Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference on the Middle East, South Asia and Africa

Columbia University's Department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS) will be hosting the Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference on the Middle East, South Asia and Africa from April 15th to the 17th. Please see the description below:

The discipline that was once called “Oriental Studies” has been divided up in various ways in today’s university. Post-colonial literature has a foothold in the English department, history departments have by and large stopped confusing “European history” with “world history,” and of course the area studies departments with venerable names like Near Eastern Studies or South Asian Languages and Civilizations have taken up an array of new methodologies from other departments. Several universities have begun expanding their African and South Asian studies offerings under the umbrella of “Global Studies.” This conference is concerned not with “the death of the discipline” as so many others have been, but rather with the diversity of the disciplines when it comes to studying the non-Western World.

Please note that the consortium director will be presenting a paper in the South Asia(s) panel titled, "Bollymizwid and Bollyraï: Digital Mashups of Hindi, Tunisian, and Algerian Popular Music." Consortium members are encouraged to attend and engage in discussion.