India China Institute

The Influence of Critical Theory in China - Talk by Zhong Minghua
2013-10-21 20:00 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | New York
India China Institute (ICI) and the Department of Politics at The New School present:

The Influence of Critical Theory in China

A talk given by Professor Zhong Minghua

Dean of the School of Social Science Education, Sun Yat-sen University

Moderator: Professor Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics and Academic Co-Director, ICI

Monday, October 21st | 4pm – 6pmHirshon Suite | 55 W. 13th St.

RSVP NOW

The Frankfurt School was imported into China in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a study that was massively introduced, translated, and commented on in the 1990s and accompanied by deeper research after this period. This school of thought, an important current division of Western Marxism, had become an essential resource to cope with the problems of China during its era of opening reforms. Today, the resources of the Frankfurt School are significant to China in building modernity and constructing culture.

Seating is limited. RSVP is requested.

Refreshments will be provided.

Higher Education in India - Public Talk by Sukhadeo Thorat
2013-10-28 21:00 - 22:30 | Orozco Room, The New School, 66 West 12th Street Room 712, New York, NY, 10011, USA
Read Professor Thorat’s discussion paper for his talk. Discussion Paper (PDF)

3rd Annual Emerging Scholars Symposium - China
2013-11-01 12:30 - 13:30 | Yunnan University, Science Hall, Kunming, Yunnan, China
We’re excited to announce an upcoming international symposium to support young emerging scholars in China. The symposium will take place at Yunnan University in Kunming on November 1, 2013.The symposium is a part of ICI’s continuing commitment to build a community of scholars who are engaged in research that focuses on innovative approaches to understanding India China relations. For nine years ICI has provided a space for the establishment and strengthening of scholarly networks for emerging scholars of India and China who wish to share their research and explore opportunities for advancing individual and collaborative scholarship. The emerging scholars program also draws on The New School’s tradition of fostering horizontal and vertical knowledge-sharing across disciplines and amongst scholars in different stages of their careers. You can find more information about the symposium at this link, and below.

Kunming, China

Yunnan UniversityNov 1, 2013Event Flyer (PDF)Event Schedule (PDF)

Emerging Scholars

Che Zilong: A Comparative Study of TV Industry Development in China and IndiaGong Ting: China-India-US Triangle in the Indian Ocean Region and Indo-Pacific:Towards a Win-Win ResultHuang Yinghong: Between Justice and Development: The Mixed Stories of Land Acquisition in India and ChinaLi Na: Power and discourse, discourse and power—studying the influence of language policy on China and India languages’ fateLiu Peng: National Interests of China and India in Trans-border Rivers and Asymmetric Interdependence — Case Study of Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra RiverSu Ying: Indians’ Attitudes towards EnglishTseng Chin-Yin: Flying Without Wings: Deconstructing the Northern Wei Feitian MotifXu Yang: Communist Movement in Nepal: The Origin and Rise of MaoistsZhang Yuan: Harsa and China: Focusing on the Six Diplomatic MissionsZhao Lei: An insight into the public opinion on China-India relationsZhou Jizhen: The differentiation of Industrialization phase between China and India and its Causes

Discussants

Rakhahari Chatterji, Guo Suiyan, Guo Yukuan, Ashok Gurung, Han Yue, Liu Jian, Tansen Sen, Shen Haimei, Sun Yinggang, Wang Bangwei,Yang Xiaohui,Yao Jide,Yao Yang, Zha Jianying, Zhao Bole, Zhu Li

Migration, Citizenship, and Development: Diasporic Membership Policies and Overseas Indians in the United States by Daniel Naujoks
2013-11-12 23:00 - 2013-11-13 01:00 | New York
The India China Institute (ICI), the Global Studies Program at The New School, and the International Center for Migration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship (ICMEC) proudly present:

The Book Launch Event for:

“Migration, Citizenship, and Development: Diasporic Membership Policies and Overseas Indians in the United States”

by Daniel Naujoks

Tuesday November 12th, 2o13.

Please RSVP for the event.

You can view the event program here (PDF).

“Migration, Citizenship, and Development: Diasporic Membership Policies and Overseas Indians in the United States” by Daniel Naujoks

Returning to the History of 19th and Early 20th Century Immigration - Ranabir Samaddar
2013-11-26 22:00 - 2013-11-27 00:00 | New York
We are excited to announce an upcoming public talk by Dr. Ranabir Samaddar, Director of the Calcutta Research Group on “Returning to the History of 19th and Early 20th Century Immigration.” The event will be moderated by Professor Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics at NSSR and Academic Co-Director of ICI. You can find an outline of Professor Samaddar’s talk below.

Recent studies on aspects of welfare state and schemes suggest a different way of understanding modern governance in which the study of the nation is not at the centre of political understanding. Instead, of significance in such studies is the inadequately explored history of governing a mobile, unruly world of population flows. These works have given us a sense of the hidden histories of conflicts, of desperate survivals, and of networks new and old. Studies of hunger in the nineteenth century, of itinerant movements and preaching, transportations of coolies, spread of famines, shipping of children and adult girls, trafficking in sex and labour, and pieces of welfare legislation to cope with this great infamy tell us how actually we have arrived at our own time of subject formation. This is certainly different from conventional nation-centred histories. Working within this new strand of history-writing, labour historians have tried to recognise the political significance of labour migration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Their works suggest a different way of writing the history of the nation-form in the last two centuries, where the extra-nationalist narrative of mobile labour constitutes a different universe.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth century was the period of several changing modes of labour process – the slave, the indentured, the contract, and finally the free. These modes historically never appeared as pure types, because much of the availability of labour depended on labour’s mobility. In fact, it was largely on the condition of making labour mobile that globalisation would proceed at that time. Transit labour then too, as it does now, occupied a crucial place in capitalist production. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century was a period of globalisation when migration controls were put in place. It was in that age that control of mobile bodies began constituting one of the most critical aspects of governance. The emergence of some of the different forms of labour subjectivities marking our world today can be traced back to that time.

Discussants will include:
Victoria Hattam, Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research
Paula Banerjee, Associate Professor, Dept. of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Calcutta

RSVP for the event is requested. Please RSVP here.

Wronged by Empire: Colonial Memories and Victimhood in India’s and China’s Foreign Policy Today – Manjari Chatterjee Miller
2013-12-05 22:30 - 2013-12-06 00:30 | New York
Join us for an exciting talk by author Manjari Chatterjee Miller on her new book Wronged by Empire: Colonial Memories and Victimhood in India’s and China’s Foreign Policy Today. The event will be moderated by Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics at NSSR and Academic Co-director of ICI. More details to follow.

RSVP requested for event. RSVP now.

Wronged by Empire breaks new ground by blending this historical phenomenon, colonialism, with mixed methods—including archival research, newspaper data mining, and a new statistical method of content analysis—to explain the foreign policy choices of India and China: two countries that are continuously discussed but very rarely rigorously compared. By reference to their colonial past, Manjari Chatterjee Miller explains their puzzling behavior today. For example, she demonstrates why in important cases (such as India going nuclear in 1998 or China’s fraught relationship with Japan) their foreign policy behavior is not consistent with the security explanations that are dominant in international relations.

More broadly, she argues that the transformative historical experience of a large category of actors—ex-colonies, who have previously been neglected in the study of international relations—can be used as a method to categorize states in the international system. In the process Miller offers a more inclusive way to analyze states than do traditional theories of international relations, which usually focus on the material power of states, meaning inevitably that they mostly discuss the behavior of states that have power enough to matter—in effect Western states.

Manjari Chatterjee Miller is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University.

The Great Hydraulic Transition: Modern Origins of Land and Rivers in South Asia w/ Prof. Rohan D'Souza
2013-12-12 21:00 - 23:00 | New York
Development, Though and Policy Lecture Series Presents:

The Great Hydraulic Transition: Modern Origins of Land and Rivers in South Asia

Presented by: Rohan D’Souza, Assistant Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

Thursday, December 12

66 West 12th Street, Room 513

4:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M.

This seminar is co-hosted by GPIA and The India China Institute

Please RSVP to development.newschool@gmail.com

Download event flyer here (PDF)

Abstract: Most writings on lands and rivers in South Asia have disingenuously accepted the “politics of separations.” Land as property and river as resource, thus, are overwhelmingly recognized as distinct conceptual domains. Histories about land settlements, rent extraction, the burdens of revenue, legal ownership, or the commons have occupied discussions only as the political economy of the soil. Rivers, on the other hand, became a technical subject involving infrastructure and the biographies of engineering and control. Professor D’Souza will argue that this politics of separations acquired a defining force in the region only through the course of the long nineteenth century. An amphibian South Asia with its soil-water admixtures actually characterized its environmental and social worlds before being transformed into the reptilian terrain of colonial modernity.

Bio: Dr. Rohan D’Souza is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy and the author of Drowned and Dammed: Colonial Capitalism and Flood Control in Eastern India (1803-1946), Oxford University Press, 2006. His edited books include The British Empire and the Natural World: Environmental Encounters in South Asia (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Environment, Technology and Development: Critical and Subversive Essays (Orient BlackSwan: Hyderabad, 2012). His interests and research publications cover themes in environmental history, environmental politics, non-traditional security, sustainable development and modern technology.

Chair: Manjari Mahajan, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, New School University

Discussants: Nikhil Anand, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota and Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and Vyjayanthi Rao, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, New School University

Invisible Villages & Flying Monsters: Folktales About Place Among the Tibetans of Geza
2014-02-19 22:00 - 23:30 | New York
Invisible Villages & Flying Monsters:
Folktales About Place Among the Tibetans of Geza

Public Talk by Eric Mortensen
Wednesday, February 19, 20145-6:30PM55 W. 13th St., 2nd Fl., Dorothy Hirshon Suite
The mountains of Geza are awash in old tales about invisible villages and wild people (Tibetan: nags myi rgod). This presentation assesses the oral performances of nags myi rgod stories, with a focus on the specific stories surrounding the flying monster called the myi rgod shung shung. In the Tibetan communities of Geza Township in rGyalthang (Xianggelila County of Northwest Yunnan Province), such stories are tied to the cultural memory of local geography, including the invisible village of Panlung, which can be heard but not seen.
Specifically, this project compares twenty six variant nags myi rgod stories and interview information about nags myi rgod collected and digitally recorded on four separate fieldwork trips to the Geza villages of Langdu, Gönpa, Geza (brgya rtsa), Nagara, and gter ma rong village in neighboring Dongwang. Although nags myi rgod (& Chinese ye ren) stories are widespread throughout Tibet and the Himalayas, several of the stories from Geza contain variant descriptions of an invisible village called Panlung. In the stories, a mushroom gatherer or herder – who was often identified as a relative of the storyteller – would stop in wonder and hear the rushing water and agricultural sounds typical of village life, but the village could (at least initially) not be seen. Nags myi rgod, who live in the forests looking down on the bucolic invisible village, mischievously invert human farming efforts and hunting practices and thereby make the village of Panlung uninhabitable, even for those lucky enough to breakthrough the invisible meniscus and see or enter the valley with its perfect pasturage and farmland. The stories involve frightful encounters with nags myi rgod, and longer tales recount how clever hunters or farmers trick the nags myi rgod, and escape being killed (through being tickled to death, squeezed, or pulverized by a nags myi rgod’s armpit stone) or used as a mate. Some families in the region maintain the surname Panlung, and consider themselves refugees from the invisible village. Panlung, also known as Zayzong in Nagara (zay zong is near to Bala) and Natöeyong in Dongwang, appears in many of the stories with the refugee element as the most common theme.
The centerpiece of the project is a comparative analysis of the performative function and cultural meaning of the invisible village in story. What does it mean for individuals to be refugees from an invisible dystopian village while facing current cultural, economic, and religious repression related to the land itself? In the context of this oral tradition, why, when, by whom, and to who are these stories of inversion and reversal told? [Degh 1958; Doniger 1998] To what degree are the performances of nags myi rgod tales subversive, intended for cultural maintenance, or simply fun for children? How can the variant tales inform upon the interrelated dynamics of place, identity, lament, and memory? [Mueggler, 2001]. As the myi rgod shung shung story is directly tied to features of the landscape of Geza, how do the performances of these stories contribute to local identity and inform upon the imagining of inhabitation of wildspace in this rapidly changing region?
Eric Mortensen is currently an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford College, located in Greensboro, NC. He complete his undergraduate studies at Carlton College and had the opportunity to study abroad in Beijing, Nepal, India, and Bhutan. Upon graduating in 1993, he spent his graduate career at Harvard, where he studied languages, anthropology, religion, folklore, and history for ten years. During this time, he grew to love teaching and Asia, further fostering an academic interest in Tibetology. These two loves drew him to Guilford and its Religious Studies Department. Although he does not hold a degree in religious studies, he has made religion his specialty through his focused research on Buddhist religion and culture.

Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited – RSVP is required. RSVP Now.

Download Event Poster [PDF]

Screening of film ‘Mani, The Hidden Valley of Happiness at a Crossroads’ w/ Sonam Lama
2014-02-21 20:30 - 22:30 | New York
Screening of Mani, The Hidden Valley of Happiness at a Crossroads

Presented by Sonam Lama

Friday, Feb. 21st 3pm-5pm66 W. 12th St, Klein Conference Room (510)

Sonam Lama, a first time co-director, started the project of collecting inventories of the ancient architectural monuments in his home region Tsum in Oct 2012. He is an architect who advocates for protecting cultural heritage, appropriate infrastructure development in the remote Himalaya region of Tsum, Nepal.

The documentary film presents the architectural heritage and in relations to the upcoming infrastructure development in Tsum. The documentary reveals insightful information of these age old built heritage that have stood silent along the ancient salt-trade and pilgrimage foot trail for many centuries. Through extensive field interviews, and for the first time, the film significantly reveals the inner voice of the Tsum community on the sensitive and controversial issue of the motor road development. In the rapid pace of modernization in the 21st century, this film captured a moment of a once isolated and remote community facing a crossroads in the history of time.

Watch a trailer for the film here: http://vimeo.com/76061755

Passage: Migration w/ Ashmina Ranjit
2014-02-25 22:00 - 23:30 | New York
The India China Institute in association with the Vera List Center present:

Passage: Migration

Performance Art by Ashmina RanjitFulbright Scholar and Internationally Recognized Artist

Tuesday, Feb. 25th 5pm-6:30pm66 W. 12th St., 5th Fl., Klein Conference Room (510)

The performance aims to explore the narratives of transition and assimilation, the experiences in living in the liminal space of belonging, and the idea of prabas and prabasi, one who has left home to settle in a new land.

Discussant: Radhika Subramaniam, Director/Chief Curator of the Sheila C. Johnson Center and Assistant Professor of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons The New School for Design.

Learn more about Ashmina Ranjit and her work here.

Anti-Corruption Movements in China and India - Dissent Magazine + The New Yorker
2014-02-27 15:00 - 16:30 | New York
Anti-Corruption Movements in China and India

Thu, Feb 27, 2014 | 3:00-4:30 PM

Join the India China Institute for an exciting discussion about anti-corruption movements in China and India. The event will feature Dissent Magazine contributor Mehboob Jeelani, Dissent Magazine Editorial Member Jeff Wasserstrom, The New Yorker Contributor Jiayang Fan, and Jonathan Shainin, Web editor at The New Yorker. The event will be moderated by ICI Academic Co-Director Mark Frazier.

The event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is requested. RSVP NOW. Share this with your friends! http://bit.ly/MYcuGu

Download Event Poster [PDF]

More information on Dissent Magazine and The New Yorker.

Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy in China: Polarization or Harmony? w/ Qin Gao
2014-03-17 21:00 - 22:30 | Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, New York, NY, 10011, USA
Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy in China: Polarization or Harmony?

Public talk by Qin Gao
Associate Professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service
Visiting Scholar at The India China Institute

Monday, March 17th 5pm – 6:30pm
Theresa Lang Center, 55 W. 13th St., 2nd Fl.

Bio: Qin Gao is an Associate Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, a Research Associate at Columbia University Population Center, and currently a Visiting Scholar at the India China Institute at the New School University. Dr. Gao’s research examines poverty, income inequality, social welfare policies, and family economic and subjective well-being in China and cross-nationally.

Talk Synopsis: China has had the world’s greatest poverty reduction during the past 30 years, yet alongside this remarkable achievement are rapidly growing income inequality and many emerging welfare needs that threat its sustained development and political stability. Is China truly close to eliminating poverty? How unequal is the Chinese society? How have social policies in China evolving and to what extent are they addressing citizens’ welfare needs? When both market and social policy forces are considered, is China more polarized or harmonized? In this talk, Dr. Gao will examine these questions building on her extensive research on these topics using both empirical data and critical analysis. We anticipate a stimulating, interdisciplinary discussion among economists, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, social policy scholars, and anyone who is interested in China studies or cross-national comparisons.

Moderator: Mark Frazier, Co-Academic Director, India China Institute

Discussant: Dr. Carl Riskin, Distinguished Professor of Economics, CUNY Queens College

“The Desert Eats Us” film screening w/ Kesang Tseten
2014-03-19 21:00 - 22:30 | New York
Wednesday, March 19th 5-6:30pm

A Screening of “The Desert Eats Us”

(New Location) 66 W. 12th St., 4th Fl., Room 404

Presented by Kesang Tseten, award-winning filmmaker and writer from Nepal

The earnings of Nepali labour sustain one out of every three households of Nepal’s 28 million; remittances prop up the country, but at a high cost. The film provides a rare glimpse of the migrant workers’ experience in Qatar, site of the 2022 World Cup, where Nepalis outnumber natives several times over. While poverty compels them to go, it doesn’t justify their treatment. The struggle to endure long working hours, the stultifying heat, the burden of loans and high expectations back home is the lot of the migrant, confronted by overwhelming upheaval and fractures.

Discussants: – Adriana Young, ICI Fellow – Luna Ranjit, Executive Director of Adhikaar

Sponsored by the India China Institute (ICI) at The New School, Adhikaar, and the Zolberg Center on Global Migration (formerly the International Center for Migration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship).

This event is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required by emailing your name and confirmation of attendance to indiachina@newschool.edu

The Desert Eats Us from ShunyataFilms on Vimeo.

The Religious Revival in Contemporary China: Sociological Perspectives w/ Fan Lizhu & Na Chen
2014-03-20 15:00 - 17:30 | New York
The Religious Revival in Contemporary China: Sociological Perspectives

Thursday, March 20th, 11:00am-1:30pmHirshon Suite, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor

Presentations:

Under Ancestry’s Shadow—The Revival of Family Values and Ancestry Reverence in Southern Zhejiang by Fan Lizhu (Fudan University)

The Revival of Confucianism in the Form of a Religion by Na Chen (University of California, San Diego)

Dr. Fan Lizhu (PhD, Chinese University of Hong Kong), Professor of Sociology at Fudan University in Shanghai, is one of the pioneers of the study of Chinese popular religion and the teaching of sociology of religion in China. Her ethnographic work focuses on contemporary expressions of traditional Chinese religious heritage. She has published widely in both Chinese and international journals, and edited several volumes of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research.

Dr. Na Chen received his academic degrees from Peking University, University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. His research interests include sociology of religion and intercultural communication. Over the last fifteen years Dr. Chen has worked both in China (Fudan University) and the United States. He is currently a research associate at the University of California, San Diego.

Respondents:

Mark Frazier, New School for Social Research, ICI Academic Co-DirectorNeil McGee, Eugene Lang College/Columbia University

Moderator:

Mark Larrimore, Eugene Lang College

Sacred Geography: Tibet and Himalaya Photographs Exhibit w/ David Zurick
2014-03-31 - 2014-04-16 | New York
Sacred Geography: Tibet and Himalaya Photographs

Photographed by David ZurickSupported by Eugene Lang College and the Rubin Foundation

Monday, Mar. 31st to Wednesday, Apr. 16th65 W. 11th St., 3rd Fl., Skybridge

David Zurick’s Sacred Geography exhibition draws from his decades of experience as a geographer, photographer, and explorer of the Himalaya, with twenty large black and white photographs of divine places undergoing change. The images featured in this exhibition are drawn from his new book Land of Pure Vision, and cover the full geographical reach of Tibet and the Himalaya. It features many iconic natural places, such as the Source of the Ganges and sacred Mount Kailash, as well as numerous cultural sites including pilgrimage routes and famed sacred architectures. A visual evocation of holy places, the Sacred Geography exhibition portrays a world of mystery, magic, and beauty, where the human spirit is in synchronicity with natural forces while it also addresses the inevitability of landscape change. Modern intrusions threaten the visual character of some sacred sites, but such transformations do not necessarily imperil their cultural role, suggesting that change and dissolution—hallmarks of local religious belief—may apply equally to the human consciousness and to the landscape.

Bio: David Zurick left home in 1975 to journey on the Overland Trail from Europe to Asia and hasn’t looked back. He completed his PhD in Geography at the University of Hawaii and East-West Center, Honolulu, and has written extensively about Asia and the Pacific, with a special focus on the Himalaya region. His writing and photography have won numerous awards, including the National Outdoor Book Award in 2006 for Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya and the “Mt Everest Award” in 2009 for his Himalaya studies. The subject of much of his writing and photography is the contemporary cultural landscape.

Sacred Geography: Tibet and Himalaya Photographs
2014-03-31 09:00 - 11:00 | New York
Sacred Geography: Tibet and Himalaya Photographs

Photography by David Zurick

Monday, Mar. 31st to Friday, Apr. 18th65 W. 11th St., 3rd Fl., Skybridge(between 11th and 12th St. buildings overlooking Lang Courtyard)

More details will be posted soon.

WULUN.Org Launch Event / New Media Art Show
2014-04-04 22:00 - 2014-04-05 01:30 | Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, New York, NY, 10011, USA

3rd Annual Emerging Scholars Conference
2014-04-14 13:30 - 23:30 | New York
The Third 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. The Emerging Scholars program also draws on The New School’s tradition of fostering horizontal and vertical knowledge sharing across disciplines and amongst scholars in different stages of their careers.

Following the symposiums held in China and India in November 2013, this symposium is the third part of a three-part symposium series. Seven presenters selected from the three countries for this symposium will share their work and participate in multi-disciplinary investigation and deliberation with distinguished scholars.

Presenters:

Uttam Lal, Assistant Professor, Geography & Natural Resources Management, Sikkim University, India:  “Suturing Fragmented Geographies through Fragmented Land Route”

Ying Su, PhD Candidate, Institute of International Studies, Yunnan University, China: “Indians’ Attitudes towards English”

Min Ye, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Boston University: “Institutions, Diffusion by Diasporas: Foreign Direct Investment in China and India”

Yu Zheng, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut: “Institutions, Labor Mobility, and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India”

Nirmola Sharma, Doctoral Candidate, East Asian Studies, University of Delhi, India: “Compulsions and Contestations of Ideology: The India National Army’s Justification For Collaboration with the Japanese in Occupied China (1942-1945)”

Yinghong Huang, Assistant Professor, Sun Yat-sen University, China : “Between Justice and Development: The Mixed Stories of Land acquisition in India and China”

Prakash Kashwan, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut:  “Institutional Political Economy of Land Acquisition in India (with a Glance over the Himalayas)”

PDF: ICC Spring 2014 Agenda

Understanding Xi Jinping's Grand Reform Strategy
2014-04-29 22:30 - 2014-04-30 00:00 | New York
Public discussion presented by: Cui Zhiyuan, ICI Visiting ScholarProfessor of Public Policy, Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy and Management

Tuesday, April 29th6:30pm – 7:30pm

The New School, Hirshon Suite55 W. 13th St., 2nd Floor

Presentation Description:

In the recent Third Plenum of the 18th CCP Party Congress, Xi proposed a 60 point comprehensive reform plan. It is subject to the competing interpretations within China and abroad. During the talk, Prof. Cui will propose an interpretation based on the latest developments in the areas of state-owned enterprises, land trust in rural development, and the party-state relationship. This may be called the perspective of the Chinese New Left.

Cui Zhiyuan is a Professor at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Chicago in 1995. His selective writings includes: The Dilemma of Invisible Hand Paradigm (Chinese version, 1999, Economic Science Publisher, Beijing); The Second Thought Liberalization Movement and Institutional Innovation (Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1997), Whither China? (Seoul, 2003) and A Petty Bourgeois Socialism Manifesto (Seoul,2014). He is a co-author (with Adam Przeworski et al) of Sustainable Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and the editor of Robert Unger’s Politics (Verso, 1997). With Huang Ping, he co-edited China and Globalization: Washington Consensus, Beijing Consensus or What? (Beijing, 2005). He took a leave of absence from Tsinghua University from 2010 to 2011 to work as Assistant Director of State Asset Management Committee of Chongqing Government.

Moderator:Sanjay ReddyCo-Academic Director, India China Institute
Discussants:

Mark Frazier
Co-Academic Director, India China Institute

Charles Sabel
Maurice T. Moore Professor of Law and Social Science, Columbia Law School

Vamsi Vakulabharanam
Visiting Scholar, India China Institute
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad

Peronism and Orientalism: The Reconfiguration of Geopolitical Visions in the Early Cold War
2014-05-07 22:15 - 23:45 | New York
This presentation is based on personal writings, memories, articles and documents of Argentine diplomats who played a relevant role in foreign relations of Argentina with Asian countries and international organizations between 1945 and 1949. These testimonies reflect the cultural mindsets, perceptions and ways of understanding East-West relations that shaped Argentina´s geopolitical visions of the postwar order, at a time in which fundamental transformations in domestic politics were also taking place.Peronism partly opened the gates to a renovation of foreign policy, reformulating its traditional orientations under the “Third Position” paradigm. However, its worldview kept some of the traditional and conservative perceptions of ”Orient”. These will become evident in their overt support to Cold War Western anticommunism.

Fabián Bosoer is an Argentine political scientist and journalist. He is a professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Tres de Febrero and Latinamerican Social Sciences Faculty (FLACSO). He is a columnist, editorial writer and Op-Ed editor of the newspaper Clarín, in Buenos Aires. He has published the books Generals and Ambassadors: A History of the Parallel Diplomacies in Argentina (Vergara, 2005), The Falkland Islands, The Final Chapter: War and Diplomacy in Argentina (Capital Intellectual-Claves para todos, 2007), Braden vs. Peron: The Hidden History (El Ateneo, 2011) and Behind Peron: Life and Legend of Admiral Teisaire (Capital Intellectual, 2013).

India, China and the Emerging Pattern of Global Transformation
2014-05-08 18:00 - 19:30 | Klein Conference Room, 66 West 12th Street 5th Floor, New York, NY, 10011, USA
The India China Institute and the Global Studies Program at The New School Presents:
India, China and the Emerging Pattern of Global Transformation

A public talk by
Manoranjan Mohanty
Chairperson and Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies
Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development

The talk explores the implications of the trends in India-China relations, their regional and global role and the development experiences of India and China during the past few decades for the emerging scenario of global transformation. Prof. Mohanty argues that the experiences and debates in India and China show a transition in global history from the epoch of the Industrial Revolution to a new period.
Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty is Chairperson and Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi and Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. A former Professor of Political Science and Director, Developing Countries Research Centre at the University of Delhi, he is Editor of Social Change and a former Editor of China Report. His recent publications include Grass-roots Democracy in India and China (Co-ed. 2007), India: Social Development Report 2010 (Ed. 2010) , Weapon of the Oppressed: An Inventory of People’s Rights in India ( Co-author, 2011), Land, Equity and Democracy ( Co-ed, 2012),The Political Philosophy of Mao Zedong ( 1978, 2012 ) and Ideology Matters: China from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping (2014).

Moderator:
Ashok Gurung
Senior Director, India China Institute

Discussants:
L.H.M. Ling
Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, The New School for Public Engagement
Associate Professor of International Affairs, The Milano School

Mark Frazier
Co-Academic Director, India China Institute
Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research

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

New Perspectives on Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture in Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century
2014-05-17 | Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 10028, USA
New Perspectives on Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture in Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century

Saturday, May 17th

The Metropolitan Museum of Art1000 Fifth AvenueNew York, NY

Noted curators and scholars explore issues relating to the exhibition Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century in this daylong public symposium.

This program is made possible by The James H. W. Thompson Foundation.

Above: Buddha (detail). Provenance unknown, central Thailand, the second half of the 7th century. Sandstone; H. 67 3/8 in. National Museum, Bangkok​Free with museum admission.

Crisis and Criticism: the Predicament of Global Modernity w/ Arif Dirlik
2014-09-08 16:00 | New York
‘Crisis and Criticism: the Predicament of Global Modernity’

A public talk by Arif Dirlik

Join ICI for an exciting talk by renowned sinologist and social theorist Arif Dirlik.

“That we are living through a time of unprecedented crisis is widely acknowledged. What is less certain is whether this crisis is one of the crises endemic to the capitalist world system, an outcome of systemic transformations at work that suggest an impending hegemonic shift (with the People’s Republic of China [PRC] as the up-and-coming claimant), or a terminal crisis that signals the collapse of life as we know it as unbridled capitalist development in its various competing versions runs up against the ecological limitations of the earth.”

Arif Dirlik was on the faculty at Duke University and more recently was the Knight Professor of Social Science at the University of Oregon. He has published extensively on the formation of the Chinese Communist Party, the history of Chinese anarchism, and post-colonial globalism. Some of his published works include: Revolution and History: Origins of Marxist Historiography in China, 1919-1937, University of California Press; Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution, University of California Press; Postmodernism and China, Duke University Press; and Global Modernity: Modernity in the Age of Global Capitalism, Paradigm Press.

Social Justice and Dalits in South Asia
2014-09-29 00:00 | New York
Across the globe, an estimated 260 million people are relegated to a lifetime of segregation, exploitation, and extreme forms of physical and psychological abuse, all because of the caste into which they are born. In much of South Asia, caste-based divisions dominate in housing, marriage, and general social interaction—divisions that are often reinforced through the threat of social ostracism, economic boycotts, and even physical violence. The effective eradication of caste-based discrimination remains a major human rights challenge of our time.Please join us on Tuesday, October 7th for a roundtable discussion about social justice in South Asia and the world.

Learn about the social and political obstacles faced by Dalit communities (formerly known as “untouchables”) in Nepal and IndiaEngage with scholars, media producers and activists who have brought awareness to issues concerning Dalits through traditional and social media outletsDevelop tips and tools you can use for your own research and social activism initiatives

Some of the questions this event hopes to explore include:

What skills/lessons can Dalit and American students, scholars and activists learn from each other?

How do experiences of marginalization and /or oppression compare in different countries?

How have social justice organizations use the law, media and education as tools to raise awareness and create change?

Prominent academics, media producers and social activists will participate in a roundtable discussion. Our guests will include:

Smita Narula: currently a visiting Research Scholar at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College and formerly a U.N. legal adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and Faculty Director at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. She has been working in human rights for more than 17 years. In both her scholarship and her practice, Narula has focused on the rights to equality and non-discrimination; economic and social rights; and the impact of economic globalization and counter-terrorism policies on human rights. She has authored numerous reports and academic articles on these subjects, and has helped formulate policy, legal, and community-led responses to these issues worldwide.

Sarita Pariyar: a graduate student of sociology at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, where she also received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and English literature. She is an emerging social justice leader and serves as a board member of the Samata Foundation, a respected think-tank that works for the rights and dignity of Dalits in Nepal. In addition, she is involved with several activist groups in Nepal and regularly participates in various forums for social justice, democracy, and media within and outside of Nepal.

Padam Sundas: a social worker from a Dalit community who has been working for the upliftment of the Dalit community and for Human Rights for over 40 years through intellectual writings and knowledge production. A founding member and the executive chairperson of SAMATA foundation and the Asian Dalit Rights Forum, the only Dalit centric research center and think tank in Nepal. He also served as a member of the National-Level Advisory Committee under the Office of Prime Minister for the Eradication of Caste Based Discriminations and Promotion of Dalit Rights.

Rem Bishwokarma: co-founded Jagaran Media Center (JMC) to lead media advocacy against caste-based discrimination and untouchability. JMC produced the popular television series called Dalan that raised awareness on Dalit issues. JMC has established itself as a media hub on Dalit issues, inclusion and social justice in Nepal and abroad. He was awarded the Australian Leadership Award in 2010, Media International Social Awareness Award in 2013 and Ambedkar Kalashree National Award in 2013.

Each participant will speak for ten minutes on their personal work and experience. Afterwards, broader discussion on Dalits and social justice will be opened up and moderated by Smita Narula.

Deadlock to Detente: Indias Strategic Doctrine and the Burgeoning Peace with Pakistan
2014-10-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Dorothy Hirshon Suite, 55 West 13th Street Room I203, New York, NY, 10011, USA
Awash with militancy, ground zero for climate change, and on the brink of nuclear war, the Indian subcontinent has long been known as “the world’s most dangerous place.” But after decades of deadlock in the subcontinent, India is moving beyond South Asia for its strategic needs—and making peace with Pakistan in the process.

ICI is pleased to present a discussion with Neil Padukone. Mr. Padukone is a Geopolitics Fellow at the Takshashila Institution and a former Public Service Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, his work has been published in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, the Journal of International Affairs, Newsweek’s Daily Beast, The National Interest, the World Affairs Journal, the Huffington Post, and the Economic and Political Weekly, among others. Neil is a former foreign affairs columnist at the Christian Science Monitor and South-Central Asia commentator for Russia Today news. His book Beyond South Asia: India’s Strategic Evolution and the Reintegration of the Subcontinent was published in August 2014.

Joining Mr. Padukone will be Thomas Graham. Dr. Graham is a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and has worked in government (U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Laboratory) and the non-profit sector (Rockefeller Foundation and The Second Chance Foundation). Dr. Graham has published books and articles on U.S. national security decision making, nuclear non-proliferation and counter-terrorism, and public opinion. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.).

The Bullet and the Ballot Box
2014-10-09 16:00 - 17:30 | New York
This is the first in the series of events hosted by the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies that will mark the 25th anniversary of the dismantling of the Communist system in Eastern and Central Europe. Organized together with the India-China Institute, The Bullet and the Ballot Box celebrates the new book with the same title by Aditya Adhikari, recently published by Verso.

The Bullet and the Ballot Box will focus on the extraordinary case of Nepal, where an anti-autocratic movement partially inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall led to the establishment of a multi-party system in 1990. However, this was soon followed by a Maoist armed rebellion (1996-2006) that swept the entire countryside. In 2006, the Maoists joined the political mainstream and multiparty democracy was restored. Following the historic election to the Constituent Assembly in 2008, the Maoists emerged as the most powerful political force in the country, and the monarchy was subsequently abolished. The discussion will focus on how Nepal’s Maoists reinterpreted Maoism and successfully translated it into political action at a time when liberal democracy dominated public discourse and communism had lost legitimacy.

The panel will be moderated by Elzbieta Matynia-Professor of Sociology and Liberal Studies at The New School and Director of TCDS. Participants will include:

– Aditya Adhikari, author of The Bullet and the Ballot Box: The Story of Nepal’s Maoist Revolution (2014)

– Andrew Arato, Dorothy Hart Hirshon Professor of Political and Social Theory in the department of sociology at The New School

– Tamrat Samuel, former director of the Asia-Pacific Division of the UN Department of Political Affairs and former Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Nepal

– Ashok Gurung, ICI Senior Director and Professor of Practice, Julian J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs.

Colloquium on the Economies and Societies of India and China
2014-10-17 12:00 - 13:30 | 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 | New York
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)

==================

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 | New York
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 | New York
