Transcending Boundaries"

Jinah Kim's talk, "Transporting Visions, Transcending Boundaries: Pothi-Format Books' Travels and Transformations Over the Himalayas and Beyond," is the keynote lecture for the Society of Fellows in C...

docs.google.com

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · May 12

Advanced registration is required by May 15th!

The keynote is supported by the Vice Provost for Research and the @rarebookschool.bsky.social, Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography

www.southasiacenter.upenn.edu/events/2025/...

1 2 3

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Apr 15

This event marks the inaugural session of the Maaya Movement Institute’s Maaya Meditations speaker series!

Focusing on Bangladesh, this panel explores the complex human rights, governance, and political challenges following the country’s recent sociopolitical upheavals and shifting power dynamics.

2

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Apr 14

Register for the Islam in the Tamil World conference this weekend while spaces last.

Check out our conference schedule—you won't want to miss this!

www.eventbrite.com/e/islam-in-t...

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Apr 11

Hybrid Event "Rethinking Archives on Afghanistan" will be starting shortly!
Register Here: libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/14023969

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Mar 27

Please join us for a special screening of Buhay Khulay Rakhi (Let the Doors Stay Open) and a post-screening discussion with Nida Mehboob, the filmmaker, and Ali Usman Qasmi, the film producer, moderated by Penn Professor Jamal J. Elias.

When? April 1, 2025, 4:30-6:00 PM
Where? Rainey Auditorium

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Mar 20

This two-day workshop explores the modern textual, visual, material, and somatic traditions of Muslim communities in the Tamil world, a linguistic sphere of shared social, cultural, and intellectual practices stretching from Southeast Asia to South Africa.

www.eventbrite.com/e/islam-in-t...

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Mar 18

Please join us to celebrate the distinguished careers of Professors Suvir Kaul and Ania Loomba on the occasion of their dual retirement from the University of Pennsylvania. We will start on April 4th at 10:30 AM in Arch 108 and have multiple panels till April 5th, 12:00 PM!

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Mar 6

Celebrate the arrival of spring at CultureFest! Holi on March 15.

Hosted by @pennmuseum.bsky.social and the Three Aksha Dance Company!

Bring the whole family for a day filled with storytelling, colorful art-making, dynamic live music, and captivating dance performances.

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Mar 6

Check out this conference happening on March 21-22 hosted by @penncinemamedia on the 'Financial Mediation of Quotidian Life'! The conference seeks to interrogate the so-called “financialization of everyday life” extending the focus beyond the usual Euro-American instances.

1

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Feb 25

"The Thrice Born": Global Academic Networks and the Rise of Indian Anthropology ca. 1930-1970

A SAST Colloquium, co-sponsored by SAC, CASI, Africana Studies, and Cinema and Media Studies

Jesús F. Cháirez-Garza, University of Manchester

Feb 26, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm | Cohen Hall 402

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Feb 18

In conjunction with the @wolfhumanities.bsky.social Center’s 2024–2025 Forum on Keywords, this interdisciplinary symposium engages mobile concepts and their genealogies, histories, structures of meaning, translations, and adaptations across time and space. Join us on Feb 21 in Van Pelt!

2

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Feb 4

Check out this new article written by PhD student Nazar Khalid, Professors Emily Hannum and Jere Behrman, and Senior Lecturer Amrit Thapa about how more intensive and frequent flooding is affecting young students in India's rural north.

omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/india-...

India Floods and Learning Outcomes

Research from PhD student Nazar Khalid, Professors Emily Hannum and Jere Behrman, and Senior Lecturer Amrit Thapa investigates how more intensive and frequent flooding is affecting young students in t...

omnia.sas.upenn.edu

1

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Feb 3

ONE WEEK LEFT TO APPLY to FLAS fellowship!!!

Want to increase your linguistic skills to compete in today’s global job market? Want to travel? Then this may be the perfect opportunity for you!

Apply today!

southasiacenter.upenn.edu/student-oppo...

Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship | South Asia Center

southasiacenter.upenn.edu

UPenn South Asia Center @southasiacenter.bsky.social · Jan 27

Exciting news from Karnataka! SAC Director Dr. Mark Lycett & the @Penn team—Kathleen Morrison, Austin Chad Hill, Jennifer Feng, CS Ambily & Moriah McKenna—are teaming up with ASI Bengaluru to unlock the secrets of the Brahmagiri excavation. 🔎
Read more:

t.co/wzQdgd2GhK

https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/brahmagiri-excavation-asi-bengaluru-and-university-of-pennsylvania-join-forces-to-unlock-ancient-mysteries-3364669

t.co

1