Talk by Kavita Panjabi (Former Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata)

Turtuk is now an Indian village on the India-Pakistan border in the Karakoram mountains, in the contested zone of Baltistan. People in Turtuk who went to sleep in their homes in Pakistan on the 13th of December 1971, woke up on the 14th morning to find themselves in India. Unlike the people of the neighbouring village of Chalungka, who had fled en-masse further into Pakistan when the Indian army had arrived there a few days ago, the people of Turtuk had decided to stay with India. The Balti people of Turtuk, and its neighbouring villages Thang, Pachathang, and Tyakshi, were not compelled into any forced removal; they were subject to “in-situ displacements” (Feldman) in the conflict between Pakistan and India - staying within their homes, they had been displaced from one nation to another. Transitional spaces such as these that form the borderlands between nation-states are spaces of liminality, and the conditions inducing liminality in this region were severe. For the people of these villages, space had shrunk, and time stood still. Once situated at the crossroads of international trade and ideas on the silk route, they had become effectively sealed off from the rest of the world when the borders came up in 1948. Captive in the borderlands of Pakistan till 1971 and then in India, Turtuk finally opened to the rest of this country in 2010. For more than 60 years, the people here had found themselves in a literal “time capsule”, practically isolated within the borderlands of Pakistan and India. In this talk, Panjabi maps, through oral narratives of the Balti people of Turtuk, and the prism of their liminality, the cartographies of affective life pulsating beneath the officialese of borders. She tries to understand how the long duree of their liminality inflected their efforts both to preserve Balti culture across the borders of two nation-states and to safeguard their historical memory of an Asian internationalism. Thus, Panjabi hopes also to retrieve some of the strands of the politically shrouded webs of significance that once characterized the connectivities between Asian cultures.

Kavita Panjabi (Comparative Literature PhD '92) is a former Professor of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, where she taught for 33 years. Over three decades of activism in the Southasian women’s movement, a passion for oral history, and a lively interest in cross-border people’s perspectives inform her book Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women’s Movement and her Pakistan diary, Old Maps and New: Legacies of the Partition. She has also edited anthologies on Sufism and Bhakti in South Asia, and on Feminist Culture and politics, as well as two volumes on borders with Debra Castillo namely, Cartographies of Affect: Across Borders in South Asia and the Americas, and Centering Borders in Latin American and South Asian Contexts: Aesthetics and Politics of Cultural Production.

Y.S. Lee, author of Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia (Anthem Press, 2023) and Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School speaks about his book which examines the causes of long-standing and complex tensions in the region and explores possible solutions to build lasting peace there. Introduced by Yun-chien Chang, Jack G. Clarke Professor in East Asian Law.

RSVP is required as space is limited. Please note, lunch is available to the first 15 who RSVP.

Uris Hall 204.

Includes a light lunch.

This event is co-sponsored by the Reppy Insitute for Peace and Conflict Studies.

More about the book: Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia examines the causes of these complex tensions in Northeast Asia and their underlying political, historic, military, and economic developments. It further discusses their political-economic implications for the world and explores possible solutions to build lasting peace in the region. This book offers a unique approach to these important issues by examining the perspectives of each constituent country in Northeast Asia: China, South and North Korea, Japan, and Mongolia, and their respective roles in the region. Major global powers, such as the United States and Russia, have also closely engaged in the political and economic affairs of the region through a network of alliances, diplomacy, trade, and investment. The book discusses the influence of these external powers, their political and economic objectives in the region, their strategies, and the dynamics that their engagement has brought to the region. Both South Korea and North Korea have sought reunification of the Korean peninsula, which will have a substantial impact on the region. The book examines its justification, feasibility and effects for the region. The book also discusses the role of Mongolia in the context of the power dynamics in Northeast Asia. A relatively small country, in terms of its population, Mongolia has rarely been examined in this context; Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia makes a fresh assessment on its potential role.

Animating Forces by Andrew Schonebaum.

The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium (CCCC) 古文品讀 is a reading group for scholars interested in premodern Sinographic text (古文). We are pleased to welcome Andrew Schonebaum, East Asian Studies, Maryland University to lead this month's text-reading.

Liaozhai zhiyi, like other anomalous account collections, is a curious text.  It not only records curiosities of the natural world – enormous bugs, tiny animals, and suchlike, it is curious about particular topics, investigating (in brief, but repeatedly), things that seem inexplicable – that dragons could die, or that foxes could evade the punishment of thunder. Liaozhai examines the stuff of life - the animating force, souls, human forms, and zombies (jiangshi 僵屍 /  殭屍). It asks, what is the difference between a body that is alive and one that is dead?  What transformation takes place in the moment of death?  Life itself – what animates a body is the ultimate object of inquiry into the unseen, and one that still fascinates.  We are of course, always gathering first-hand information about our bodies, and yet, as a natural object what makes it go, is elusive. We will read “Woman from Changzhi” 長治女子 about a Daoist who steals the life anima of a woman to bring alive a wooden doll. We will also consider other records that detail the legal and moral menace of "plucking life" (caisheng 採生).  

The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.

At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.

No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.

The Cornell Contemporary China Initiative (CCCI) is excited to welcome Meg Rithmire, Business Administration, Harvard Business School to speak on, "The Dangerous Politics of State-Business Relations in Contemporary China."

Why have relations between the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese private-sector business elites gone from “co-optation” and “cronyism” to crackdowns and emigration? Drawing on her book (Precarious Ties, Oxford University Press 2023) and related work on the turn to security in China’s political economy, Meg Rithmire traces the current crackdown to the long presence of distrust between political and business elites in China and the CCP’s partial liberalization of the financial sector over the last 20 years.

Introduced by EAP director, Jeremy Wallace (Government).

CCCI brings together scholars, researchers, and students with sustained research interests in contemporary China. In response to widely expressed needs related to contemporary China across campus, CCCI invites leaders in the field to give talks on an array of interdisciplinary issues about the current Chinese economy, politics, and society.

Talk by Nausheen Husain (Magazine, News and Digital Journalism, Syracuse University), and Mohammad Ebad Athar (History at Syracuse University)

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the FBI investigated a 23-year-old Pakistani man, Mohammad Salman Hamdani, who was declared missing at the site of the attack. As part of their investigation, FBI and CIA officials visited Hamdani’s home in Queens where they questioned his parents about his whereabouts and his background. The New York Daily News said his disappearance “quickly took on sinister implications.” Hamdani was a police cadet in training and was working as a research technician at Rockefeller University. On September 11, Hamdani was headed to work when the attacks happened and, having prior experience as an EMT, went to offer assistance. At the conclusion of the law enforcement investigation, Hamdani was found to be innocent, given full police honors at his funeral, and was declared a hero by then-mayor Mike Bloomberg. The Patriot Act passed on October 26, 2001, states that Hamdani “acted heroically.” The New York Times called him “an all-American Jedi.” In analyzing the news coverage of Hamdani, we argue that Hamdani’s case is representative of the impact the news media can have in the normalization of South Asian and Muslim-identifying people being a securitized population throughout the ongoing War on Terror, as well as the perpetuation of the ‘good Muslim, bad Muslim’ trope in media and pop culture. Connecting to our larger work supported by the Lender Center for Social Justice at Syracuse University, we connect Hamdani’s story to coverage of cases of entrapment of Muslim men by the FBI in sting operations, using data-driven news audits as our methodology.

∙ Mohammad Ebad Athar is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at Syracuse University and is a graduate fellow at the Lender Center for Social Justice working on the impact of media coverage of Muslims during the War on Terror. His dissertation research examines the securitization of South Asian identity in the United States and the Persian Gulf during the ongoing Global War on Terror.

∙ Nausheen Husain is a journalist, assistant professor of journalism at Syracuse University, and current faculty fellow at the Lender Center for Social Justice. Her research focuses on the news coverage of the War on Terror defendants and infrastructures after 9/11.

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.