In the early eighteenth century, Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II of Jaipur constructed five astronomical observatories in northern India. The observatories, or "Jantar Mantars" as they are commonly known, incorporate multiple buildings of unique form, each with a specialized function for astronomical measurement. The four sites that remain represent an extraordinary fusion of architecture and science, combining elements of astronomy, astrology, and geometry into forms of remarkable beauty that have captivated the attention of architects, artists, scientists, and historians around the world.

In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks talk, Barry Perlus, associate professor emeritus of art in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, discusses his photographic exploration of the Jantar Mantars in his book Celestial Mirror: The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh II (Yale University Press, 2020). Perlus’s images show breathtaking, 360-degree panoramas, while his explanatory text and diagrams describe the observatories and their workings, providing historical context and insights about the scientific and architectural innovations involved—all to provide a delightful immersive experience that brings the observatories to life.

A live Q&A session will follow the talk. Audience members are encouraged to submit questions for the author to the Chat box in the webinar during the presentation.

This virtual conference, sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and Migrations: A Global Grand Challenge, brings together a diverse group of scholars, activists, and practitioners to discuss the role that plantations and plantation agriculture have played in shaping the nature, structure, and dynamics of the modern era.

Although plantations have long been the subject of study, the Plantationocene as a concept emerged only in the past few years to describe the role of racialized, large-scale plantation agriculture in establishing a world system that to this day lives with the legacy and continuation of slavery, forced migration, dispossession, and mono-crop extractive agriculture intended for export production.

This article serves as a frame for the conversation: Wolford, Wendy, 2021 “The Plantationocene: A Lusotropical Contribution to the Theory,” Annals of the American Association of Geographers, early view online.

Over two days of roundtable discussions (April 15-16), scholars and activists from a variety of disciplines of critical social theory and practice, including agrarian studies, political ecology, development studies, black geographies and feminist theory, will discuss the Plantationocene and to what extent this conceptional framework may be useful—not just for analytical purposes, but also for activism and practice.

Explore the schedule and presentersRegister nowThe conference is available in Portuguese through simultaneous interpretation on the same Zoom channel. All sessions will be recorded.

Moderator:

Wendy Wolford, Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor, Department of Global Development, Cornell University

Panelists:

Gerard Aching, Professor of Africana and Romance Studies, Cornell UniversityYasmine Ahmed, Postdoctoral teaching fellow, The American University in CairoSarah Besky, Associate Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell UniversityRachel Bezner-Kerr, Professor of Global Development, Cornell UniversityJun Borras, Professor of Agrarian Studies, Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, the HagueNatacha Bruna, PhD candidate, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University, the Hague Judith Carney, Professor of Geography, University of California, Los AngelesSophie Chao, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of SydneySharad Chari, Associate Professor of Geography, University of California, BerkeleyYoujin Chung, Assistant Professor of Energy and Resources Group and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, BerkeleyAndrew Curley, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of ArizonaMary Jo Dudley, Director of the Cornell Farmworker Program, Cornell UniversityChristopher Dunn, Elizabeth Newman Wilds Executive Director of Cornell Botanic Gardens, Cornell UniversityDivya Dutta, Researcher, Oxfam America and Oxfam Great BritainJennifer Franco, Activist and Researcher at the Transnational Institute (TNI), the HagueShannon Gleeson, Professor of Labor Relations, Law, and History, Cornell UniversityJenny Goldstein, Assistant Professor of Global Development, Cornell UniversityEuclides Gonçalves, Director and Researcher, Kaleidoscopio, Research in Public Policy, MozambiqueCarla Gras, Researcher and Professor of Sociology, University of Buenos AiresJulie Guthman, Professor of Social Sciences, University of California, Santa CruzShalmali Guttal, Executive Director, Focus on the Global South, BangkokTania Murray Li, Professor of Anthropology, University of TorontoJuliet Lu, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cornell Atkinson Center for SustainabilityFouad Makki, Associate Professor of Global Development, Cornell UniversityPriscilla McCutcheon, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of KentuckyPhilip McMichael, Professor of Global Development, Cornell UniversityGregg Mitman, Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History of Science, Medical History, and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, MadisonSharlene Mollett, Distinguished Professor in Feminist Cultural Geography, Nature and Society and Associate Professor of Geography, University of TorontoJoão Mosca, Director, Observatório do Meio Rural, Maputo Andrew Ofstehage, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell UniversityKasia Paprocki, Assistant Professor of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political ScienceDeniz Pelek, Postdoctoral Researcher in the MIGRADEMO Project, Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaNancy Peluso, Professor of Society and Environment and Chair of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, BerkeleyPrabhu Pingali, Professor of Applied Economics and Policy, Cornell UniversityRachel Beatty Riedl, John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and Director of the Einaudi Center, Cornell UniversityCaitlin Rosenthal, Associate Professor, History, University of California, BerkeleySergio Sauer, Professor in the Center for Sustainable Development, University of BrasíliaJudite Stronzake, Activist in the Movement of Landless Workers (MST), Brazil and Professor of Education, Universidade Federal da Grande DouradosEric Tagliacozzo, John Stamburgh Professor, Department of History, Cornell UniversityAnna Tsing, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa CruzMichael Watts, Chancellor’s Professor of Geography Emeritus, and Co-Director of Development Studies, University of California, BerkeleyWendy Wolford, Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development, Cornell UniversityYunan Xu, Post-doctoral researcher, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University RotterdamJohn Aloysius Zinda, Assistant Professor, Global Development, Cornell University

This event is part of the ongoing Critical Moves: Performance in Theory Movement series co-organized by Prof. Balance and Prof. Karen Jaime and co-sponsored by Cornell Asian American Studies Program (AASP), Latina/o Studies Program (LSP), and the department of Performing Media Arts. Basement Bhangra Redux is also co-sponsored by the South Asia Program (SAP) at Cornell.

DJ Rekha/Rekha Malhotra is a DJ, producer, curator, and educator. They have been credited with pioneering Bhangra music in North America via Basement Bhangra club night (1997-2017). They are a proud resident of Jackson Heights, Queens. Rekha was the sound designer for the TONY award-winning Broadway Show, Bridge and Tunnel and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for their work on the play Rafta Rafta. Rekha has done remixes for artists that range from Meredith Monk to Major Lazer, and has performed at the Obama White House and internationally. They are on the board of Queens-based Chhaya Community Development Corp., serving to economically empower New Yorkers of South Asian origin. They have produced events for Central Park SummerStage and the South Asian Block Party for the Biden Harris Campaign. They have a BA in Urban Studies from Queens College, a Masters in Comparative Media Studies from MIT, and produce the weekly podcast Bhangra and Beyond.

Climate is a wicked problem that requires understanding of people and places. Three stories from the forested areas of central India illustrate that efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change might be most successful if approached from the lens of local livelihoods and well-being: restoration of degraded forests; climate resilient and low-GHG cereal production; and migration between rural and urban areas. The stories identify the potential for climate solutions from interventions aimed at improved nutrition and living standards.

Bio: Ruth DeFries is a professor of ecology and sustainable development at Columbia University in New York. She uses images from satellites and field surveys to examine how the world’s demands for food and other resources are changing land use throughout the tropics. Her research quantifies how these land use changes affect climate, biodiversity and other ecosystem services, as well as human development. She has also developed innovate education programs in sustainable development. DeFries was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, one of the country’s highest scientific honors, received a MacArthur "genius" award, and is the recipient of many other honors for her scientific research. In addition to over 100 scientific papers, she is committed to communicating the nuances and complexities of sustainable development to popular audiences through her books “The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis " and "What Would Nature Do?: A Guide for Our Uncertain Times."

Ruth DeFries (Columbia University) will present in the
2021 Perspectives on the Climate Change Challenge Seminar Series:

Most Mondays, Spring Semester 2021, 2:45-4:00pmAvailable as a Zoom Webinar
This university-wide seminar series is open to the public, and provides important views on the critical issue of climate change, drawing from many perspectives and disciplines. Experts from Cornell University and beyond present an overview of the science of climate change and climate change models, the implications for agriculture, ecosystems, and food systems, and provide important economic, ethical, and policy insights on the issue. The seminar is being organized and sponsored by the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.

Please join us for an invited talk by Prof. Joseph A. Marino, III, generously co-sponsored by the Departments of Asian Studies, History and Philosophy; the South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Religious Studies Programs; and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. The event is open to all interested, and special accommodations can be made for access upon request.
This talk examines the metaphor of hell as a place of burning in early Buddhist literature. Taking a Gandhari manuscript about the "Great Conflagration Hell” as our starting place, we explore foundational Buddhist hell texts and contemporaneous non-Buddhist Sanskrit literature to understand the Buddhist “hot hell” as a combination of two fire metaphors used widely elsewhere: the notion of desire as a fire that must be extinguished, and that of tapas as a purifying fire generated through austerity. Along the way, we see how “hot hell” descriptions develop from and build upon the volatile and violent depictions of a blacksmith’s forge.

Joe Marino is Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Washington, where he teaches Sanskrit and courses on Buddhist history and literature. His research specialty is Buddhist manuscripts from Gandhāra, which he edits, translates, and studies in the comparative context of early Buddhist literature in Indic and Chinese languages. He also writes about the pedagogical and literary functions of metaphor and simile in early Buddhist sutras. Joe received a BA and MA in Comparative Studies from Ohio State University, and an MA in Comparative Religion and PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington.

Due to COVID-era regulations, all attendees are required to register for this event here: http://cglink.me/2ee/r992968

Upon registration you should receive an automated email with the Zoom link. If for any reason you do not receive this email, please contact Bruno at bms297@cornell.edu.

The time of global pandemic presented many obstacles for communities engaged with Southeast Asia to stay connected and thrive. At the same time, the limitations upon meeting in person or conducting fieldwork inspired new ways to forge dialogues, shake old conventions, and embrace creative, often technological, change. As graduate students, we witnessed a boom of new and revamped platforms that emerged to connect those separated geographically by COVID-19 and enable academic, social, and professional relations. On the other hand, physical limitations within our communities have produced severe economic and personal fractures that have not yet been remediated. These patterns of Links and Fractures have long existed before COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, arising out of historical processes of colonization and decolonization, religion, commodity and cultural exchanges, migration, language, information technology, economic expansion, social unrest, political upheaval, and more. Within these patterns are both opportunities and losses for a wide range of diverse Southeast Asian communities, creating “new normals” before the “new normal” instigated by COVID-19.

The Graduate Student Conference will be held March 19-21, 2021 online, catering to the opportunity to bring together participants and attendees from all over the world, and powered by SEAP web-platforms. PhD and Master students will present their research united by this common theme across all academic disciplines, presenting their work on how these Links and Fractures have shaped communities in Southeast Asia as part of a panel with faculty discussants. Over this immersive three-day period, the sharing of related research with Cornell SEAP faculty, academics and fellow peers within the graduate community will be facilitated.

- Keynote by Prof. Juno Salazar Parreñas (STS/FGSS), "Fracture or Linked? Southeast Asia after Area Studies Died"

- Full listing of Speakers and Abstracts

- Overview and registration links for each panel: Conference Schedule

Quick panel registration links:

SEA and the Indian Ocean: flows of ideas, goods, and labourState-making and resistancePolitics and gender in religion: entangled text and imageMemory: in poetics, battles, and campsEducating modernity, teaching nationalismMigrated Culture: politics of diaspora across generations This conference is organized by the Southeast Asia Graduate Student Committee

Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan will lead a workshop titled "Radicalizing Her". The workshop will focus on the topics on topics of feminist theory, identity, gender, power, and violence.

Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan is the Founder and Director of the Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative, a global initiative examining the impact of rape on women's political identities, and a Visiting Research Professor at the Colin Powell Center for Global and Civic Leadership at City College New York. She is currently the founder and director a new program under this initiative, Beyond Identity: A Gendered-Platform for Scholar Activists. She is also currently a Senior Scholar the Center for Political Conflict, Gender, and People's Rights at the University of California, Berkeley and the creator of the Female Fighter Series at Guernica Magazine.

She has recently been a senior advisor on political voice for the ADB/UN Women Benchmark Paper on SDG's in the Asia-Pacific region; a Gender Expert for the United Nations Human Development Report on Afghanistan; and a policy consultant and analyst for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the International Crisis Group, researching and analyzing gender inclusion in peace-building and women’s insecurities in Sri Lanka. She was formerly the Director of South Asia Programs and UN Representative for Operation USA. Dr. Gowrinathan received her PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles titled "Why Women Rebel: Understanding Female Fighters in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" which received the Jean and Irving Stone Award for Innovation in Gender Studies. She provides expert analysis for CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and the BBC, and has published in Harper's Magazine, Foreign Affairs, Guernica Magazine, and Al Jazeera English, among others. Her work, and writings, can be found at www.deviarchy.com.