Talk by Tawab Danish (Cornell Law School)

The Hazara and Shia populations, comprising approximately 10-15% of Afghanistan's demographic, have historically endured systemic violence, discrimination, and exclusion due to their distinct physical features and religious beliefs. With the reestablishment of Taliban rule, these issues have intensified. There has been an escalation of targeted attacks on Shia’s mosques, educational institutions, and areas predominantly inhabited by Hazaras and Shias. Concurrently, the Taliban have repealed the Shia Personal Status Law, removed Shia jurists from their posts, and excluded Shias and Hazaras from all decision-making positions within their governing structures. The prohibition of Jafari Jurisprudence in education and the Taliban's declaration of the Hanafi school as the sole religious authority in Afghanistan further illustrate a deliberate, systematic discrimination against these communities. These actions are in direct opposition to the foundational principles of human rights and the core values of Islam, which include justice and equality. The strategic and progressive nature of these policies reveals a concerted effort to marginalize Hazara and Shia communities systematically, undermining their potential for integration within the nation's political, administrative, and judicial frameworks. Such sustained exclusionary strategies portend the emergence of intensified ethno-religious conflicts and the potential descent of Afghanistan into a state of anarchy characterized by the absence of a coherent and inclusive legal system.

Tawab Danish is a remarkable individual with roots in the scenic Bagram District of Parwan, Afghanistan, where he was born in the warm month of August 1985. Tawab's academic journey is quite the inspiration—he embarked on his higher education at Albironi University in Kapisa, obtaining his law degree with flying colors in 2007. With a thirst for knowledge, he then ventured to Pune University in vibrant Maharashtra, India, where he expanded his horizons with a master's in public administration and political science between 2009 and 2011. His passion for law and public service didn't stop there; he further honed his expertise with an LLM from the prestigious University of Washington School of Law in 2018-19. Tawab's dedication and hard work paid off handsomely when he was chosen for the esteemed role of assistant professor at Parwan University's Faculty of Law and Political Science in 2013. He didn't just teach; he led with distinction as vice-dean and then dean of the law faculty up until 2019. His specialties? None other than the pillars of justice—Constitutional Law, Public International Law, and Human Rights Law. 2019 marked a significant milestone for Tawab as he received the honor of being appointed by the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as a Senior Advisor to the Speaker of the House of Representatives for International Affairs—a testament to his profound expertise and integrity. But Tawab's contributions extend beyond the halls of government; he's a trailblazer in education too! In 2014, he founded Bagram Bastan Private High School, lighting the path to learning for over a thousand eager Afghan boys and girls. Following the dramatic changes in Afghanistan, Tawab and his beloved family—his wife and three wonderful children—relocated to the United States. Here, he continues to share his wealth of knowledge as a Visiting Scholar at the distinguished Cornell School of Law, now in his second year. His journey reflects a relentless commitment to education, law, and the rights of people everywhere.

Three masters and old friends join together in a new collaboration. Kayhan Kalhor, Wu Man, and Sandeep Das are established soloists in their individual traditions. Their new trio highlights the ancient traditions of Iran, China, and India in a 21stcentury program. Three-time GRAMMY-nominee Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso on the kamancheh, who through his many musical collaborations has been instrumental in popularizing Persian music in the West. Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator, and composer giving her lute-like instrument a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. A Guggenheim Fellow and GRAMMY-winning musician, Sandeep Das is one of the leading tabla virtuosos in the world today.

Please visit cornellconcertseries.com for details about the masterclasses, lectures, meet-and-greets, and other events of this residency.

“You can get lost in [Kayhan Kalhor’s] music in a wonderful way. It roams through far-flung provenances and ages…mystically tinted, mysterious sounds, which echo in the inclined listener for a long time.” – JazzThing

“Vibrant pipa master Wu Man. A one-woman force of nature.” – Gramophone Magazine

“When [Sandeep] plays the tabla, he is a creator of myths, a master communicator, and an orchestra, all in one.” – Yo-Yo Ma

This event is presented as part of Cornell’s Freedom of Expression Theme Year.

The rich musical traditions these musicans perform continue to exist under various political situations in their home countries. Both the musical content and musicians’ ability to travel freely to perform impacts their freedom of expression. As such, this concert serves to increase appreciation across the Cornell community for the history, importance, and challenges of free expression and academic freedom.

Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Art of Un-War, a film directed and produced by Maria Niro, explores the life and work of renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. It delves into Wodiczko's powerful artistic interventions created as responses to the inequities and horrors of war and injustice. The artist’s interventions throughout the narrative become powerful examples of how art can be a catalyst for social change and healing.

The screening is followed by a Q&A session with Krzysztof Wodiczko and director Maria Niro, who will also participate in the discussion via Zoom.

About the Film
"The Art of Un-War" takes viewers on a captivating journey through the life and artistic interventions of renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. For over 50 years Wodiczko has explored the profound impact of violence on humanity and the transformative power of art as a medium for public discourse. The film explores Wodiczko's monumental slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments, which serve as powerful vehicles for addressing themes such as war trauma, displacement, history, memory, and public communication.

About the Artist
Krzysztof Wodiczko is renowned for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He has realized more than 90 such public projections in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Holland, Northern Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Since the late 1980s, his projections have involved the active participation of marginalized and estranged city residents. Simultaneously, and also internationally, he has been designing and implementing a series of nomadic instruments, vehicles and other cultural equipment with the homeless, immigrants, alienated youth, war veterans and other operators for their survival, communication and expression in the public space.

He received the Hiroshima Art Prize "for his contribution as an international artist to the world peace", and represented Poland and Canada in Venice Biennale (Canadian Pavillion and Polish Pavilions). He is also recipient of Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, the Georgy Kepes Award, MIT, the Katarzyna Kobro Prize, and "Gloria Artis" Golden Medal from Polish Ministry of Culture. Krzysztof Wodiczko is a Professor of Art, Design, and the Public Domain, Emeritus at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Visiting professor at the Media Art department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

About the Film Director
Maria Niro is a New York City-based artist and filmmaker who creates films that engage and inspire viewers to create social change. Her moving image work includes long-form documentaries and short art films. Her award-winning documentary, Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Art of Un-War (2023), which chronicles the life and political work of the internationally acclaimed artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, has been broadcast on TV Ontario (TVO) and screened at festivals and museums worldwide, including the New York Jewish Film Festival at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center, Artecinema Teatro San Carlo, National Gallery of Art in DC, MIT, and Harvard Art Museums, among others. Niro’s short art films have been shown at the Whitechapel Gallery, Microscope Gallery, Queens Museum, and Anthology Film Archives, among other venues. Niro is a member of New Day Films, a filmmaker-owned and run distribution company providing social issue documentaries to educators since 1971.

Tickets
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Host
Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies

Co-Hosts
Cornell Cinema

Co-Sponsors
Johnson Museum of Art
Institute for European Studies
Department of History of Art & Visual Studies
Department of Science & Technology Studies
Department of Romance Studies, Polish Language Program
Department of Performing and Media Arts

Talk by Aman Luthra (Geography, George Washington University)

Similar to many countries around the world, recycling in Indian cities is sustained by a large population of informal workers who collect, transport, and trade in recyclable materials to eke out a meager living. One group of workers in this sector—waste-pickers who extract low-value recyclables from waste along its journey from source to sink—has garnered policy and scholarly attention. Another group--variously referred to as kabariwalas and raddiwalas who buy high-value recyclables from waste generators—has largely eluded the attention of scholars and policymakers alike. As a result, while there are policy safeguards in place for certain categories of waste-pickers, kabariwalas have been left vulnerable to market forces and have largely been ignored by policymakers. For instance, over the past decade, a number of new startup firms using online, mobile platforms are providing the same kinds of recycling collection services that kabariwalas have traditionally delivered. This talk will present the findings of five months of field research conducted as a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar in Delhi in 2023, which describes and analyzes how kabariwalas are navigating the fast-changing and complex landscape of the urban recycling sector. Unlike waste-pickers who have been able to organize and carve a space for their inclusion in official waste management policies, kabariwalas remain largely unorganized. Without collective organizations asking for state intervention aimed at protecting their livelihoods, kabadiwalas might be forced to compete against new corporate actors with vastly different amounts of resources and capacities at their disposal.

Aman Luthra is Assistant Professor of Geography at the George Washington University. He teaches courses in political ecology, development geography, and the geography of South Asia. Dr. Luthra received his Ph.D. from the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD in 2015. He also holds an M.A. in Geography and an M.P.A. from Syracuse University. His research focuses on the changing landscape of labor and capital in the waste management sector in urban India, with a particular emphasis on informal workers in this industry. In addition to research on urban waste management, Dr. Luthra is also involved in an interdisciplinary collaborative project using citizen science to understand changing patterns of pollinator diversity and abundance in and around apple orchards in Uttarakhand, India. His research has been funded by Fulbright, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Dr. Luthra has published articles in several journals in geography including Antipode, Geographical Review, Geoforum, Progress in Environmental Geography, and Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space and E: Nature and Space.

Payments made to non-state armed groups are often treated as predation. But rebels deploy multiple logics when constructing their taxation systems, many of which cannot be reduced to extortion. Rebels also use taxation as a “technology of governance” to resolve a number of social and political challenges related to constructing a wartime order. Drawing on field work in three different countries (Colombia, India, South Sudan), Zachariah Mampilly, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, CUNY, looks at the distinct taxation systems established by armed groups in each.

In Colombia, the author focuses on the FARC-EP’s taxation of coca to reveal the ideological and political factors that shaped their taxation system. In India, he examines how the NSCN-IM implemented distinct taxation regimes across four distinct subnational areas of control. And finally, in South Sudan, he explores the role of external actors in shaping the nature of the rebel taxation system.

About the Speaker
Zachariah Mampilly is the Marxe Endowed Chair of International Affairs at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, CUNY and a member of the doctoral faculty in the Department of Political Science at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is the Co-Founder of the Program on African Social Research. He is the author of Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life during War and with Adam Branch, Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change. His writing has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Jacobin, The Hindu, Africa's a Country, N+1, Dissent, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, The Washington Post​ and elsewhere.

HostJudith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies