CISCA Guests 2011

 

Siddharth Sareen, as the winner of the The India-EU Essay Competition Europe
and India – a reciprocal way?” , has joined Aarhus University for a month, 16th
August 2011 onwards. Siddharth Sareen holds an Integrated MA in Development Studies
along with a minor in Economics from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. His research interests include equity in
urban transport, the governance of open-access resources such as water, sustainable develop ment practices and issues of environmental justice. His Master's thesis is titled 'Education and childhood poverty: an ethnographic study of determinants of access'.
After his research stay at Aarhus University, Siddharth plans to intern at the Central Himalayan Rural Action Group, to gain hands-on experience of resource governance.
He intends to commence further interdisciplinary studies in Europe subsequently.
Siddharth is an enthusiastic traveller, athlete, writer and poet - some of his writing
is on http://zanzi.wordpress.com.

 

 

Mirja Juntunen is the Director of the NCI (Nordic Center in India) and teaches Hindi
at Stockholm University.
She is a regular guest at the History and Area Studies department and CISCA - last time in
May 2011 -, delivered lectures and currently prepares and organises a joint Hindi course in
India for the students of the universities of Stockholm, Oslo and Aarhus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abhijit Bhattacharya, Documentation Officer at the Archives of CSSS (Centre for Studies
in Social Sciences) Calcutta, visited Aarhus Aarhus University on May 3rd 2011, where he took
up the role as Discussant in lectures by Christopher Pinney and Cameron David Warner.

Abhijit Bhattacharya was also a participant at CISCA's workshop at Sambalpur University on
25th-27th November 2010, Revisiting Research Methods in Social Sciences, where he
gave a lecture called "Nationalism, Identity and Culture of Public institutions in
Colonial Bengal: A Space for Studying Academic Disciplines Beyond University"
(Click on the blue workshop title above to find the abstract of his lecture)

 

 

 

Birgit Lettmann (Humboldt-Universität Berlin) visited CISCA on 18th of April. She presented a
lecture, Posing for the Last Picture. Changing Visibilities of the Corpse in Post-
mortem Photo- graphs, at the Department of History and Area Studies. The lecture
concluded with a comparison of post-mortem photographs from India."

The phenomenon of taking pictures of a deceased relative can be considered disturbing in
one culture or era whereas in another time or place it might be widely accepted and consi-
dered quite normal. Taking up the idea of a medial closeness between photography and
the corpse due to their indexical qualities, this article first looks at some basic ideas of
photo theory. Then, while focusing in particular on the poses employed in postmortem
photographs, it analyses changes in the handling of, the atti tudes towards and thus
the photographability and the visibility of the dead body throughout the history of photo-
graphy.

 

 

On Friday, 25th of February 2011, H.E. Ambassador Ashok Kumar Attri visited the
Contem porary India Study Centre Aarhus at the Department of History and Area Studies.
Welcomes by the CISCA-board members Marianne Qvortrup Fibiger, Niels Brimnes and
Uwe Skoda he informed himself about the India-related studies offered at Aarhus University
and discussed CISCA's colla borations with Indian universities as well as the future plans
e.g. the upcoming workshop on "Welfare and Well-being in India". Ambassador Attri also
met Jan Ifversen, Head of Department (and now Vice-Dean for Research communication,
Strategy and International Relations at the Faculty of Arts).

To see a small gallery from the visit, click here