South Asia Program, Cornell University SOUTH ASIA Summer 2014 PROGRAM
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A publication of the South Asia Program, Cornell University SOUTH ASIA Summer 2014 PROGRAM The SAP celebrates 60th Anniversary: The Early Years by Professor Emerita (Department of Architecture), Bonnie MacDougall he Cornell South Asia Pro- Professor Morris E. Opler, Sociology and Anthropology, left for India in early Septem- gram grew out of the Com- ber to study modern developments in the villages of that country. The project is part Tparative Studies in Cultural of a program in cultural anthropology which was instituted at the University in 1947 Change Project, an initiative that was with the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This particular study is organized in the later 1940s with the being sponsored by the Social Science Research Council the Viking Fund of New York, Department of Anthropology/Soci- the Watumull Foundation of Los Angeles in addition to the Carnegie Corporation and ology with generous support from Cornell. Cornell Alumni News, October 1949, p78 the Carnegie Corporation. Three major areas of ethnographic focus in that we know today. It was imagined post-colonial world. In the India proj- the project -- Latin America, South- as a training ground and leadership ect, they took up residence in village east Asia and India/South Asia -- program in anthropology and closely communities that were seen as the eventually grew into the respective related disciplines for graduate stu- fundamental unit of study through Cornell world area programs. Morris dents (Gerald D. Berreman, Bernard which national change and develop- Opler (1907-1996) became the found- S. Cohn, Edward B. Harper, Louise ment could be understood and intro- ing director of the South Asia Pro- G. Harper, John T. Hitchcock, Mil- duced. They studied under mentors gram and the face of its organization dred S. Luschinsky, J. Michael Mahar, concerned with these issues includ- and expansion for the next twenty Jack M. Planalp, William L. Rowe and ing Professors Allan Holmberg, years. others) and even for post-graduate Lauriston Sharp and Opler. Opler, Post-WWII South Asian studies scholars from Cornell and elsewhere later a president of the American at Cornell was somewhat different (John Gumperz, Pauline Kolenda, Anthropological Association (1962- in its aims than the multidisciplinary Leigh Minturn). They focused their 1963), was well known in the field of campus-wide Cornell area programs research on the new issues facing the anthropology for his early e page 4 Notes from the Field Dr. King’s Dream... Klaus Ebeling Donation I sat on a long tan couch in the in the Land of Gandhi I vividly remember seeing Klaus dimly lit waiting room of Sony In 1959, following his month-long Ebeling’s book Ragamala Painting for Entertainment Television’s... maiden voyage to India,... the first time in the window... D D D SEE PAGE 6 SEE PAGE 8 SEE PAGE 14 From the Director... Anne M. Blackburn fter one of the coldest winters Center. If funded, we hope to expand on record, we’re enjoying a our South Asian language program Abrilliant Ithaca summer and I somewhat, and continue conference write this in a celebratory spirit after and seminar programming. FLAS a strong and active year in the South funding would provide precious fel- Asia Program. Dan Gold stepped lowships for our graduate students. At down as Director of the program the heart of the proposal are new out- last July. I reiterate our warm thanks reach initiatives to extend our South to him for years of service and good Asia expertise to community college stewardship. and education program partners, sup- Cornell’s Task Force on Interna- porting the inclusion of new South tionalization (TFI) and its 2012 report Asia-related components in their cur- are making a positive impact on our ricula and providing travel opportuni- campus, providing a more supportive ties to South Asian locations for their climate for South Asia studies as well faculty and students. I am delighted as financing to seed new initiatives by these projects, increasing collabora- and foster more intensive faculty en- tion across campuses interested in the gagement with the program. The ap- South Asian region and sharing our fi- will require additional financial sup- pointment of Kat Anderson as Direc- nancial and intellectual resources. port within Cornell as well as secur- tor of Development for International Our NRC proposal and TFI-funded ing new sources of external funding. Affairs is excellent news, very favor- projects also include a Tamil Studies Substantial Cornell University sup- able for the longer-term financial secu- Initiative. Cornell and Syracuse have port (from colleges, the office of the rity of the South Asia Program as well long-standing interests in Tamil cul- Provost, and the Einaudi Center for as other international studies projects tural and linguistic areas, and Cor- International Studies) is essential to on campus. TFI support will allow us nell’s South Asia Program is a rec- maintain a climate of research and in- to offer SAP grants to faculty involved ognized center for Sri Lanka studies. struction that attracts and retains un- in overseas learning programs, inter- Through the Tamil Studies Initiative dergraduate and graduate students, as national research, and the preparation our program and National Resource well as high-caliber faculty, committed of teaching materials for South Asian Center aim to build a strong founda- to South Asia studies. South Asian lan- languages. In addition, this autumn tion for Tamil Studies on both cam- guages remain under threat at Cornell, we will inaugurate the Development puses, hoping in time to add new despite a climate increasingly favor- and Research in South Asia Forum, faculty lines and student resources. able to international studies, because creating a space for Cornell under- In the medium-term, Tamil language Cornell’s new budget model links the graduate and graduate students across courses are available to Cornell stu- viability of courses more closely to colleges to interact with development dents through the Shared Course Ini- enrollment figures, neglecting other researchers and practitioners working tiative arranged with Columbia and calculations of their value. All of us in/on South Asia. Yale universities through our Lan- – supporters of South Asia studies at We recently submitted a four-year guage Resource Center. This language Cornell – must continue to lobby hard National Resource Center/FLAS pro- sharing agreement also carries Bengali at all levels of the administration for posal to the U.S. Department of Edu- and Sinhala from Cornell to these uni- a sustainable resolution to the ongo- cation, in concert with our consortial versity partners. ing problem of funding the languages partner, the Syracuse South Asia There remain significant areas of required for undergraduate and grad- concern. Federal funding is always uate study and research related to unstable; therefore, we must continue South Asia. SOUTH ASIA to wean the South Asia Program from I welcome your comments and PROGRAM STAFF its reliance on federal funding. This suggestions as we continue to nurture Anne M. Blackburn, Director Cornell’s South Asia Program. d Bill Phelan, Program Manager Durga Bor, Administrative Assistant/Events Coordinator Aastha Aacharya/Laya Hess Skinner/M. Akbar Malik Karan Javaji/Thanh Nguyen, Student Assistants Ph 607-255-8493 • Fax 607-254-5000 • www.einaudi.cornell.edu/southasia Designed by: Westhill Graphics page 2 Congratulations Foreign Language in Area Studies (FLAS) Recipients 2013-2014 Jerry Benjamin is Shoshana Goldstein for its biodiversity/resilience and vul- a graduate student is a second year nerability to a shifting climate. She is in the Asian Studies Ph.D. student in the studying intermediate Nepali. Department, where Department of City he is focusing on the and Regional Plan- Jennifer Koester is ongoing campaign ning. She earned her an M.A. student in to eradicate polio in B.A. in Philosophy Asian Studies focus- India and what it and the History of ing on North India. may mean for the country regarding Math and Science from St. John’s She received her B.A. its future social and economic aspi- College, MD, and an M.A. in Inter- in Anthropology and rations. He is studying intermediate national Development, from the Asian and Middle Hindi. New School. Her current research Eastern Stud- focuses on rapid urbanization and ies at Dartmouth College and wrote Vincent Burgess is its impacts on spatial planning and her honors thesis on “Voluntour- currently a third- local governance in Delhi and Hary- ism: Mediating Interactions with the year Ph.D. student ana, India. She is studying Hindi. “Other.” Through Cornell Univer- in Asian Literatures, sity’s South Asia Program, she has Religions, and Cul- Faraz Haqqi is a sec- been granted the FLAS to study Hindi tures, studying the ond-year student at and North India. She is research- religious and cultural the Cornell Institute ing how individuals and groups in history of India. His for Public Affairs, North India characterize the effects research focuses on various articula- where he is pursuing of globalization and societal shifts tions of renunciation in colonial and a master’s degree in on their lives. She is studying Hindi. postcolonial North India, specifically Public Administra- the socio-cultural dynamics of dis- tion with a concen- Katie Rainwater is courses of abnegation and utilization tration in International Development a second year M.A./ amongst guru-centered movements of Studies. The FLAS fellowship supports Ph.D. student in Rajasthan. He is studying advanced his study of intermediate Persian and Development Sociol- Hindi/Urdu. of strategies for improved governance ogy. She earned a and poverty reduction in South Asia. B.A. in Anthropology Natalie di Pietranto- from the University nio earned her B.A. Andrea Haynes is of North Carolina in art history at the working towards and a M.A.