Colloquium on the Economies and Societies of India and China
2014-10-17 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York)
The India China Institute (ICI) at The New School is launching a new research forum, the Colloquium on the Economies and Societies of India and China, to promote the comparative study of the political economies of modern China and India.

COSMOPOLITAN CAPITALISM:Local State-Society Relations in China and India

“State-society relations” typically refers to the relationship between a Weberian nation-state and the citizens residing within its administratively defined and coercively enforced territorial borders. This paper departs from conventional usages of both state and society by focusing on the local state, on the one hand, and a less territorialized conception of society, on the other. Empirically, the paper demonstrates the logic of this dual definitional stretch of state-society relations by examining different expressions of “cosmopolitan capitalism” in three paired localities in China and India: 1) Zhejiang/Gujarat, 2) Zhongguancun/Bangalore, and 3) Guangdong/Kerala.

Presenter: Kellee TsaiProfessor and Head of the Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science & TechnologyProfessor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

Climate Change Himalaya + Nature in Flux | Exhibition by KG Ranjit & Ashmina Ranjit
2014-11-08 17:30 - 2014-11-15 19:00
The India China Institute is excited to announce an exciting event taking place in Kathmandu, Nepal. ICI is partnering with The City Museum Kathmandu, the artists collective Lasanaa, and Nepali artists KG Ranjit and Ashmina Ranjit for a discussion and week-long art exhibition about the role of the arts and humanities in addressing climate change in the Himalaya.

The event includes a 24-hour performance piece by ASHMINA RANJIT at The City Museum Kathmandu’s CMK Gallery. The performance piece is part of the “Nature In Flux” exhibition organized by the India China Institute, LAH Lasanaa and The City Museum Kathmandu. The exhibition will also feature paintings by renowned artist, and Ashmina’s father, KG RANJIT.

Climate Change Himalaya: Engaging the Arts & Humanities

Climate change is the defining issue of our times. While the impacts of climate change are unevenly experienced around the world, communities in the Himalaya are some of the most vulnerable to change. Understanding and communicating these emerging changes is an increasingly important task for public engagement and education. Responding to this need, artists, poets, writers, photographers and filmmakers who live and work in the Himalaya are taking a more active role in documenting and presenting these changing climate landscapes to the public. To support these efforts, the India China Institute at The New School in New York and LASANAA, an alternative art space in Nepal, are working to develop a new collaboration focused on engaging the arts and humanities around climate change and the Himalaya.

There is no question that addressing climate change requires the best available science, but as we have learned, science alone is not enough to create action on climate change. To change people’s hearts and minds, and advance innovative and adaptive solutions to our current climate crisis, appeals to people’s deeply held values, ethics and spiritual beliefs are necessary—and it is here that creative thinkers (e.g. artists, writers, poets) have historically played a critical role in social change by making space for a diversity of voices and views.

Synergies between the arts and sciences, politics and the humanities, are strengthening movements calling for new ways of relating to people and the planet. This includes highlighting our ability to propose alternative practices, raise public awareness, and take political action in these times of crisis despite widespread apathy and political inaction. These emerging global movements of diverse peoples have taken the lead on climate change action and remind us that all life on the planet is interconnected, and that our actions, or inactions, impact everyone.

The discussion on 8 November 2014 will be followed by a week-long inaugural exhibition featuring the works of esteemed artists KG Ranjit and Ashmina Ranjit. This combined exhibition, which will end on 15 November, is an intergenerational interpretation of the climate change crisis. This event is designed to foster further dialogue between the arts and humanities and social sciences, and is part of a broader effort by the India China Institute to broaden debates on climate change in the Himalaya.

Artists’ Statement

‘Beyond Recognition’

For me love, compassion, social justice, equality, freedom are our rights as human beings. Living in harmony in our societies, our countries, and the world at large – are the most important aspects of life.

Our home planet – the Earth – is the only place in this universe that is able to cultivate the existence of the living being for thousands of years. Human beings were so bright and clever that they fostered various indigenous cultures, where nature, art and ecology integrated effortlessly in to ways of life. But realities have changed beyond recognition and only memories of these harmonious relationships remain. Natural culture and indigenous knowledge have been corroded by lopsided urbanism and synthetic modernity. Earth and existence are threatened by a hydrocarbon apocalypse. We seem to have forgotten the fundamental harmonies between humanity and nature that uphold our integrity and dignity.

The more radically we separate ourselves from nature to justify our modernity, the more we lose the ability to relate to our sustainable heritages. Because we have drifted away from nature and destroyed the eco-balance, we are insensitive to ecological limits and interdependencies. To address the ecological crisis at every level we must develop a new culture and an ecologically rational society.

In this work, my concern is neither focused on the trap of synthetic modernity nor the nostalgia of historical harmonies. It is about that liminal space where one is free yet not free – trapped yet unrestricted – the suspension between hope and despair, bliss and misery. In that space the culture evolving from the present socio-political/natural scenario is both reflected and recreated. In this manner, ‘Beyond Recognition’ raises questions about our values as human beings; character, honesty, trustworthiness, duty, and even our sense of beauty, and relationship to natural simplicity. (Ashmina Ranjit)

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Environmental Aesthetics of K.G. Ranjit

Krishna Gopal Ranjit is a well known senior artist with numerous exhibitions to his credit. His realistic landscapes, with their subtle portrayals of light and shade, are collected all around the world. In the current exhibition, his art takes a new direction. Dealing with the theme of environmental crisis, he has previously painted mountains without snow, trees without leaves, birds without feathers, and melting glaciers and drowning cityscapes.

Most of the paintings are characterized by a burst of light at the center. Dim somber colors dominate the margins; an artistic motif that was also present in his earlier realistic landscapes. What is different about the current set of paintings, however, is a radical shift away from the realist form. The lines blur, losing their rigidity, and the colors flow freely, creating forms that range from semi-abstract to abstract. Images of Buddha and other gods peep from under the semi-abstract shapes of the paintings. Such depictions symbolize hope slowly turning obsolete in a world teeming with the threat of earthquakes, floods, landslides and other environmental disasters.

At the same time, environmental crisis is not merely a natural problem for Ranjit; it is a political problem. This theme is well represented in the painting where the city structures of Nepal, Afganistan, Bhutan, China and other nations of the Asian continent are shown drowning under water. It suggests not only a natural tsunami, but also a political one that can sweep away monuments of history in a matter of minutes. The paintings in the current show pulsate with energy and movement; they seem to suggest that chaotic energies—both natural and political—are shimmering under the surfaces of everyday life. The paintings are not only aesthetic representations of the environmental disasters, but serve also as timely warnings to the human race about the deteriorating condition of global environment.

//

Post by The City Museum Kathmandu.

The Real Cost of Tea: Modern Day Slavery in Assam's Tea Gardens
2014-12-05 17:00 - 18:30
The Real Cost of Tea: Modern-Day Slavery in Assam’s Tea Gardens

Sukti Dhital, a human rights lawyer and Executive Director of Nazdeek, a legal capacity organization committed to bringing access to justice closer to marginalized communities in India, will be sharing stories from the ground on the real cost of India’s tea. Through 360 interactive multi-media, Sukti will walk the audience through Assam’s tea gardens, highlighting the substandard conditions these workers labor under. Even though the tea industry is profitable, its workers are slowly deteriorating under a modern-day feudalism developed by the British and inherited by today’s tea companies. Based on Nazdeek’s work in partnering with grassroots activists to advance the rights of workers, the discussion will center on the need for corporate accountability to address human rights abuses and a holistic approach to strengthen efforts for justice.

As covered by leading news outlets such as the New York Times, the Guardian UK, Al Jazeera, BBC and Reuters, despite producing more than 52% of India’s tea, workers in Assam are the lowest paid in India’s organized sector. Colonial-era labor structures, faulty trade union practices and corporate greed are responsible for unjust wages, which are against the Constitution, national and international laws. Through the use of national and transnational legal mechanisms, advocacy campaigns, and community trainings, activists and workers are beginning to challenge the colonial structure in Assam.

Please join the India China Institute and Nazdeek for an evening to reflect and exchange ideas on how western consumers can join the fight to end modern day feudalism in the gardens.

-Friday, December 5, from 5pm to 6:30

-wine/beverages + light snacks served

www.nazdeek.org

www.facebook.com/nazdeek

twitter.com/Nazdeek1

Fourth Interdisciplinary Symposium for Emerging Scholars on India China Studies: China
2014-12-12 15:30 - 19:00

Gods, Power and Common Folks: City and Religion in Kyoto, Japan
2014-12-22 16:00
Social Science Bahainvites you to its

Lecture Series LXXX

Eiko Ikegami

on

Gods, Power and Common FolksCity and Religion in Kyoto, Japan

4 pm • 22 December, 2014 (Monday) • The City Museum, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu

This lecture is based on Eiko Ikegami’s research over the last 10 years in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. Professor Ikegami will invite the audience to the breathtaking sights of Japan’s most famous festival, Gion Matsuri in Kyoto. The Gion festival has been running for a thousand years on an annual basis. In discussing the history and contemporary practices of the festival, she will unveil significance that has become embedded in the contemporary landscape and civic culture of Kyoto city.

Drawing on her historical and ethnographic research, Professor Ikegami will conjure up the Shinto roots of the festival, and how it became dedicated to a shrine called Yasaka. She will then point out how the Gion festival is more than just a Shinto festivity. The shrine and festival are deeply connected with the development of Kyoto’s spatial layout and the creation and transformation of what it meant for ancient Kyotoites to identify with their sense of being citizens. Even the development of the world-famous traditional courtesan district, also called Gion, is related to the history of the Yasaka shrine.

* * *

Eiko Ikegami (PhD in Sociology, Harvard University) is Walter A. Eberstadt Professor of Sociology and History at The New School for Social Research in New York. She is the author of The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan and Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and Political Origins of Japanese Culture, which won five book prizes in fields, including the John Whitney Hall Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies and the Best Book Award in Cultural Sociology from the American Sociological Association. Her current work on civility and aesthetics, cultures of Japanese capitalism and public spheres in comparative perspectives through network formation includes visualised interactive communications on the internet. Before coming to The New School, she held positions with Yale University and Nihon Keizai Shinbun (The Japan Economic Journal) in Tokyo. In 2003, she was elected to the chair of the Comparative and Historical Sociology section of the American Sociological Association.

This lecture is co-organised with the India China Institute at The New School in collaboration with the Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology (Tribhuvan University), Lasanaa and The City Museum Kathmandu.

This is a public event and admission is free and open to all. Seating is first-come-first-served.Please direct queries to 4472807.

Who Cares? Care Arrangements and Sanitation for the Poor in India, Compared With Europe and China
2015-02-04 18:00 - 19:30
This talk will examine the question: why do Indian middle-class citizens seem to have no compelling interest improving sanitation for the poor, despite the fact that their own health is affected due to the close proximity of the poor? By comparing the current conditions of poverty in India and China, presenter Peter van der Veer will examine cultural theories of attitudes towards ‘the dirty outside world’ and will argue that these theories ignore the importance of caste, and especially, untouchability. The New School’s Sanjay Ruparelia will serve as a discussant.

Peter van der Veer is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen and Distinguished University Professor at Utrecht University. He is the author of Gods on Earth (LSE Mongraphs, 1988), Religious Nationalism (University of California Press 1994), Imperial Encounters (Princeton University Press 2001), The Modern Spirit of Asia (Princeton University Press 2014). He is the editor of the new journal, Cultural Diversity in China and is a senior advisor at the India China Institute.

Sanjay Ruparelia is an assistant professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research and a former Fellow at the India China Institute. His areas of research and teaching span democratic theory, comparative politics and political economy of development, primarily in South Asian studies. He is the author of Divided We Govern: The Paradoxes of Power in Contemporary Indian Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2013) and is the coeditor of Understanding India’s New Political Economy: A Great Transformation? (Routledge, 2011).

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The Fear of Art: 32nd Social Research conference
2015-02-12 18:00 - 19:00
The Center for Public Scholarship is pleased to present the 32nd Social Research conference, “The Fear of Art,” on Thursday and Friday, February 12 and 13, 2015, at The New School in New York City.Ai Weiwei will give the keynote address with a video he is creating especially for the conference, “The Censorship of Artists: Artists in Prison, Artists in Exile.”

We have chosen this theme for our next conference because freedom of expression remains under threat in both totalitarian and democratic states. Artists continue to be imprisoned and exiled and art continues to be banned and destroyed, all of which gives evidence of the power of images to unsettle, to speak truth to power, to question our cherished cultural norms and what we hold sacred.

The conference aims to examine how art can threaten, terrify, and provoke the wrath of political, religious, and cultural regimes. Speakers will examine the history of art censorship and the role of artists as collaborators and rebels. The agenda also pairs artists and scholars to discuss activist art, the threat posed by art, the potency of art, artists at risk, and artists in exile. Museum and gallery directors will discuss who does the policing and ask: What is the role of self-censorship?

The conference is co-sponsored by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, PEN American Center, and the India China Institute at The New School. The conference has been made possible with generous support from Agnes Gund, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Larry Warsh, the Ford Foundation, and ArteEast.

The director and founder (1988) of the Social Research conference series is Arien Mack, Alfred and Monette Marrow Professor of Psychology at The New School for Social Research, who has been the editor of Social Research since 1970. For the history of the conference series, visit the Social Research conference series site. For information about other public events at The New School, see the university calendar. Find information about the more than 70 degree programs offered at The New School. For general information about The New School, visit the Quick Facts page.

Handshake 302: Vernacular Geographies of Shenzhen, China
2015-02-19 18:00 - 19:30
In Shenzhen, China, the term “urban village” refers to a vernacular urban typology that has emerged out of village settlements that no longer, or only partially, exist, and continue to expand today. In these dense, urbanized spaces, the preservation of village terminology allows us to explore a vernacular geography of “modernized”, “urbanized”, and “everyday” spaces within a larger discourse about China’s urban growth and Shenzhen’s history, its development trajectories, and governmental interventions in its built environment. This talk focuses on my experience co-curating an experimental art and ethnographic space called the “Handshake 302 Village Hack Residency” that engages the living history of the urban village of Baishizhou and Shenzhen’s history more generally. Handshake 302 exploits the semiotic discrepancies between art space programs and low cost housing to provide an accessible sociology of an urban village. The talk explores how the definition, rezoning, and rebuilding of these neighborhoods simultaneously evaluates the history of urban modernity (and the ordinary people who made it) and posits the city’s future (and the people who are welcome there).

Mary Ann O’Donnell is an anthropologist, urban ethnographer, artist, and educator living in Shenzhen, China, where she is the director of CZC Special Forces, a citizen group that aims to bring Shenzhen’s urbanized villages into public discussions about urban planning and renewal projects. She is also an editor at Architectural Worlds.

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Asia and Dissent in a Time of Strongman Leaders
2015-02-26 18:00 - 19:30
Watch Here

Please join us for a roundtable discussion with experts on China, India, Japan & Russia.

Moderator:

Jeff Wasserstrom, Chancellor’s professor of History, University of California at Irvine; Author, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know; Editorial Board Member, Dissent Magazine

Panelists:

Alexis Dudden, Professor of History, University of Connecticut and Contributor, Dissent Magazine

Nina Khrushcheva, Associate Professor and Associate Dean at Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy, The New School

Ross Perlin, Author and Contributor, Dissent Magazine

Sanjay Ruparelia, Assistant Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research and former Fellow, India China Institute

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The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh (In Chinese)
2015-03-14 15:15 - 17:30
Tehching Hsieh is a noted New York City base performance artist. Hsieh accomplished five One Year Performance from 1978 to 1986 and worked on Thirteen-Year Plan from 1986 to 1999. In his Cage Piece, the artist locked himself in a cage for one year. He was tied to Linda Montano for a year during the Rope Piece. Punched a time clock every hour for a year, his Time Clock Piece has been exhibited in the Guggenheim Museum. Some of his works has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in 2009.

Tehching Hsieh was born in Nan-Chou, Taiwan in 1950. He dropped out high school in 1967 and took up painting. After finishing compulsory military service (1970-73), Hsieh had his first solo show at the gallery of the American News Bureau in Taiwan. Shortly after, Hsieh stopped painting. In 1973 He made a performance action, “Jump Piece”, in which he broke both ankles. He then trained as a seaman, which he used as a means to enter the United States. In July of 1974, Hsieh arrived at a small port near Philadelphia. He was an illegal immigrant in the States for fourteen years until he was granted amnesty in 1988. Starting in the late nineteen seventies, Hsieh made five One Year Performances and a Thirteen Year Plan, inside and outside his studio in New York City. Using long durations, making art and life simultaneous, the first four One Year Performances made Hsieh a regular name in the art scene in New York; the last two pieces, intentionally retreating from the art world, set a tone of sustained invisibility. Since the millennium, released from the restriction of not showing his works during a thirteen-year period, Hsieh has exhibited his work in North and South America, Asia and Europe. Hsieh lives in Brooklyn, New York.

He is most known for six durational performance pieces completed between 1978 and 2000. One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece) In this performance, which lasted from 29 September 1978 through 30 September 1979, the artist locked himself in an 11.5-by-9-by-8-foot wooden cage, furnished only with a washbasin, lights, a pail, and a single bed. During the year, he was not allowed to talk, read, write, or listen to radio and TV. A lawyer, Robert Projansky, notarized the entire process and made sure the artist never left the cage during that one year. A friend came daily to deliver food, remove the artist’s waste, and take a single photograph to document the project. In addition, this performance was open to being viewed once or twice a month from 11 am to 5 pm. One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece) For one year, from 11 April 1980 through 11 April 1981, Hsieh punched a time clock every hour on the hour. Each time he punched the clock, he took a single picture of himself, which together yield a 6-minute movie. He shaved his head before the piece, so his growing hair reflects the passage of time. Documentation of this piece was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2009, using film, punch cards, and photographs. This work was the first of Hsieh’s ever to be displayed in the UK at the Liverpool Biennial in 2010. One Year Performance 1981–1982 (Outdoor Piece) In his third one-year performance piece, from 26

September 1981 through 26 September 1982, Hsieh spent one year outside, not entering buildings or shelter of any sort, including cars, trains, airplanes, boats, or tents. He moved around New York City with a packbag and a sleeping bag. One Year Performance 1983-1984 (Rope Piece) In this performance, Hsieh and Linda Montano spent one year between 4 July 1983 and 4 July 1984 tied to each other with an 8-foot-long (2.4 m) rope. They had to stay in a same room while not allowed to touch each other until the end of the one year period.Both of them shaved their hair in the beginning of the year, and the performance was notarized initially by Paul Grassfield and later by Pauline Oliveros. One Year Performance 1985–1986 (No Art Piece) For one year, Hsieh did no art, spoke no art, saw no art, read no art, and did not enter any museum or gallery.

Tehching Hsieh 1986–1999 (Thirteen Year Plan) At the beginning of this epic piece, Hsieh declared, “Will make Art during this time. Will not show it publicly.” This plan began on his 36th birthday, 31 December 1986, and lasted until his 49th birthday, 31 December 1999. At the end, on 1 January 2000 he issued his concluding report, “I kept myself alive. I passed the December 31st, 1999.” The report consisted of cutout letters pasted onto a single sheet of paper.

Presented by Chinese Artist Alliance of New York City, The New School India China Institute. Supported by The New School CSSA

Challenges in Balancing Conservation & Development in Eastern Himalaya
2015-04-07 18:00 - 19:30
Join the India China Institute and the Environmental Studies program at The New School for an exciting talk on biodiversity conservation and development issues in the Eastern Himalaya.

“Challenges in Balancing Conservation and Development in Eastern Himalaya, a Biodiversity Hotspot”

A public talk by Ganesan Balachander.Discussion moderated by Timon McPhearson, Assistant Professor of Ecology, The New School.

The Eastern Himalaya is a biodiversity hotspot, with parts of it declared as UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites (Kaziranga, Khanchendzonga, Manas). Equally rich is the cultural diversity of its multitude ethnic groups. The region is likely to witness rapid economic growth – held back till now due to a long period of neglect, political instability and conflicts – owing to geopolitical considerations (a long disputed border with China), vast potential of hydro electric power for a energy starved country and growing development aspirations of the people. Conventional development models will be unlikely to produce sustained and inclusive growth and are likely to lead to loss of species, water insecurity and continued ethnic conflicts. To address these problems, the major research priorities include:

~ Need for information on occurrence, extent and distribution of species, both faunal and floral~ Modeling to ascertain likely impact of climate change (to prepare for adaptation as well as mitigation)~ The value of ecosystem services and factoring this element in policy making and design of project

The speaker will address these issues through lessons learned over two decades of research activities and projects in the region.

Ganesan Balachander is Director of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore. ATREE is recognized as amongst the top 20 environmental think tanks in the world (U-Penn survey). Balachander is also currently a member of the Consortium Board of the CGIAR, a global public sector research organization involved in addressing food insecurity, poverty, malnutrition and ecosystem resilience. Earlier, he was the Representative for South Asia of The Ford Foundation in New Delhi. In a previous career, before he obtained his doctoral degree in Ecology from Rutgers University with a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard, he was a Vice President at Citibank, New York.

RSVP for the event

Fourth Interdisciplinary Symposium for Emerging Scholars on India China Studies: New York
2015-04-16 09:00 - 17:00
The Fourth Interdisciplinary Symposium for Emerging Scholars on India China Studies is part of the India China Institute’s continuing commitment to build a community of scholars who are engaged in research that focuses on new and innovative approaches to understanding India-China relations.Presenters selected for this symposium share a broad interest in India-China relations in a globalizing world. The symposium will provide a platform for a select group of early career scholars from India, China, and the United States to present their work and to participate in multi-disciplinary investigation and deliberation with distinguished scholars.

When discussing the work of each of the presenters, we hope to identify relevant methodological and substantive questions, and where possible answers, through a productive confrontation of diverse disciplinary perspectives. Relevant cross-cutting themes will include that of the role to be played by received and privileged spatial and institutional frames, such as that of the nation-state, in scholarly analyses within the field, and that of how to relate historical and contemporary concerns while avoiding anachronistic fallacies.

We hope that the symposium will provide a milestone in the intellectual definition and institutional development of the field, enhance the sense of community within it, and help to foster more productive directions for teaching and scholarship.

The Fourth Interdisciplinary Symposium for Emerging Scholars on India China Studies is generously supported by The Starr Foundation. Co-sponsored by the interdisciplinary programs in Global, Urban, and Environmental studies at The New School.

** Download a copy of the full program here [PDF] or just the program schedule here [PDF].

Event Schedule

Thursday, April 16, 2015 | Orozco Conference Room (#712)66 W 12th Street, 7th Floor, New York

9:00-9:30 Registration (refreshments, coffee and tea will be provided)

9:30-9:45 Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:45-12:45 Session I: Flows and Exchanges

Chair: Jianying Zha, Writer and Former ICI China Representative

(Paper 1) Yang Lu, Lecturer, Heidelberg University

“Ontological Security and India-China Relations: From Border War to ‘News War’”

(Paper 2) Jingfeng Li, Assistant Researcher, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences

“Driving force and constraints behind BCIM Economic Corridor”

(Paper 3) Amen Jaffer, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Forman Christian College, Lahore

“The Sufi Shrine Revival in India Punjab”

(Paper 4) Marina Kaneti, PhD Candidate, Politics, The New School for Social Research

“Leveraging Capital: Trade, consumption, and migration in the age of the unequal treaties”

DiscussantsAshok Gurung, Senior Director, ICI and Professor of Practice, Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New SchoolMary Bryna Sanger, Deputy Provost and Senior Vice President, Provost Office, The New SchoolNimmi Kurian, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, Former ICI Fellow & Former ICI India Representative (Paper 1 & 2)Sanjay Ruparelia, Assistant Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research, Former ICI Fellow & Faculty Advisor (Paper 1)Joe Thomas Krackattu, Assistant Professor, China Studies Centre Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras (Paper 1)Lei Ping, Assistant Professor of China Studies and Coordinator of Chinese Program, The New School for Public Engagement (Paper 2)Yuan Zhang, Research Fellow, Sanskrit Centre of Institute of Foreign Literature, China Academy of Social Sciences (Paper 2)Sanjay Chaturvedi, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Former ICI Fellow (Paper 3 & 4)Eiko Ikegami, Professor of Sociology, The New School for Social Research (Paper 3)Barnali Chanda, Research Fellow, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkatta (Paper 3)

Question and Answers (45 minutes)

16:15-17:55 India China Studies: A Round Table Discussion

Chair: Ashok Gurung, Senior Director, ICI, The New School

New Urban Forms, New Fields of Inquiry Conference: China and India
2015-04-17 - 2015-04-18 | Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street Room B500, New York, NY, 10011, USA
New Urban Forms, New Fields of Inquiry: China and India will explore new ways of looking at the interplay of the conceptual and the material in studies of urban India and China. A collaborative and exploratory field-building exercise, this conference will pursue alternatives to theories of social science and design that sometimes draw upon universalist and/or linear assumptions about processes such as capitalism, urbanization, and modernity. Instead, our conference participants, many of whom have engaged in ethnographic, interpretive, or other qualitative approaches to urban forms and processes, will pursue new concepts and expose areas of future inquiry based on their work on urban and urbanized spaces of China and India. ICI believes that a conference engaging scholars committed to theorizing from careful, contextualized studies of Chinese and Indian cities has the potential to create new fields of inquiry. Please check back for updates on logistical information about this conference.
Keynote Speaker:
Terry McGee
Professor, Former DirectorInstitute of Asian ResearchUniversity of British Columbia

Explorations on the Asian Urban Edge
2015-04-17 18:00 - 20:00
The India China Institute is excited to announce a keynote talk by Terence McGee as part of the two-day New Urban Forms, New Fields of Inquiry conference at The New School.

“Explorations on the Asian Urban Edge: Untangling Issues of Comparative Research on Urbanization in China, India and Southeast Asia”

A Public talk by Professor Terence McGee, University of British ColumbiaWelcome remarks by Provost Tim Marshall

April 17th, 6-8pmWollman Hall, 5th floor65 West 11th St., NYThe New School

In the last sixty years, Professor McGee has researched Indian international migration, Malays rural-urban migration to Kuala Lumpur, street vendors in Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Penang and Hong Kong. His work has focused on the urban margins of Asian cities located within the diverse trajectories of urbanization in China, India and Southeast Asia. His address will focus on four main questions.

~What is the “urbanization problematique” in the 21st century?~How can context and theory intermesh to reinterpret urbanization at different spatial scales–local, national, regional and global?~What role does the comparative study of urbanization play in understanding urbanization at these various territorial scales?~What are the consequences of strategic research themes for the comparative research on urban China and India?

Terence McGee has conducted research on urbanization and development in Asia for more than fifty years. He is the author of numerous influential books, monographs and articles on urbanization question in Southeast Asia, China and Latin America. He has also led several influential projects on urban development and the effects of environmental change on mega-urban regions. He was Director of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia (1978-88, 1993-98) as well as Professor of Geography (1978-2001). He was awarded the distinguished Vautrin Lud International Prize in Geography in 2009 for his contributions to development geography.

RSVP information coming soon

Hamro Nepal: International Benefit Concert
2015-05-16 20:00 - 22:30 | The New School University Center, 63 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, 10003, USA
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Hamro (Our) NepalAn event to raise awareness, bring community together, and fundraise for Nepal

Saturday May 16th, 20158-10pm

Background

On April 25, 2015, Nepal experienced an earthquake that has, and continues to take an immense toll on the country and its people. Nepal’s recovery faces unique challenges on the ground due to its inaccessible geography, and tumultuous political and economic climate. The Gurung Society, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit is holding a benefit to utilize our unique position as an experienced organization with deep personal and professional connections to the region. The Gurung Society has previously led fundraising initiatives for natural disasters such as the Haiti Earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Event

We are hosting an event on May 16th from 8:00PM – 10:30PM, in the Tishman Auditorium at the New School in New York City to help raise funds and celebrate Nepal’s rich culture. Featuring renowned Nepali and international artists, this night will bring together a diverse community to support Nepal. The benefit is focused on serving the hardest hit villages near the quake’s epicenter. While the damage in Kathmandu is striking, many rural communities do not have the resources or networks available to adequately rebuild. It is our mission to direct funds to rural villages most in need of assistance.

Full details about the event, performers, and how to reserve tickets available here on the Hamro Nepal Indiegogo page here.

Bron Taylor: Spirituality After Darwin
2015-09-24 18:00 - 19:30
Spirituality After Darwin:

‘Dark Green’ Nature Religion and the Future of Religion and Nature

A public lecture by Professor Bron Taylor. Mark Larrimore, Eugene Lang College Religious Studies program as discussant.

6:00-7:30 pm, Theresa Lang Community Center, 55 W. 13th St., 2nd floor.

Event RSVP

New Religions come and go but some persist and become major global forces. In this presentation Professor Taylor presents evidence that, especially since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, a new, global, earth religion has been rapidly spreading around the world. Whether it involves conventional religious beliefs in non-material divine beings, or is entirely naturalistic and involves no such beliefs, it considers nature to be sacred, imbued with intrinsic value, and worthy of reverent care. Those having affinity with such spirituality generally have strong feelings of belonging to nature, express kinship with non-human organisms, and understand the world to be deeply interconnected. In a recent book Taylor labeled such phenomena ‘dark green religion’, noting that its central ethical priority is to defend the earth’s biocultural diversity. Taylor provides a wide variety of examples of new forms of religious (and religion-resembling) cultural innovation among those promoting such nature spirituality, from individuals (including artists, scientists, filmmakers, photographers, surfers, and environmental activists), to institutions (including museums, schools, and the United Nations). By tracking these, Taylor provides an opportunity to consider what such spirituality may portend for the religious and planetary future.

Speaker Bio:

Bron Taylor is Professor of Religion, Nature, and Environmental Ethics at the University of Florida, and a Carson Fellow of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich Germany. His research involves both ethnographic and historical methods, and much of it focuses on grassroots environmental movements, their emotional, spiritual, and moral spiritual dimensions, and their environmental, cultural, and political impacts. He has been involved in a variety of international initiatives promoting the conservation of biological and cultural diversity. His books include Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (2010), the award winning Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (2005), Civil Society in the Age of Monitory Democracy (2013) and Ecological Resistance Movements: the Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism (1995), and Avatar and Nature Spirituality (2013). He is also the founder of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, and editor of its affiliated Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. For more information see www.brontaylor.com.

Refreshments will be provided. Seating is limited. Please RSVP here.

The Global Challenge of Implementing the Urban SDGs w/ Aromar Revi
2015-10-01 18:00 - 20:00
The Global Challenge of Implementing the Urban Sustainable Development Goals

When: Thursday, October 1, 2015; 6:00 – 8:00pmWhere: Hirshon Suite (Room 205) 55 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011

ICI is hosting Aromar Revi to deliver a special public talk on “The global challenge of implementing the urban SDGs.” Mr Revi will dissect the United Nation’s SDGs, which have been well-crafted to guide the public’s understanding of complex sustainable development challenges, inspire public and private action, promote integrated thinking, and foster accountability.
Aromar Revi is currently the Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), a national education institution committed to the equitable, sustainable and efficient transformation of Indian settlements. He is an international practitioner with over thirty years of inter-disciplinary experience. He is a member of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), co-chair of its Urban thematic group, where he leads a global campaign for an urban Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). He is also a past fellow of the India China Institute.
Professor Shagun Mehrotra will serve as a panelist. Mehrota is a Professor of Sustainable Development at The New School and is the founding Director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Center. Professor Mehrotra serves on UNSDSN’s Urban Thematic Group charged by the UN Secretary General as an external advisory group for the post-2015 development agenda. Mehrotra co-directs UCCRN, a global research network of 500 scholars and practitioners based in a 100 cities dedicated to urban climate change research and policymaking.

Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to reserve a seat.

Dynastic Politics and the Challenges of Democratization in Bangladesh w/ Rounaq Jahan
2015-10-16 16:00 - 18:00
ICI is happy to announce this important talk we are co-sponsoring with the Development Thought and Policy Seminar Series at The New School. The event will take place Oct. 16th from 4-6pm in the University Center, #311.
Please RSVP for the event to development.newschool@gmail.com.
Rounaq Jahan will present her new book Political Parties in Bangladesh: Challenges of Democratization (Prothoma Prokashan, 2015). The book is organized into six broad chapters, covering theoretical explanations of political parties and political development, and with a detailed look at party systems under different regimes during key phases in Bangladesh’s history. Her analysis focuses on major traits of political parties, their organizational structure and leadership dynamics, who supports the parties and intra-party democratic practice, with special attention to local level politics. She concludes this imporant study by offering her key findings from the study and making recommendations on how to address these issues and challenges. Her talk will be based on this latest book. You can read more about her new book here.
Professor Rounaq Jahan is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in Bangladesh.

Putting Courage at the Center: Reflections on Gandhi w/ Uday Mehta
2015-10-21 18:00 - 19:30
The Sixth Annual Carol Breckenridge Memorial Lecture in South Asian History:The India China Institute is pleased to co-sponsor a public talk by Professor Uday Mehta titled “Putting Courage at the Center: Reflections on Gandhi.”

What might it mean to place courage and related notions such as a willingness to die at the center of one’s conception of an ethical life, both for individuals and collectivities? In many ways this pursuit was the informing creed of Gandhi’s life and the link between his ethical and political philosophy. For Gandhi, courage had a centrality that trumped even his opposition to war and the British Empire. It also gave a distinctive hue to the specific connection that Gandhi identified between courage and democracy – a connection that gave no special precedence to familiar political conceptions of democracy.

Uday Singh Mehta is a political theorist whose work encompasses a wide spectrum of philosophical traditions. He has worked on the relationship between freedom and imagination, liberalism’s complex link with colonialism and empire, and more recently with issues of war, peace and non-violence. He is the author of two books, The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in the Political Thought of John Locke (Cornell University Press, 1992), and Liberalism and Empire: Nineteenth Century British Liberal Thought (University of Chicago Press, 1999). In 2002, he was named a Carnegie Foundation scholar. He is currently completing a book on the moral and political thought of M.K. Gandhi. He was an undergraduate at S warthmore College, where he studied mathematics and philosophy. He received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Princeton University. He has taught at Princeton University, Cornell, MIT, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania.The talk will be followed by a reception. RSVP through eventbrite is welcome but not necessary to attend.

Stories and Journeys from the Indian Himalayas
2015-12-03 18:00 - 20:00
Stories and Journeys from the Indian Himalayas

December 3, 2015 | 6:00-8:00 pmHirshon Suite (Room 205)55 West 13th St, New York, NY 10011

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Noted Himalayan Anthropologist James Fisher will moderate the conversation.

Husband and wife team, Payson R. Stevens and Kamla K. Kapur will talk on their work in India over the last 12 years living in a remote Himalayan Valley. Payson’s career is multi-faceted with training in art and science. He was an advisor to the Great Himalayan National Park and spearheaded its inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kamla is a well-known author of three acclaimed books reimagining Indian myths, stories and tales from three main spiritual sources: Hinduism, Sufism, and Sikhism.

They will share their stories and unique creative perspective with Kamla reading from her books and Payson sharing the perspective of an American living in a valley where the old mythic ways still survive. He will also show his experimental videos that focus on India’s sacred sites.

About Payson:

Payson is an award-winning author, artist, filmmaker and digital pioneer with training in science and the arts. His two companies consulted to NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on global change and helped pioneer digital new media. He received the Presidential Design Award from Bill Clinton for these groundbreaking innovations. During the last 14 years he has worked on Himalayan rural community and conservation issues related to the Great Himalayan National Park. He continues to paint and make experimental videos combining poetry and music in compelling mash-ups.

About Kamla:

Kamla was born and raised in India and studied in the U.S. She taught literature, mythology, and creative writing at Grossmont College for 17 years. Many of her poems have been published in prestigious American journals and quarterlies. She is an accomplished playwright with recent performances of her award-winning play, Kaamiya, in Mumbai. Recent books include: The Singing Guru, Pilgrimage to Paradise: Rumi’s Tales from the Silk Road, Ganesha Goes to Lunch. She is currently working on numerous writing projects including the multi-volume, Sikh Saga; Coherences, a novel of contemporary India, and a young-adult fantasy novel, Malini in Whirlwood.

Global Warming and the Rise of Asia w/ Amitav Ghosh & Prasenjit Duara
2016-02-12 17:30 - 19:30
Global Warming & the Rise of Asia w/ Amitav Ghosh and Prasenjit Duara

The India China Institute engages two renowned intellectuals – Amitav Ghosh and Prasenjit Duara – in a conversation on climate change and capitalism in Asia.

Opening remarks by The New School President David van Zandt.

Conversation moderated by ICI Research Scholar and NYU History Professor David Ludden.

Friday, Feb 12th, 20165:30 -7:30 PM

63 Fifth Ave, Tishman AuditoriumUniversity Center, The New School

SOLD OUT

Watch Livestream – starts at 5:30 pm EST

Amitav Ghosh

Empire and the Anthropocene: Asia’s place in the genealogy of global warming

In accounts of the Anthropocene, and of the present climate crisis, capitalism is usually the pivot on which the narrative turns. But this narrative overlooks a driver of history that is of equal importance: Empire and imperialism. The relation between capitalism and empire is not, and has never been, a simple one: in relation to global warming the imperatives of capital and empire have often pushed in different directions, producing some unexpected and counter-intuitive results. To look at the climate crisis through the prism of Empire is to recognize that the continent of Asia is conceptually critical to every aspect of global warming: it’s causes, it’s philosophical and historical implications, and to the possibility of a global response to it.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He is the author of one book of non-fiction, a collection of essays and eight novels, of which the most recent is Flood of Fire (Book 3 in the Ibis Trilogy). His books have won prizes in India, Europe and Myanmar and he has been awarded honorary degrees by the Sorbonne, Paris, and by Queens College, New York.

Prasenjit Duara

Network Asia and the Problem of Sustainability

The December 2015 Climate Change Summit (COP21) was a landmark event for the global recognition of the planetary crisis of sustainability. But as is well known there are significant gaps between recognition and implementation of the largely voluntary commitments; the latter depends upon a range of monumental transformations not only in the market and technological management of carbon emissions but also notions of sovereignty that will have to allow for extra-national monitoring and changes in expectations and life-styles.

The same globalization process which has brought about this recognition had in the last decade also accelerated capitalist regionalization of the world, including the re-connection of Asian societies, especially around China, India and Southeast Asia, particularly ASEAN. While policy makers intended the integration of Asia to enhance capitalist competitiveness, the new or renewed connections will have to be mobilized equally to address problems of regional and global sustainability. What are the forces working for sustainability in the region and how can they be enhanced?

Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. Born and educated in India, he received his PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University. He was Professor of History and East Asian Studies at University of Chicago (1991-2008) and Raffles Professor and Director of Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (2008-2015). His latest book is The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future (Cambridge 2014).

Co-sponsors: Global Studies and Environmental Studies at Eugene Lang College, The Center for Public Scholarship, South Asia – New York University, Baruch College – CUNY.

"Aboveground-40 Moments of Transformation" Chinese Feminist Photo Exhibition
2016-02-13 - 2016-02-27
“Aboveground—40 Moments of Transformation”

A photography exhibition of young feminist activism in China

February 12-26, 2016

Skybridge Art Space

65 West 11th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011

The India China Institute is pleased to announce “Aboveground—40 Moments of Transformation”, a photography exhibition of young feminist activism and the struggle for gender equality in China. The exhibition is co-hosted by China Rights in Action, Feminist Task Force, and Asian American Arts Centre.

Feminism calls for freedom from restrictive gender roles and for gender equality in the realization of social, cultural, economic and political rights. “Aboveground—40 Moments of Transformation” documents young Chinese activists’ impressive efforts to combat stigma, discrimination, and violence against women in pursuit of these ideals. These activists use public spaces as their battlefront to gain visibility and spark open dialogue. But in China, bringing the fight for gender equality above ground comes at great personal risk. This exhibition frames and explores the determination with which these young feminists are pushing for a China with true gender equality.

Background information:

In 1995, 189 governments came together in China and adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. These documents were a remarkable milestone, committing to a vision for women and girls of equal rights, freedom, and opportunities in all spheres of society and of lives free from want, fear, and violence. Two decades later, ironically, feminists and lawyers in China who fight for such equal rights are subjected to search, harassment, and even detention. On March 7, 2015, the Chinese government detained five women activists on the eve of International Women’s Rights Day for their efforts to call attention to sexual harassment. The women received an outpouring of support from feminists, women’s groups, human right organizations, and politicians around the world. But dark clouds are still gathering inside China. Although “The Feminist Five” were released after 37 days, it was conditioned on a strict form of bail that limits their movement, associations, and speech, and they are still treated as criminal suspects by Chinese police.

e-Waste Tsunami
2016-03-05 - 2016-03-26
e-waste Tsunami

Sheila C. Johnson Design CenterArnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries

March 5 – March 26, 2016Opening reception: Friday, March 4, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Behind the virtual worlds conjured by our computers and mobile phones is the very real world of electronic trash—e-waste: where electronic equipment goes to die. Tracing the journey from wealthy desktops to the poorest corners of the world, this multi-media exhibition defines new ways to see and connect the global ecosystems behind the creation, use and disposal of products and services in today’s technologically connected world. Understanding the interrelation of the ecosystems is key to the design of new products and services that will address and alleviate the e-waste problem. Can industrial design, which plays a major role in creating this problem, be part of its solution?

The exhibition features documentary photographs of those who work with e-waste on a daily basis from the frontline in Delhi, India, along with data visualizations revealing the scale of the problem. Real data and “exploded view” models explore the nature of product manufacture and assembly. Exhibition visitors are introduced to the physicality of electronic products and the end of life cycle of manufactured objects, raising the question – Why are we currently not designing for this occurrence?

This exhibition is a joint work of the students of Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments, Industrial Design MFA creating exploded view assemblies which make up a product, and STUDIOFYNN’s photographic documentary and data visualization. The assemblies paired with photo documentary and data analysis inspire urgency around creating new approaches to design and consumption, international public policy and human rights advocacy. Comprehensive solutions to this problem will come about when all stakeholders – legislators, designers, policy makers, NGOs, corporations and last but not least, citizens take responsibility and participate.

Co-sponsored by the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School of Constructed Environments, and the India China Institute at The New School. In-kind support for printing generously provided by Duggal.

RELATED PROGRAMS:

e-waste Tsunami: Design & Policy Response – Panel Discussion Friday, March 11, 2016, 6:00-8:00 p.m.Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue

This panel brings together designers, policy experts, and supply-chain participants to raise e-waste awareness and imagine best practice scenarios. The immediate audiences are those who are involved in the design and manufacture of consumer and electronic products, while the secondary audience is very broad and covers those concerned with the broader environmental and social issues around manufactured goods and consumerism. This will be of interest to anyone who wishes to expand their view on the eco systems around the products of technology we consume today.

Introduction: Brian McGrath, Dean, Parsons School of Constructed Environments

Interlocutor: Rama Chorpash, Director MFA Industrial Design, Parsons

Panelists:

Shaun Fynn, CEO and Creative Director, Studio Fynn
Amita Singh D.Sc CFO and Director of Quantitative Research, Studio Fynn
John S. Shegerian, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) and Urban Mining
Prasad Boradkar, Professor, Industrial Design, Senior Sustainability Scholar, Arizona State University.

Admission is Free; no tickets or reservations required; seating is first-come, first-served.

The Colonial Practices of the Postcolonial State: China in Tibet, India in Kashmir w/ Dibyesh Anand
2016-03-31 12:00 - 13:30
The Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia, the India China Institute at the New School, and the Inner Asia Curricular Development Project at Columbia •

The Colonial Practices of the Postcolonial State: China in Tibet, India in Kashmir

Dibyesh Anand

Thursday, March 31

12:00-1:30 pm

SIPA #918, Columbia University

Dibyesh Anand is a Reader (Associate Professor) and Head of Department in International Relations at the University of Westminster in London. He has degrees from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, University of Hull and Bristol. He is the author of the monographs Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination, Tibet: A Victim of Geopolitics, and Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear.

Dr. Anand has held visiting positions at the University of California Berkeley, Australian National University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Central University of Hyderabad.

Event is free and open to all.

SIPA is by Columbia’s main Morningside campus at 118th and Amsterdam.

No.1 Train to 116th or buses M4, 11, 60, or 104. Map Directions

Two Countries: Many Relationships; India and China
2016-05-05 17:30 - 18:30
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The India China Institute is proud to host Ambassador Nirupama Rao for a talk exploring the trajectory of relations between these two Asian giants, so near and still so far from each other. Issues left over from the past still cast long shadows although the two nations and their leaders have built systems of interaction and dialogue that have helped maintain a peaceful environment in relations between them. Has the advent of strong, personality-driven leadership in both countries been a factor for closer understanding that can promote an accelerated settlement of outstanding issues or will the accelerated rise of China only intensify competition and strategic mistrust between the two neighbors?
Nirupama Menon Rao is a 1973 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, who served as India’s Foreign Secretary from 2009 to 2011, as well as being India’s Ambassador to the United States, China and Sri Lanka (High Commissioner) during her career. In July 2009, she became the second woman to hold the post of India’s Foreign Secretary, the head of the Indian Foreign Service. In her career she served in several capacities including, Minister of Press, Information and Culture in Washington DC, Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow, stints in the MEA as Joint Secretary, East Asia and External Publicity, the latter position making her the first woman spokesperson of the MEA, Chief of Personnel, Ambassador to Peru and China, and High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.

Nepal: A Year Since The Earthquake
2016-05-06 18:00 - 19:30
A Discussion on International Crisis Group’s Report

Nepal’s Divisive New Constitution: An Existential Crisis

The International Crisis Group, in partnership with India China Institute (ICI), will present its latest report, “Nepal’s Divisive New Constitution: An Existential Crisis.”
The earthquakes that rocked Nepal in Spring 2015 were followed by a period of political instability linked to a contentious constitution-writing process. Since the constitution was passed last September amid deadly protests, the country’s ethnic, social and political fractures have only deepened. Meanwhile, earthquake relief efforts have also been hampered by political infighting and corruption.
This special event aims to reframe the arguments regarding Nepal’s current political situation and move the discourse in a more productive direction. Panelists will examine the political, legal, and human rights challenges ahead, and recommend options for the international community to engage constructively to prevent further instability.

Discussion Panel:

Anagha Neelakantan, International Crisis Group

Anagha Neelakantan is Crisis Group’s Deputy Asia Program Director, assisting the Program Director in leading research, analysis, policy prescription and advocacy activities of the Asia Program, overseeing and managing field staff, while ensuring timely communications between field and headquarters, spread across three sub-regional projects: South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Anagha follows in particular political transitions including peace processes, ethnic and other entrenched violent social conflicts, constitution-making, human rights, demobilisation and security sector reform, governance issues, India’s foreign policy and the role of geopolitics in conflict resolution. Anagha worked in Nepal from 2000-2013, as Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Nepal, an analyst with the United Nations Mission in Nepal, and as executive editor of the Nepali Times weekly. In 2014, she worked in Myanmar with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

Ashish Pradhan, International Crisis Group

Ashish Pradhan is Crisis Group’s UN Advocacy and Research Analyst and is based in New York where he supports the organisation’s advocacy at the United Nations. He assists in providing detailed analyses of developments at the Security Council to ensure adequate reflection of UN perspectives in Crisis Group publications. He also supports advocacy with UN officials, NGOs, and diplomats from a variety of UN member-states on country-specific crises and policy issues covered by Crisis Group. And he conducts research on thematic issues covered in Crisis Group reports, including on jihadi militancy in South Asia. He previously worked for Crisis Group’s Kathmandu office from 2010-2013 while analyzing Nepal’s peace and constitution-writing processes with a particular focus on identity politics, minority rights, and the federalism debate.

Richard Bennett, Amnesty International (formerly with OHCHR-Nepal)

Richard Bennett joined Amnesty International in March 2014 as Asia-Pacific Director and from July 2015 has been Head of Amnesty’s New York Office. Previously he served with the United Nations in senior human rights posts, heading the human rights components of peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and South Sudan. From 2007 to 2010 Richard was the Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal. He has also been Chief of Staff for the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka and Special Adviser to the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights in New York. A citizen of New Zealand and the UK, Richard worked for a decade at the NZ Human Rights Commission before joining the UN.

Rohan Edrisinha, UN Department of Political Affairs (formerly with UNDP in Nepal)

Rohan Edrisinha is a Senior Political Officer and Constitutional Advisor in the Policy and Mediation Division of the Department of Political Affairs of the U.N. He taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo from 1986 to 2011. He served as the constitutional advisor to UNDP Nepal and the head of its constitution support programme from 2011 to 2014. In 2015, he functioned as an independent consultant on constitutional reform and federalism in Myanmar, and as a governance advisor to UNDP Sri Lanka. He taught at the Faculty of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, in 1995 and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University (2005) and the University of Toronto (2009). He was a founder Director and Head of the Legal and Constitutional Unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sri Lanka, from 1996 to 2010.

Moderated By:

Ashok Gurung, India China Institute

Ashok Gurung is the senior director of the India China Institute (ICI) and is Professor of Practice in the Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. A founding director of ICI, he is responsible for establishing and the overall development, management, and coordination of ICI programs and projects in India, China, and the United States. A native of Nepal, he has taught several courses on development management, political and social issues in Nepal at the New School. Ashok has over twenty years of international development experience as an educator, researcher, manager, grant-maker, policy analyst, activist and training facilitator with civil society groups, academic institutions, foundations and multi-lateral organizations, and governments worldwide. Among various roles, he was the program officer for the International Fellowships Program, the largest global leadership initiative ($280 million) of the Ford Foundation.

Public Talk & Book Launch: China's Future
2016-05-09 18:00 - 20:00
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Join India China Institute for a discussion on what the future holds for China with David Shambaugh.

Book Description

China’s future is arguably the most consequential question in global affairs. Having enjoyed unprecedented levels of growth, China is at a critical juncture in the development of its economy, society, polity, national security, and international relations. The direction the nation takes at this turning point will determine whether it stalls or continues to develop and prosper.

Will China be successful in implementing a new wave of transformational reforms that could last decades and make it the world’s leading superpower? Or will its leaders shy away from the drastic changes required because the regime’s power is at risk? If so, will that lead to prolonged stagnation or even regime collapse? Might China move down a more liberal or even democratic path? Or will China instead emerge as a hard, authoritarian and aggressive superstate?

In this new book, David Shambaugh argues that these potential pathways are all possibilities – but they depend on key decisions yet to be made by China’s leaders, different pressures from within Chinese society, as well as actions taken by other nations. Assessing these scenarios and their implications, he offers a thoughtful and clear study of China’s future for all those seeking to understand the country’s likely trajectory over the coming decade and beyond.

About David Shambaugh

David Shambaugh is is an internationally recognized authority and author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia, with a strong interest in the European Union and transatlantic issues. He is currently the Director of the China Policy Program and a Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. Professor Shambaugh is a prolific author, having published more than 30 books and 300 articles.

Watch the video of David Shambaugh’s talk below.

Social Justice, Peace, & Sustainable Futures - ICSD Closing Session
2016-09-22 18:00 - 20:00 | Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 63 Fifth Ave Room U100, New York, NY, 10003, USA
Social Justice, Peace, & Sustainable Futures

Closing Session of the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD)

Thursday, September 22nd, 6-8 pm63 Fifth Avenue, Tishman Auditorium (Room 100), New York

RSVP NOW (Limited Seating)

The Earth Institute, Columbia University; the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN); the Global Association of Master’s in Development Practice Programs (MDP); and India China Institute (ICI), The New School are partnering on the Fourth Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) on September 21 & 22, 2016. The New School will host the closing session of the conference, entitled Social Justice, Peace, & Sustainable Futures, on September 22, from 6 pm to 8 pm.
In 2015 United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the most ambitious and encompassing agenda to date. The SDGs call for the eradication of poverty and hunger (SDGs 1 and 2), the achievement of universal healthcare and education (SDGs 3 and 4), sustainable cities that support resilient communities (SDG 11), and an end to conflict and the promotion of peace and justice (SDG 16). The closing session of ICSD will focus on the theme of SDGs 16 and its interconnectedness with other SDG priorities. Speakers will discuss how the promotion of peace and good governance globally are critical to achieving poverty eradication, universal health care and education, sustainable cities, and the preservation of ecosystem services.
Program Agenda

5:15 Doors Open, Seating begins

6:00 Welcome, David E. Van Zandt, President, The New School

6:10 Opening Remarks, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University
Professor Sachs will thank ICI, The New School for this wonderful partnership. He will talk broadly about the unprecedented agenda of the SDGs, especially their commitment to equality and social justice, and the role of good governance in strong institutions in their realization.

6:20 Video Message from President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia
In the President’s video message he discussed the recent progress towards peace between the federal government and the FARC in Colombia, and also Colombia’s strong commitment to the SDGs.

6:30 Keynote Address, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja
The Archbishop will discuss inter-faith partnerships for peace, how peace is fundamental to the achievement of all the SDGs, and how faith communities can come together to accelerate progress on the SDGs.

6:50 Discussants
Each person will make brief (5 minute) remarks in response to the earlier presentations and the event themes (social justice, peace, and sustainable futures)

Yves Leterme, Secretary General, UN IDEA; Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Abigail Moy, Director, Global Legal Empowerment Network, Namati
Mary Watson, Executive Dean for Public Engagement, The New School

7:05 Expanded Discussion
Prof. Sachs and Cardinal Onaiyekan will each have 5 minutes to respond to the discussants.

7:15 Discussion, Moderated by Ashok Gurung, Director, India China Institute, The New School
The moderator will put a few questions to the five panelists, and then open up the floor for questions from the audience.

Please direct all press inquiries to info@ic-sd.org. You can also follow ICSD on Twitter, connect with ICSD on Facebook.

Participant Biographies
David E. Van Zandt became The New School’s president in 2011. He has advanced a vision for The New School that elevates the university’s core values of creativity and social engagement and connects its strengths in design, social research, liberal arts, and performance. He has led the development of strategic initiatives to deepen The New School’s commitment to student success, global education, new and distinctive educational models, and institutional effectiveness and assessment.
David has spoken and written widely on higher education, including regular articles in the Huffington Post on topics such as college accountability, universities and the creative economy, and the importance of education that fosters innovation and the courage to bring about positive change in the world. He has spoken on panels at the United Nations, the Taihu World Culture Forum, and the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He holds an AB from Princeton University, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in sociology from the London School of Economics.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time Magazine “the world’s best known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist Magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade.
Professor Sachs served as the Director of the Earth Institute from 2002 to 2016. He was appointed University Professor at Columbia University in 2016, and also serves as Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Sustainable Development Goals, and previously advised both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. Sachs is Director of both the Center for Sustainable Development, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
H.E. John Cardinal Onaiyekan is the Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, and a Co-Moderator of the World Council and Co-Chair of the African Council of Religious Leaders at Religions for Peace. His Eminence Onaiyekan was elevated to Cardinal on 24 November 2012. He was born on 29 January 1944 in Kabba, Nigeria. He received a licentiate in theology, a licentiate in Sacred Scriptures and a doctorate in theology from Pontifical Urbanian University. Cardinal Onaiyekan was ordained in 1969 at Sacred Heart Church in Kabba. He served in a variety of posts as a priest before he was ordained titular bishop of Tunusuda and auxiliary bishop of Ilorian on 6 January 1983. He was later appointed Bishop of Ilorin in 1984 and then Coadjutor Bishop of Abuja in 1990. Cardinal Onaiyekan became Bishop of Abuja on 28 September 1992 and Archbishop of Abuja on 26 March 1994. Cardinal Onaiyekan has served as President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and President of the Catholics Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria. He has also served as President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. He currently serves as a Member of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and as a Member of the Presidential Committee of the Pontificial Council for the Family. Cardinal Onaiyekan was named Paz Christi International’s 2012 Peace Laureate.
Yves Leterme, a Belgian national, is the Secretary-General of the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization International IDEA. Prior to International IDEA, Leterme served as Prime Minister of Belgium (2007 to 2011) and then as Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris (2011 to 2014).
Before serving as Prime Minister, Leterme held a variety of political posts in Belgium. After starting his career as an Alderman in his home town of Ypres, he became a Member of Parliament in the Chamber of Representatives, Group Chairman and leader of the opposition, Secretary-General and Chairman of the CD&V party, Minister-President and Minister for Agriculture of the Flemish Government, Federal Senator, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Budget and Mobility, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. During Leterme’s tenure as Prime Minister, Belgium held the Presidency of the European Union. Leterme has also worked, inter alia, as a deputy auditor at the Belgian Court of Audit and as an administrator at the European Parliament. Leterme, who was born on 6 October 1960, has degrees in Law and in Political Sciences from the University of Ghent.
Abigail Moy is Director of the Global Legal Empowerment Network at Namati. Abigail has worked with access to justice programs in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, in cooperation with the World Bank, The Asia Foundation, Fundacion Soros-Guatemala, and Timap for Justice. She previously clerked for the Hon. David H. Coar in the Northern District of Illinois, served in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the United States Department of State, and worked in the New York office of White & Case, LLP. Abigail was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, and holds a master’s degree in law and development from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Mary R. Watson is the Executive Dean of the New School for Public Engagement. She has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, and she was previously the Chair of the graduate programs in Organizational Change and Nonprofit Management. Watson is a recipient of The New School’s Distinguished University Teaching Award. She earned her PhD in organization studies from Vanderbilt University.
Watson serves in leadership roles worldwide to reimagine management, sustainability, and innovation education. Watson is a founding steering committee member of the The New School Social Innovation Initiative, a university-wide initiative that created The New Challenge, the New School’s social innovation ideas competition, as well as The New School Collaboratory, a university wide fund and action research project to study collaboration between the University and its community partners. She has been active in Ashoka University’s global network, a project of more than 20 universities advancing empathy and innovation education. Watson is a member of 50+20, a global network of business school deans and partners reinventing management education worldwide, focusing on sustainability, collaboration, and globally responsible leadership. The 50+20 project, in partnership with the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GLRI, Brussels), Principles for Responsible Leadership (New York, PRME), and the UN Global Compact, has launched a higher education leadership innovation cohort project in four global locations: The New School (January 2014), University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Oulu University in Finland, and CENTRUM in Peru.

Reflections on the Cultural Revolution - Student Movements in 1968
2016-09-29 16:00 - 18:00
Student Movements, 1968: In Industrialized Countries and in China

A Public Talk by Professor Xu Youyu

Thursday, September 29, 2016 – 4:00-6:00 PM

80 Fifth Ave, Room 529, The New School

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution in China. To mark this extraordinary period in Chinese history, the India China Institute has organized several events that examine the revolution’s significance and its lasting impact on China and the world. The events will feature leading scholars on the subject, some of whom experienced the revolution firsthand.

Seminar Series:

Reflections of the Cultural Revolution is a seminar series with Xu Youyu, a Professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Science and a current Scholar in Resident at The New School. The cultural revolution was full of violence and suppression, and continues to be shrouded in conspiracy. This seminar series is comprised of four parts, with each part focusing on a different theme, and attempts to address some of the crucial questions concerning the movement. Professor Xu will deal with key controversies surrounding each theme and develop his own positions.

Xu Youyu was a teenager in the Red Guard at the time of the Chinese Revolution and witnessed the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989. As a pro-democracy activist, Xu was one of the most prominent signatories of the 2008 Charter 08 manifesto, which demanded political and humanitarian reforms in China.

This is the third lecture in this series with Professor Xu. This seminar will explore Mao’s motives in launching the Cultural Revolution. Was the movement a political purge under the disguise of anti-revisionism? Was it a fight for social ideals, or simply a power struggle?

To RSVP for the event click here.

Chat & Chai - Information Session 2016
2016-09-30 16:00 - 18:00
ICI’s annual Chat & Chai is an information session featuring Student Fellow presentations from past recipients of our Student Summer Travel & Research Grants. Each year ICI awards six undergraduate or graduate students with $3,000 to support an independent study project, or to defray the cost of attending a New School program in India or China. Students who spent the 2016 summer in India and China will present brief reflections on their work and experiences abroad.

You can read more about the 2016 Student Fellows and see photos of their trips on the Student Blog here.

The information session will provide information regarding the 2017 fellowship, offer information about job opportunities and volunteer positions with the India China Institute, as well as serve as a networking event for anyone interested in India and China. The event is free and open to all New School members.

Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Please RSVP for the event at: chatnchai2016.eventbrite.com
