I had the opportunity to participate in American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Junior Fellows Annual Conference at New Delhi in December 2022. Many thanks to AIIS for organizing the same and faculty mentors Prof. Geeta Patel, Prof. Sanjam Ahluwalia, Prof. Sumathi Ramaswamy, and Prof. Radhika Govindrajan for their insightful comments and feedback on participant’s dissertation ideas.

American Institute of Indian Studies
Junior Fellows Annual Conference
December 20 & 21, 2022
UChicago Center, Delhi
DLF Capitol Point, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, New Delhi 110001
&
AIIS Campus
Plot 22, Sector 32, Institutional Area, Gurgaon 122 001

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AGENDA
Day 1 – December 20, 2022: UChicago Center, New Delhi
10:00-10:15 Welcome and initial remarks by AIIS President Professor Sumathi Ramaswamy
Presentations: Participants will discuss projects/ research / fieldwork in India and respond to questions based on the project summary submitted earlier. Each discussion will be limited to 20 minutes. Participants are encouraged to discuss the range of academic resources they have used and problems or unexpected issues that may have cropped up while they were collecting data/materials or conducting interviews.

10:15-11:30 Session – I: Mentor: Professor Geeta Patel *

Mr. Jaideep Pandey, University of Michigan (Dept. of Comparative Literature) Project title: “Belonging and Nostalgia: Medieval Spain in Modern Urdu Literary Imagination.”
Affiliated with Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.

Ms. Jenisha Borah, University of Chicago (Dept. of Cinema and Media Studies)
Project title: “Intimate Cartographies: Maratha Mandir and Cinema Experience in Mumbai.”
Affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune.

Mr. Suvendu Ghatak, University of Florida, Gainesville (Dept. of English) Project title: “Malaria and the Narratives of the Modern in Literatures from Colonial Bengal.”
Affiliated with The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences (CSSS), Kolkata.

11:30-11:45 Tea

11:45-12:35 Session – I: Contd…

Mr. Matthew Carlton Leveille, University of Virginia (Dept. of Religious Studies)
Project title: “To Practice One’s Rival, A Saiva’s Hymn to Visnu: The Varadarajastava of Appayya Diksita.”
Affiliated with the French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry.

Mr. Arnav Bhattacharya, University of Pennsylvania (Dept. of History and Sociology of Science) Project title: “Making Sex Scientific: A History of Sexual Science in India (1883-1985).”
Affiliated with the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.

12:35-13:00 Session – II: Mentor: Professor Sanjam Ahluwalia *

Mr. Sonal Sharma, Johns Hopkins University (Dept. of Sociology) Project title: “Paid Domestic Labor and the Labor Question in Post-Colonial India.”
Affiliated with Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), New Delhi.

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:40 Session – II: Contd…

Ms. Shireen Zainul Hamza, Harvard University (Dept. of History of Science) Project title: “Making Tibb: Medicine in the Indian Ocean World 1250-1500.” Affiliated with Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad.
Mr. Anurag Advani, University of California, Berkeley (Dept. of South and Southeast Asian Studies)
Project title: “Madness in Mughal India: The Formation of an Early Modern Medical Culture, 1512-1747.”
Affiliated with St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Ms. Radha Blinderman, Harvard University (Dept. of South Asian Studies) Project title: “Why Krsna and Sakti have their own Grammars: Rivalry and Innovation in Sectarian Grammars of Sanskrit.”
Affiliated with Bhaktivedanta Research Center (BRC), Kolkata.
Mr. Shiva Sai Ram Urella, Emory University (Dept. of Religion)
Project title: “Caste, Religion and the State in a Telangana Oral Performance Tradition.”
Affiliated with Krea University, Sri City, Andhra Pradesh.

15:40-16:30 Session – III: Mentor: Professor Sumathi Ramaswamy ***

Ms. Sohini Chattopadhyay, Columbia University (Dept. of History)
Project title: “Death and Destitution in the City: Bombay and Calcutta Between 1896 and 1960.”
Affiliated with Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.

Mr. Dipanjan Mazumder, Vanderbilt University (Dept. of History)
Project title: “Was That Legal? Imperial Lawforms and Literary Culture in Bengal (1650-1800).”
Affiliated with Netaji Institute for Asian Studies, Kolkata.

17:00 High Tea at Private Dining Hall, IIC to meet & greet AIIS Junior Fellows
19:00 Lecture by Dr. Vidya Dehejia at IIC on “India a Story through Hundred Objects”

Day 2 – December 21, 2022: Venue – AIIS Campus in Gurgaon
10:00-11:15 Session – III: Contd…

Mr. Shashwat Dhar, Vanderbilt University (Dept. of Political Science)
Project title “Political Brain-Drain or Political Brain-Gain? Circular Migration and Citizenship in Rural India.”
Affiliated with Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Patna.

Mr. Siddharth Subash Menon, University of Wisconsin (Dept. of Geography) Project title: “(De)Constructing Concrete: Capital, Nature, and Infrastructures in Urbanizing India.”
Affiliated with the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Mr. Stephen John Graf, New School for Social Research, New York (Dept. of Politics)
Project title: “Parties-as-Networks in India: The Form and Function Student Organizations.
Affiliated with Osmania University, Hyderabad.

11:15-11:30 Tea

11:30-11:55 Session – III: Contd…

Mr. Ronit Ghosh, University of Chicago (Dept. of South Asian Languages & Civilizations and Music)
Project title: “Technicians, Makers and Mavericks: The Entangled Histories of the ‘Modern’ Bengali Song.”
Affiliated with AIIS Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), Gurugram.

11:55-13:10 Session – IV: Mentor: Professor Radhika Govindarajan ****

Mr. Anuj Kaushal, University of Texas at Austin (Dept. of History)
Project title: “Fann-E Mubasharat: Science of Sex and Masculine Ethics in North India’s Greco-Islamicate Healing ca.1750-1930.”
Affiliated with Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.

Ms. Nimisha Thakur, Syracuse University (Dept. of Anthropology)
Project title: “Fluid Lines: Gender and Indigeneity in the Brahmaputra Riverscapes of Assam, India.”
Affiliated with Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, Guwahati.

Kripanand Roy Komanapalli, Columbia University (Dept. of Religion)
Project title: “Returning Elsewhere: 20th Century Dalit Religion, Migration and Identity.”
Affiliated with The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad

13:10-14:45 Lunch followed by AIIS Tour

14:45-16.00 Session – IV: Contd…

Ms. Sugandh Gupta, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Dept. of Anthropology)
Project title: “Dependency, De-addiction and Relations of Care in Jammu, India.”
Affiliated with (i) Government Medical College, Jammu and (ii) Ashoka University, Sonipat.

Ms. Shahana Munazir, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Dept. of Anthropology)
Project title: “Daughters of Destiny: Politics of Gharelu Muslim Women in India.”
Associated with Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.

Ms. Katyayni Seth, Brown University (Dept. of Anthropology)
Project title: “Caring for Children with Seizures: An Exploration through Documents and Death in Uttar Pradesh.”
Affiliated with Ashoka University, Sonipat.