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CES, SLL&CS is organising a talk by Dr Ashmita Khasnabish

CES, SLL&CS is organising a talk by Dr Ashmita Khasnabish

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CES, SLL&CS is organising a talk by Dr Ashmita Khasnabish
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Centre for English Studies, JNU

 
is organizing a talk by
 
Dr Ashmita Khasnabish
 
on
 
Sea of Poppies: A Diasporic Construct
 
on 8 January (Monday) 2018, at room no 16, SLL&CS-I, JNU at 2 PM.
 
 
ABSTRACT

Sea of Poppies: A Diasporic Construct

The talk will be based on the fifth chapter of the monograph Negotiating Capability and Diaspora: a Philosophical Politics. This chapter is an engagement and dialogue between Amartya Sen’s theory of capability and the Bengali novelist Amitav Ghosh’s vision of diaspora in the light of his novel Sea of Poppies. I see a distinct connection between the two authors as the theory of capability works as a twofold theory to uncover discrimination of underdogs, immigrants, and people of diaspora to work as a positive willpower to achieve one’s goal, if one could learn to inculcate it positively.  

 

BIOGRAPHY : Ashmita Khasnabish, Ph.D., currently teaches at Lasell College and has held research positions in MIT, Brandeis and at Brown University for the last two decades. She has published three monographs: Jouissance as Ananda: Indian Philosophy, Feminist Theory and Literature, (2003/2006), Humanitarian Identity and The Political Sublime: Intervention of a Postcolonial Feminist(2009) and most recently Negotiating Capability and Diaspora: a Philosophical Politics (2014/2016). Dr. Khasnabish has taught at various colleges/universities in Massachusetts and lectured widely in Europe and in India, Canada, and USA. Her edited volume “Postcoloniality, Diaspora and Globalization: What’s Next?” is coming out in 2018. 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.