The ‘material turn’ in art history opened new avenues for research with fresh approaches that shift our attention from considering an object as a static thing in an absolute state to putting more emphasis on the process of making and its use and reuse. A chipped area in a miniature painting is no longer an unfortunate loss but a site of excavation for information about material conditions of production and use, while unfinished surface in a stone sculpture provides a laboratory to explore artisans’ hands at work.
This symposium brings together scholars whose research embraces methodological interventions and theoretical implications of art history’s material turn in the field of South Asian art and architecture, mostly focusing on the period between 500 CE and 1500CE.
Thematically organized, papers demonstrate how attending to thingness and the process of making helps reveal hitherto invisible connections across time and space. Going beyond the rubric of material agency, papers also explore the importance of considering somatic intelligence and ritual technology that developed to activate power and sacrality of objects and buildings in Indic religious contexts. Further consideration of ritual knowledge helps situate the trace of time left in matter through artistic mediations in historical and experiential contexts.
KEYNOTE LECTURE: “Did Time Run Out? Hammer, Chisel, & the Unfinished at Rock-cut Ellora & Built Halebid” will be delivered by Vidya Dehejia, Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Columbia University
In September 2018, following a long and arduous battle by rights activists, India’s Supreme Court voted to strike down Section 377 of the Penal Code, a piece of legislation from the colonial era that criminalized sexual acts considered “against the order of nature”. The Mittal Institute has invited two of the most prominent anti-Section 377 campaigners – and key architects of the legal challenge – to campus, for a discussion about the importance and impact of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Panelists:
Menaka Guruswamy is BR Ambedkar Research Scholar and Lecturer at Columbia Law School. She also practices law before the Supreme Court of India.
Arundhati Katju is a JSD candidate at Columbia Law School and also an advocate practicing at the Supreme Court of India.
Moderator:
Jacqueline Bhabha is FXB Director of Research, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Speaker: PROF. MICHAEL SZONYI
Frank Wen-hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History and Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
Moderator: PROF. TARUN KHANNA
Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School and Director, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University
How should societies identify and promote merit? Enabling all people to fulfill their full potential and ensuring that competent and capable leaders are selected to govern are central challenges for any society. Failure to meet these challenges can have enormous costs, for individuals and for societies as a whole. The richness of China’s historical experience and its distinctive current practices offer useful tools for reflection and comparative analysis. Does the case of China offer any lessons – positive or negative – for India to consider?
Sreenivasan Jain, Managing Editor of one of India’s major TV news networks, NDTV, will discuss the immense demands and challenges of effectively covering such a large country. The growth of digital media and TV news and the ongoing strength of newspapers demonstrate the appetite for news in India but, as in all countries with a free press, there are debates over quality, editorial independence, ownership and diversity. Hasit Shah, former Senior Producer, BBC News and 2014 Nieman-Berkman Fellow, Harvard University, will moderate the conversation.
Celebrate the start of the school year with the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute. Meet our team and learn about funding opportunities that are available to students and fellows, and see about the various South Asia-related students group at Harvard. There will be free tea and snacks, and all are welcome!
Harvard South Asia Institute is proud to co-sponsor the biennial American Council for Southern Asian Art Symposium. ACSAA symposia serve as opportunities to meet colleagues, reconnect with mentors and graduate school cohorts, and share one’s current research with the field. From senior scholars to graduate students, ACSAA symposia are one of the primary ways ACSAA members gather and support one another, share ideas with a group of like-minded colleagues, and participate in the ACSAA community. We are looking forward to welcoming you all in Boston/Cambridge, MA!
ACSAA 2017 Organizers
Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture Laura Weinstein, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
About the ACSAA
The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study and awareness of the art of South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayan regions. In addition to periodic symposia, usually held every two years, ACSAA pursues these goals through various projects, including its annual bulletin, bibliographies, a color slide project, a microfiche archive and outreach materials. Since its incorporation in 1967, ACSAA has grown from its original fifteen members to an organization of some three hundred individuals and institutions. ACSAA is formally affiliated with the College Art Association (CAA) and the Association of Asian Studies (AAS).
A talk by Nandan Nilekani, Former Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI); Non-Executive Chairman of Infosys
Discussant: Tarun Khanna, Director, South Asian Institute; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School
Nandan Nilekani is the former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which implemented the Aadhaar project, India’s biometric ID that uses a 12-digit unique identification number. The seminar will discuss the idea of making Aadhar card mandatory in India and its implications on the lives of 1.2 billion people.
Free and open to the public. This talk is part of the SAI Social Enterprise Series | SW47: Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Social and Economic Problems in the Developing World
Co-sponsored by the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Celebrate the start of the school year with SAI! The Welcome Back Mixer is a chance for students to enjoy delicious South Asian food while meeting SAI’s Visiting Fellows and faculty, learning about student funding opportunities, and meeting with representatives from Harvard South Asia student groups.
For all student groups who wish to organize an informational table at the mixer, please use this form.
Drawn from the Harvard Art Museums’ renowned South Asian art collection, this University Teaching Gallery installation complements an undergraduate course exploring images of women in South Asian art; the course takes a historical perspective in order to understand the politics of gender and the social status of women in today’s South Asia. In addition to historical examples of female patronage and representations of goddesses, the installation includes a group of objects portraying women as active agents—a lady chasing a cat, for example, or a rare depiction of a female artist. A small group of erotic images invites viewers to consider the relationship between erotic science and the Indic attitude toward the body, in which sexuality and virility are auspicious forces.
The installation’s related course (HAA 183W) is taught by Jinah Kim, the Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. The University Teaching Gallery serves faculty and students affiliated with Harvard’s Department of History of Art and Architecture. Semester-long installations are mounted in conjunction with undergraduate and graduate courses, supporting instruction in the critical analysis of art and making unique selections from the museums’ collections available to all visitors.
This installation is made possible in part by funding from the Gurel Student Exhibition Fund and the José Soriano Fund. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.
