Borders are often imagined as static lines on maps that don’t change. However, recent scholarship on South Asia has problematized this conception of borders as static objects and unquestioned boundaries. Building on this body of scholarship, Brown University is hosting a year long colloquium in 2014-2015 titled “In Dialogue With Borders: Critical Conversations on Violence, Citizenship, and Sovereignty in Modern ‘South Asia,’” which will engage with the dynamic and evolving conceptions of borders on the subcontinent.
Through two graduate student workshops, one in the fall semester and another in spring, as well as a two-day conference featuring invited faculty and graduate student presentations in Spring 2015, this colloquium seeks to open up important discussions about contemporary forms of “border making” in South Asia and the forms of violence, citizenship, and sovereignty that produce these boundaries. Ultimately we aim to push our understanding of modern South Asia as well as the broader methodological boundaries that constitute South Asian Studies.
border dialogues 