As in years prior, this conference, cosponsored by the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, provides an opportunity for graduate students to critically engage with the particularities of Sri Lanka and its diasporas; particularities often sacrificed to make our work speak clearly to non-specialist audiences. While we acknowledge the many benefits of such generalized engagement, we also recognize a keen need to build community around a shared sense of context. If there is something unique about the field of Sri Lankan Studies, then gathering in a common space to discuss the specificities of a local context offers opportunities to consider not only how this material contributes to the academic conversations in which it tends to be subsumed, but also how conventions of rigor, generosity, and accountability might best be achieved amongst scholars most intimately familiar with the conditions of producing this material. This conference will feature papers from within Sri Lanka; papers that engage with contemporary Sri Lankan scholarship, recognizing that the study of Sri Lanka within Sri Lanka often finds nuances lost in generalized or comparative disciplines around the globe; and reflections on the ways in which our institutional locations determine our approach to the study of Sri Lanka.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

9:00-9:15 am Welcome

Anne Blackburn (Asian Studies, Cornell University)

9:15-10:30 am Panel 1

“These drifting Somalis”: Migration and Identity Formation in the Talaimannar-Djibouti circuit, 1919–1946

Ifadha Sifar (History, Columbia University)

Tangible and Intangible Freedom: Manumission and Emancipation in the late 18th and early 19th century Colombo

Sanayi Marcelline (History, University of Leiden)

Discussant: Durba Ghosh (History, Cornell University)

10:45 am-12:00 pm Panel 2

On Absences and Presences: A Speculative Reading of Disappearance under Liberal Modernity

Themal Ellawala ( Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago)

Hustling Through A Pandemic: The Implications of COVID-19 on Sex Work in Urban Sri Lanka

F. Zahrah Rizwan (Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Ohio State University)

Discussant: Lucinda E. G. Ramberg (Anthropology, Cornell University)

1:30-2:00 pm Resources for Sri Lankan Studies

Daniel Bass (South Asia Program, Cornell University)

2:00-3:15 pm Panel 3

The Black Legend in/of Ceylon: Kaffrinha, Créolité, and Imperial Difference between the 19th Century and the Present

Praveen Tilakaratne (Comparative Literature, Cornell University)

What Remains? Genealogy, Language, and the Politics of Un/belonging

Deborah Philip (Anthropology, City University of New York)

Discussant: Hadia Akhtar Khan (Future of Work, Cornell University)

An Indian tourist couple arrive in the hill country of crisis ridden Sri Lanka to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary. But, when things take an unexpected turn, conflicts deepen revealing cracks in their relationship.

Paradise is a 2023 Sri Lankan-Indian co-produced film co-written and directed by Prasanna Vithanage. This 93-minute film stars Roshan Mathew, Darshana Rajendran, Shyam Fernando and the tells the story of a married couple whose anniversary vacation goes awry in Sri Lanka. It had its world premiere at the 28th Busan International Film Festival on 7 October 2023, where it won the Kim Jiseok Award.

Are you interested in the intersection of mental health and culture, global health, and community engagement? Do you want to gain field research skills and learn about indigenous communities in South India’s beautiful and fragile Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve? If so, the Cornell-Keystone Nilgiris Field Learning Program might be for you!

Talk by Rohit Lamba (Economics, Cornell University)

India has a remarkable digital infrastructure, a burgeoning demographic dividend, a stable democracy, a high-performing high-tech services sector, a learned and arguably well-meaning elite, and a phenomenally successful diaspora. There is also rising interest in the West to diversify economic supply chains away from China. Many omens suggest it may just be India's time to break upwards from a low-middle-income country to the high-middle-income category. Two key constraints may hold this march back. First, India's structural transformation has been unusual in having broadly skipped low-skilled manufacturing as a dominant contributor to total output and employment, like Korea and China. Will this be a feature or a bug in the coming decades? Second, India's state architecture continues to be stubbornly centralized at all levels of funds, functions, and functionaries. Will the ensuing compromise in public provision of basic health and education prove irreversible? In sum, can India overcome these challenges to become rich before it becomes old? Professor Lamba will examine this issue and discuss his new book Breaking the Mold: India's Untraveled Path to Prosperity (2024).

Rohit Lamba is an assistant professor of economics at Cornell University. He has previously held academic positions at Penn State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University Abu Dhabi. He did his PhD in economics at Princeton University. He was also an economist at the Office of the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. Rohit's research focuses on economic theory and economic development. He is the co-author (with Raghuram Rajan) of a recent book Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity, published by Princeton University Press internationally and by Penguin Random House in India.

Talk by Abdul Haque Chang (Social Sciences, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi)

This talk shows how in Sindh, the state of environmental exception has become the norm for governance (as in Agamben's formulation regarding the suspension of law). Specifically, this state of exception refers to a situation where necessity takes precedence over the law, resulting in a gap in the legal system. As a result, a zone of indistinction exists where environmental exception has become Pakistan's governance paradigm in Sindh. Through ethnographic experiences from the Indus Delta, coastal areas of Sindh, urban housing projects, and the land acquisition of Indigenous inhabitants by housing tycoons, this study illustrates how ecological martyrdom is occurring in Sindh due to environmental exception. This study demonstrates how the debates surrounding man-made and nature-based climate change should be located within the broader context of state governance policies in Pakistan, particularly regarding their effects on Sindh. The discussion highlights how the experiences and histories of local communities, along with the processes of urban development in Karachi and Sindh, have impacted specific populations in the pursuit of creating a utopian urban infrastructure that benefits other populations in Pakistan.

Abdul Haque Chang is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi, Pakistan. His ethnographic research focuses on religion, Sufism, music, and environmental anthropology in Sindh, Pakistan, and Java, Indonesia. He is currently working on a book manuscript that explores the concept of "environmental exception" in Sindh, specifically regarding the practice of sacrifice in the context of environmental degradation. Chang has conducted ethnographic research on Sufi music in Sindh, particularly on Shah Jo Raag, a Sufi musical tradition. He studies Javanese Sufism in Indonesia through his project "Jathilan: Performativity and the (Re)Production of Javanese Sacrality." This project highlights how Javanese performance art challenges gender norms and serves as a form of cultural resistance.