The proposed two-day conference is organized by the departments of Sociology and Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Ashoka University, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, and The Australian National University. It is aimed at assembling the river island narratives, discussing and critically interrogating concepts and empirics, and enabling a meaningful conversation between early career researchers and senior, established scholars in the domain. The immediate output will be a special issue/section on river islands in an international, peer-reviewed journal that will include six to eight selected conference papers, with co-authorship being encouraged between junior and senior scholars (also adhering to gender inclusion and geographical representation principles).
The long-term goal however is to initiate a larger, more systematic conversation on river islands, across the global North and South, and promote interdisciplinary scholarly and action research on these hybrid ecologies through global partnership, facilitating cross-sectoral dialogues and collaborations.
Session Themes:
1. Islands, Anthropocene and decoloniality
2. Islands, place-making, and the everyday
3. Infrastructure, “development,” and sustainability of river islands
4. Islands as spaces of disaster and vulnerability
5. Island (id)entities along shifting times
6. Islands in relations: rethinking “islandness” in a globalized world
Monday 16th of October 2023 9:00AM-9:30AM INAUGURAL SESSION: Prof. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt,The Australian National University
9:30AM-11:00AM KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Prof. Jonathan Pugh Newcastle University: Negating Islands: Non-Relational Geographies see the discussion
11:15 AM – 12:45PM ISLANDS, ANTHROPOCENE AND DECOLONIALITY
Chair : Vipul Singh, University of Delhi
Amites Mukhopadhyay and Annu Jalais – Technocratic Plans of ‘managed retreat’ for the Waterscapes of the Sundarbans
Nazifa Ahmed – ‘You can’t brush aside people affected by climate change as Bangaldeshi illegal immigrants’ : The Perils of Misreading Char-life through Climate Reductionism Bhargabi Das – Land Favouring Colonial Politics and the Transformation of Relations: The Case of Boats in the Char-lands of Western Assam Kh. Neil Young – Drifting with the River: A Tale of the Mising on Majuli Island, Assam
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM ISLANDS IN RELATION: RETHINKING ‘ISLANDNESS’ IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD
Chair: Mahesh Rangarajan, Ashoka University
Panchali Ray- Dwelling by/with River: Rethinking Spatiality with Chora
Saad Quasem – Frequency of Fluidity: In Need of Temporality Sampurna Das- Rethinking River Islandness: Home-building among Kaim Brides in Assam Chars
Rahul Kumar Yaduka – Everyday life and People’s Resistance to State-led Flood Control Efforts in Kyoshi Diyara
3:30 PM – 5:00PM ISLANDS AS SPACES OF DISASTER AND VULNERABILITY
Chair : Mitul Baruah, Ashoka University
Kaniska Singh- From Valorization to Misrecognition: Shifting Construction of Kosi River Islanders as Non-Deserving and Implications for Disaster Vulnerability
Niranjan Jaladas – Struggles with (Invisible) Nature: Duba Charas and the Vulnerable Marine Fishers in the Indian Sundarbans
Nabeela Siddiqui and Bharti – Enhancing Disaster Management Laws for Small Island Territories in India: A Case Study
3:30 PM – 5:00PM ISLANDS AS SPACES OF DISASTER AND VULNERABILITY
Chair : Mitul Baruah, Ashoka University
Kaniska Singh- From Valorization to Misrecognition: Shifting Construction of Kosi River Islanders as Non-Deserving and Implications for Disaster Vulnerability
Niranjan Jaladas – Struggles with (Invisible) Nature: Duba Charas and the Vulnerable Marine Fishers in the Indian Sundarbans
Nabeela Siddiqui and Bharti – Enhancing Disaster Management Laws for Small Island Territories in India: A Case Study
5:30 PM – 7:00PM ISLANDS, PLACE-MAKING AND THE EVERYDAY – FILM SCREENINGS AND PHOTO EXHIBITION
Chair : Jenia Mukherjee, IIT Kharagpur
Mitul Baruah – Trailer of a documentary film on Majuli, Assam (A 3CS Project, Ashoka University)
Jenia Mukherjee (On behalf of the IIT-KGP team) – Seeing Like ‘hajira’ Workers: Gendered Renderings from Frasergunj, Sunderbans”
Eklavya Prasad – ‘Saga of the Unsettled’ (Photo Exhibition)
17th of October
9:00AM – 10:00AM KEYNOTE ADDRESS Prof. Arupjyoti Saikia IIT Guwahati Profits, Distress and Speculation: Assam’s River Islands in the Age of Colonialism
10:00AM-11:30AM ISLAND IMAGINARIES IN CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS
Chair : Annu Jalais, Krea University
Amrita Dasgupta – Sisyphean Resilience: Sex Work on the Eroding Coast of the Sundarbans
Sayantan Roy Moulik and Souvik Roy Moulik- Vulnerable Islands: Mapping ‘bare lives’ at the Margins via Select Riverine Narratives Swagath Senan – The Island, the Ancestral Waters and the Anthropocene: Reading the Personal, Political and the Planetary in Sarah Joseph’s Aathi
11:45AM – 1:15PM ISLAND (ID)ENTITIES ALONG SHIFTING TIMES
Chair: Eklavya Prasad, Megh Pyne Abhiyan
Hajar Choukrani, Marcel Kuper and Margereet Zwarteveen – Recognizing the Shifting Identities of the ‘merjas‘ through the Lens of Sociohydrology
Anindita Chakrabarty – Living the ‘Transient‘ : Navigating Citizenship in the Chars of Assam Baishali Bhaumik – Under the Canopy of Sundaris : The Everyday Struggle of the Women prawn-collectors of the Sundarbans
2:15 PM – 4:00 PM ‘DEVELOPMENT’, (DIS)POSSESSION, AND SUSTAINABILITY OF RIVER ISLANDS
Chair : Jenia Mukherjee, IIT Kharagpur
Javed Kaisar – Futures built on Sand: Rohingya Refugees on Bhashan Char Island, Bangladesh
Pinaki Chandra – Moral Economy and the Politics of Disposession in Chars in Lower Assam
Raktim Majumder – Licenses and Operationalisation of Conservation in the Sundarbans: A Suturing of Knowledges Udip Das – Navigating Vulnerability and Resilience : Disaster Risk Mitigation in Kumirmari, SundarbansPlenary Session
4:15 PM – 5:45 PM River Island Studies: Possibilities and Pathways
5:45PM – 6:00PM VOTE OF THANKS
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