Traditional Scholarship and Asian National Modernity

Traditional Scholarship and Asian National Modernity

Conference Schedule

Thursday & Friday, October 2-3, 2008
Indiana University, Bloomington
Distinguished Alumni Room, Indiana Memorial Union

Thursday October 2
 
8:30-8:50
 Coffee & muffins
 
8:50-9:00
 Introductions
 
9:00-10:30
 History and Asian Modernity Discussant: Klaus Muehlhahn, History
   
  Michael Gasper, Yale University
"The Beginning of History: Rashid Rida, Qasim Amin & the Historicist Imagination in the Arab World"
   
  Ori Sela, Princeton University
"The Crisis of Modernity in 20th-Century Chinese Historiography: Dai Zhen's (1724-77) Posthumous Triumph over Qian Daxin (1728-1804)"
   
10:30-10:45
 Coffee break
   
10:45-12:15
 Science and Asian Modernity Discussant: Rebecca Spang, History
   
Ashish Chadha, Yale University
"Rakhaldas Banerjee: The Making of a Vernacular Scientist in Colonial India"
   
Michael Dodson, Indiana University
"Transcending Modernity and Non-Modernity in Colonial North India"
   
12:15-1:45
 Lunch break
   
1:45-3:15

Language and Asian Modernity Discussant: Paul Losensky, Central Eurasian Studies
   
Marwa Elshakry, Harvard University (in absentia)
"The Politics of Knowledge: The Popularization & Translation of Science in the 19th-Century Arabic Press"
   
Adi Hastings, University of Iowa
"Making Sanskrit Modern"
   
Javed Majeed, Queen Mary University of London
"Modernity's script and Tom Thumb performance: linguistic modernity and traditional lexicography in nineteenth-century India"
   
3:15-3:30
 Coffee break
   
3:30-5:00
 Text and Asian Modernity Discussant: Ron Sela, Central Eurasian Studies
   
Brian Hatcher, Illinois Wesleyan University
"The Modern Sastric Imaginary: Reflections on Social Change in Early Colonial Bengal"
   

Matthias Lehmann, Indiana University
"Zionism Avant la Lettre? Ottoman Jews & the Holy Land Between Tradition and Ideology"
   
7:00-10:00
 Conference dinner (by invitation)
Friday October 3
 
9:00-9:15
 Coffee & muffins
 
9:15-10:45
 Tradition and Asian Modernity Discussant: Rebecca Manring, Religious Studies
 
Arif Dirlik, Chinese University of Hong Kong
" Contemporary Perspectives on Modernity: A Critical Discussion "
 
James Gelvin, UCLA
" 'Modernity', 'Tradition' & the Battleground of Gender in Early 20th-Century Damascus "
 
10:45-11:00
 Coffee break
 
11:00-12:00
 Closing remarks & discussion
 

For further information please contact the conference organizer:

Dr Michael S. Dodson, History Department, Indiana University
msdodson@indiana.edu
812.855.6286

Generously funded by a New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Grant from Indiana
University's Office of the Vice Provost for Research. With additional financial support provided
by the History Department at Indiana University, Middle East & Islamic Studies Program, India
Studies Program, and Cultural Studies Program.