“Punjab: Past, Present and Future”, Punjab Research Group 40th Anniversary Conference, 2024 [Royal Holloway University of London]
*Please note: this is an in-person event*
The Punjab Research Group (PRG) was established in April 1984 as an inclusive and all-embracing forum to provide a platform for discussion and debate on issues pertaining to East and West Punjab as well as the Punjabi diaspora. PRG has been hosting conferences at least twice a year since 1984.
During the past 39 years, the PRG has provided space for academics to interact with each other regardless of territorial or disciplinary boundaries. This is especially important given the often-strained relationship between India and Pakistan, which has prevented discussion and dialogue between scholars of East and West Punjab.
PRG will be celebrating its 40th anniversary by organising a one-day conference in collaboration with Prof Ravinder Barn at Royal Holloway University of London on Saturday, 22th June 2024, at the Royal Holloway University of London.
Refreshments (tea/coffee and sandwich lunch) will be provided. There is no registration fee, however, the places are limited, therefore, if you would like to register as a guest for this event it is mandatory to reserve your ticket using our online form below (or click on the link: https://forms.gle/hzY9yamsQpcJwLLe9).
The list of tentative speakers includes the following:
Literary and Visual Textures: Interweaving Punjabi Unity
Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, Chair of the Department & Crawford Family Professor Religious Studies, Colby College Waterville, USA
Establishing and Outsourcing Sovereignty: The Politics of Infrastructure in Southern Punjab
Dr. Philipp Zehmisch, Senior Academic Staff, Department of Anthropology, South Asia Institute (SAI), Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), Heidelberg University, Germany
Gujranwala: Colonial Violence through air power
Professor Balbir S. Barn, FBCS, Academic Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, UK
The tragedy of partition in Punjabi poetry: a study
Dr Harpreet Kaur, Assistant Professor Department of Translation Studies, Mahatama Gandhi Antrarashtriya. Hindi. Vishwavidyalya, Wardha, Regional Center Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh – India)
It is a Gurdwara, Not a Memorial.”: The Politics and Aesthetics of Sikh memorials for 1984
Kanika Singh, Director, Centre for Writing & Communication, Ashoka University, India
Birthplace of Rama at Ghuram, Punjab: An exploration
Bharat Jhunjhunwala, Former Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, India
Print, publication, and Punjabi literary periodicals
Amitoj Kaur Chandi, PhD research scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Mohali, Punjab, India
The Englishing of Britain’s Sikhs: complex dimensions in new brightness
Dr Gorby Jandu FRAS, Honorary Research Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Roehampton, London
Philosophy of Humanism in Punjabi Sufi Poetry
Muhammad Izhar Sattar, Assistant Registrar & Coordinator Graduate and Post Graduate Studies, College of Pharmacy, University of Sargodha, Pakistan
Ranjit Singh’s Progressive Land Revenue Reforms: A Catalyst for Socio-Economic
Dr. Robina Yasmin, Chairperson, Department of Pakistan Studies, Islamia University Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Agricultural Land Leasing System in Indian Punjab: Structure, Market and Policy Issues
Jaswinder Singh Brar, Professor of Economics, Centre for Research in Economic Change, Punjabi University Patiala, Punjab, India
In the Footsteps of Maharaja Duleep Singh: Tracing the Colonial Plunder of the Lahore Darbār’s Toshakhāna
Dr. Nadhra Shahbaz Khan, Director Gurmani Centre for Languages & Literature, Associate Professor (History of Art & Architecture), Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Pakistan
Environmental harms and child well-being in East Punjab, and Kashmir, India
Professor Ravinder Barn, PhD, FAcSS, Head of Department, Department of Law and Criminology, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Catastrophe as Blessing: Alternative Perspectives about Floods in Punjab, Pakistan
Saba Fatima
We would also encourage you to use the above link to spread the word about the conference on social media and elsewhere. Do share this link with any friends or family who might like to attend the conference. If you have any further questions ahead of the day itself, feel free to write us a line at punjabresearchgroup@gmail.com.
For more information about the PRG visit our website at www.theprg.co.uk.
Looking forward to seeing you on the 22nd!
Punjab Research Group ‘Punjab: Past, Present, Future’ Punjab Research Group Conference, March 25, 2023 (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Programme
09:30 to 09:55: Tea/coffee
10:00 to 10:15: Welcome by the conference director Prof Pritam Singh
10:15 to 11:15: Session 1: Colonial Punjab and identity
Chair: Dr Liz Peretz, Associate Fellow, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
10:15 to 10:35: Weeping and identity: Shia community’s religious institutions, rituals and symbols in colonial Punjab (1849-1947)
Dr Ayyaz Gull, Assistant Professor, Department of History, GC University, Lahore. Pakistan
10:35 to 10:55: Music and the Political: Community, Caste and Gender in Colonial Punjab
Dr Radha Kapuria, Assistant Professor in South Asian History, Durham University
10:55 to 11:15: Questions from the audience / discussion
11:15 to 11:30: Break
11:30 to 12:30: Session 2: Migration
Chair: Dr Gurnam Singh, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick
11:30 to 11:50: Development-induced human displacement: a case study of the capital project of Chandigarh
Dr Amandeep Kohri, Associate Professor and Head, Department of History, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College,
Chandigarh
11:50 to 12:10: Destigmatizing Punjab from irregular migration: key public policy options
Dr Kulwinder Singh, Assistant Professor, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh (India) and
Mr Jatinder Singh, Research Assistant, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh (India)
12:10 to 12:30: Questions from the audience / discussion
12:30 to 12:45: Introductions
12:45 to 13:05: Lifetime achievement award presentation to Prof Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emeritus, Warwick Religions and
Education Research Unit, Centre for Educational Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry
13:05 to 13:45: Lunch
13:50 to 15:20: Session 3: Poetry
Chair: Dr Radha Kapuria, Assistant Professor in South Asian History, Durham University
13:50 to 14:10: Rhymes of resistance: poetry, music, and protest in the age of bhakti and beyond
Rupinder Singh Brar, Cardiologist and Writer, Director of Adventist Heart and Vascular Institute in Yuba City, CA
14:10 to 14:30: Religious tolerance in Heer Damodar
Dr Muhammad Munir, Associate Professor of Punjabi, Department of Urdu and Oriental Languages, University of
Sargodha, Pakistan
14:30 to 14:50: Punjabi Poetry of East and West Punjab (in the last five decades)
Mr Sandeep Singh
14:50 to 15:20: Questions from the audience / discussion
15:20 to 15:50: Tea / coffee
15:50 to 16:10: Announcements
16:10 to 16:50: Session 4: Development and Punjabi identity
Chair: Prof Meena Dhanda, Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Politics, Faculty of Arts, University of
Wolverhampton, UK
16:10 to 16:30: Voices from the periphery: imagining of the community from Punjabiyat to Nationalist identity in the Punjabi
poetry genre
Dr Saadia Sumbal, Associate Professor Forman Christian College University, Lahore, Ferozepur Road Pakistan
16:30 to 16:50: Questions from the audience / discussion
16:50 to 17:30: Poetry by Dalvir Kaur, and Sitara Khan
17:30 to 17:40: Break
17:40 to 18:40: Session 5: Different facets of ecology
Chair: Sharanjit Dhesi, Sikh Education Forum, UK
17:40 to 18:00: Wretched river? The affectual ecology of the urban river Lai in Punjab, Pakistan
Mr Abdul Rehman, Doctoral Student at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University,
Islamabad
18:00 to 18:20: Ecological and ecocritical concerns in Shiv Kumar Batalvi`s poetry
Prof (Dr) Zameerpal Kaur Sandhu, Professor in Comparative Literature, Head Department of Punjabi, Dean School
of Languages and Literature and Culture, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India
18:20 to 18:40: Questions from the audience / discussion
18:40 to 18:45: Deliberations on Best Doctoral Presentation Award
18:45 to 18:50: Presentation of Best Doctoral Presentation Award
18:50 to 19:00: Concluding remarks and vote of thanks by the conference director Prof Pritam Singh
Punjab Research Group ‘Punjab: Past, Present, Future’ Punjab Research Group Conference, March 25, 2023 (Manchester Metropolitan University)
We are delighted to share with you that we are organising our first conference for 2023 of the Punjab Research Group (PRG) on Saturday, 25th March 2023, at the Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK.
Refreshments (tea/coffee and sandwich lunch) will be provided. There is no registration fee, however, the places are limited, therefore, if you would like to register as a guest for this event it is mandatory to reserve your ticket using our online form at https://tinyurl.com/yzsmsb9a.
We would also encourage you to use the above link to spread the word about the conference on social media and elsewhere. Do share this link with any friends or family who might like to attend the conference. Lastly, if you have any further questions ahead of the day itself, feel free to write us a line at punjabresearchgroup@gmail.com.
The list of tentative invited speakers includes the following:
Vernacular press in the British colonial Punjab: an overview
Asma Naureen, PhD History (4th year), University of Edinburgh, UK
Development-induced human displacement: a case study of the capital project of Chandigarh
Dr Amandeep Kohri, Associate Professor and Head, Department of History, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Chandigarh
Ecological and ecocritical concerns in Shiv Kumar Batalvi`s poetry
Prof (Dr) Zameerpal Kaur Sandhu, Professor in Comparative Literature, Head Department of Punjabi, Dean School of Languages and Literature and Culture, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India
The expansion of Barelwis and the development of Lyallpur: a symbiotic relationship
Zaigham Sarfraz, PhD History (3rd year), Royal Holloway University of London
Rhymes of resistance: poetry, music, and protest in the age of bhakti and beyond
Rupinder Singh Brar, Cardiologist and Writer, Director of Adventist Heart and Vascular Institute in Yuba City, CA
Weeping and identity: Shia community’s religious institutions, rituals and symbols in colonial Punjab (1849-1947)
Dr Ayyaz Gull, Assistant Professor, Department of History, GC University, Lahore. Pakistan
Voices from the periphery: imagining of the community from Punjabiyat to Nationalist identity in the Punjabi poetry genre
Dr Saadia Sumbal, Associate Professor Forman Christian College University, Lahore, Ferozepur Road Pakistan
Religious tolerance in Heer Damodar
Dr Muhammad Munir, Associate Professor of Punjabi, Department of Urdu and Oriental Languages, University of Sargodha, Pakistan
Wretched river? The affectual ecology of the urban river Lai in Punjab, Pakistan
Mr Abdul Rehman, Doctoral Student at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad
Destigmatizing Punjab from irregular migration: key public policy options
Dr Kulwinder Singh, Assistant Professor, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh (India) and Mr Jatinder Singh, Research Assistant, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh (India)
Spiritual ecology of jal maadi, a case study of Neelan River in Punjab
Ms Hasina PhD Scholar, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid e Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
For more information about the PRG visit our website at www.theprg.co.uk.
Looking forward to seeing you in Manchester on the 25th!
Obituary: Professor Pnina Werbner passes away
Professor Pnina Werbner 1944‒2023
We are sad to report the death of one of our supportive early members, Professor Pnina
Werbner.
Pnina was born in South Africa and studied in Israel and at the University of Manchester
(where her uncle, Max Gluckman, had founded the Manchester School of Anthropology)
before being appointed Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Keele. Among
many honours, she was invited as a Distinguished Scholar to universities in Australia,
Denmark, France, Pakistan and the USA.
At PRG meetings in the late 1980s Pnina presented papers on ‘Taking and Giving: Working
Women and Female Bonds in a Pakistani Immigrant Neighbourhood’, ‘Segmentary
Opposition in Pakistani Communal Politics: Barth’s Model Reconsidered’ and ‘Exemplary
Personhood and the Political Mythology of Overseas Pakistanis: Qaid-I-Azam Celebrations
in Manchester’.
To quote from her university webpage: ‘Her two books, Imagined Diasporas among
Manchester Muslims and Pilgrims of Love, along with The Migration Process make up the
Manchester Migration Trilogy, a series of three single-authored books tracing the processes
of Pakistani migration, community formation, religious transnationalism and diaspora over a
period of fifty years. The series as a whole interrogates the translocation of culture – its
dislocation, transplantation and translation in the course of migration. Collectively the three
books form the most comprehensive body of ethnography about any immigrant community in
Britain.’ Pilgrims of Love traces the development of a Sufi Naqshbandi order founded by a
living saint, Zindapir, whose cult originated in Pakistan and has extended globally to
Britain, Europe, the Middle East, and southern Africa.
Pnina’s studies focused too on the Filipino diaspora and on public sector unions in Botswana
and she wrote extensively on the Arab Spring. Her work was truly global in its reach.
She is survived by her husband, the American anthropologist Richard Werbner.
Prof Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emeritus, Educational Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry
cfp: ‘Punjab: Past, Present, Future’ Punjab Research Group Conference, March 25, 2023 (Manchester Metropolitan University)
The Punjab Research Group has been hosting conferences at least twice a year since 1984 and was established as an inclusive and all-embracing forum to provide a platform for discussion and debate on issues pertaining to East and West Punjab as well as the Punjabi diaspora. During the past 38 years, the PRG has provided space for academics to interact with each other regardless of territorial or disciplinary boundaries. This is especially important given the often-strained relationship between India and Pakistan, which has prevented discussion and dialogue between scholars of East and West Punjab.
Our first conference for 2023 will be held as a one-day event in Manchester at the Manchester Metropolitan University. We welcome submissions from scholars, academics, young researchers, journalists, artists, and activists for an inter-disciplinary discussion focusing on the theme of ‘Punjab: Past, Present and Future’.
Speakers are invited to give paper presentations/performances that can cover a broad range of content, including, but not limited to history, philosophy, politics, gender, religion, environmental studies, economics, diaspora issues, linguistics, literature, poetry, arts, music, and culture.
We particularly welcome proposals exploring the genesis of Punjab, intersections between the ‘3 Punjabs’, going beyond the 1947 borders: to deepen our perspective on the ‘connected histories’, and to envision interrelated futures, of the region.
Please submit an abstract in a word document (200 words) and a brief CV to Raj (RS Mann) at punjabresearchgroup@gmail.com by 27th November 2022. Please put ‘ABSTRACT’ in your email subject line. In your word document state your study/abstract title, word count, give details of your name, email address and institutional affiliation (departmental and university/organisation). For any queries contact punjabresearchgroup@gmail.com.
Submissions from grad/postgraduate students are encouraged. Best Presenter Award will be presented to a doctoral student whose presentation is judged to be the best from amongst all the full-time doctoral student presentations. The Award includes cash and a certificate.
Refreshments (tea/coffee and sandwich lunch) will be provided. Places are limited, there is no registration fee for all conference guests but it is mandatory to reserve your ticket using our online form at www.punjabresearchgroup.eventbrite.com (or https://tinyurl.com/yzsmsb9a).
We look forward to seeing you in Manchester soon!
* The organisers reserve the right to change the venue without giving any reason/s.
Punjab Research Group ‘Punjab: Past, Present, Future’ Punjab Research Group Conference, October 29, 2022 (Oxford Brookes University)
DETAILED PROGRAMME
10.30- 10.45: Registration
10.45- 11.00: Welcome Address: Prof. Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.
11.00-12.00: Session I. Agriculture and food
Chair: Prof Pritam Singh, Professor Emeritus, Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
11.00 – 11.20: Agriculture Sector in Punjab: A Review
Dr. Sohan Lal, Associate Professor, Department of English, Satyawati College, University of Delhi
11.20-11.40: The Importance of food culture in promoting Punjab as a travel destination
Prof. (Dr.) Urvashi Sharma, Department of Commerce, Faculty of Commerce and Business, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
11.40-12.00: Discussion
12.00-13.00: Session II. Partition and migration – I
Chair: Dr Pargat Singh, Sikh Education Council, UK
12.00-12.20: Italy: An Emerging Destination of Punjabi Community
Dr Rosy Hastir, Assistant Professor, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India and Professor and Dr Ajoy Batta, Head, department of English, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India
12.20-12.40: Divided by Script, United by Translation: Punjabi Stories on the Partition of Punjab in 1947
Dr Hina Nandrajog, Officiating Principal & Associate Professor, Vivekananda College, University of Delhi
12.40-13.00: Discussion
13.00-14.00: Lunch Break
14.00-15:00: Session III. Archives and travels
Chair: Dr Priya Atwal (PhD Oxford), Historian, Author, Expert in Sikh History
14:00-14:20: Unexplored Archives in Lahore: Persian Sources and Manuscripts on Punjab Studies” Dr Robina Yasmin, Associate Professor, Department of Pakistan Studies, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur
14:20-1440: No wonder that to approach it you must take off your earthly shoes and put on embroidered slippers’: Victoria women’s encounters with Harmandir Sahib
Prof Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emeritus, Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, Centre for Educational STudies, University of Warwick, Coventry
14.40- 15.00: Discussion
15.00-15.15: Conference Announcements on Publications, Scholarships and Research Projects
Release of a book edited by Dalvir Kaur (Wolverhampton) on the poems on farmers struggle
15.15-15.45: Coffee Break
15.45-16.45: Session IV. Punjabi diaspora reflections
Chair: Dr Karima Brooke, Artist, Poet and Associate Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University
15.45-16.05: Being and becoming Punjabi: some personal reflections
Gurnam Singh (PhD), Department of Sociology University of Warwick, UK
16.05-16.25: What does it mean to be at ‘home’ in Britain? Reflections from an ethnographic study with Sikhs in the West Midlands
Dr Jaskiran Kaur, London School of Economics, United Kingdom
16:25-16:45: Discussion
16.45-17.15: Session V. Partition and migration – II
Chair: Prof Pritam Singh, Professor Emeritus, Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
16:45:17:05: Communal Frenzy, Exodus and the Rehabilitation of Muslim Refugees in West Punjab
Dr. Raja Adnan Razzaq, Post-Doc Research Fellow, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
17:05:17:15 Discussion
17:15:17:30 Note of thanks
cfp: ‘Punjab: Past, Present, Future’ Punjab Research Group Conference, October 29, 2022 (Oxford*)
The Punjab Research Group has been hosting conferences at least twice a year since 1984 and was established as an inclusive and all-embracing forum to provide a platform for discussion and debate on issues pertaining to East and West Punjab as well as the Punjabi diaspora. During the past 37 years, the PRG has provided space for academics to interact with each other regardless of territorial or disciplinary boundaries. This is especially important given the often-strained relationship between India and Pakistan, which has prevented discussion and dialogue between scholars of East and West Punjab.
Our second conference for 2022 will be held as a one-day event in Oxford*. We welcome submissions from scholars, academics, young researchers, journalists, artists, and activists for an inter-disciplinary discussion focusing on the theme of ‘Punjab: Past, Present and Future’.
Speakers are invited to give paper-presentations/performances that can cover a broad range of content, including, but not limited to: history, philosophy, politics, gender, religion, environmental studies, economics, diaspora issues, linguistics, literature, poetry, arts, music, and culture.
We particularly welcome proposals exploring the genesis of Punjab, intersections between the ‘3 Punjabs’, going beyond the 1947 borders: to deepen our perspective on the ‘connected histories’, and to envision interrelated futures, of the region.
Please submit an abstract in word document (200 words) and a brief CV to Raj (RS Mann) at punjabresearchgroup@gmail.com by 27th June 2022. Please put ‘ABSTRACT’ in your email subject line. In your word document state your study/abstract title, word count, give details of your name, email address and institutional affiliation (departmental and university/organisation). For any queries contact punjabresearchgroup@gmail.com.
Submissions from grad/postgraduate students are encouraged. Best Presenter Award will be presented to a doctoral student whose presentation is judged to be the best from amongst all the full-time doctoral student presentations. The Award includes cash and a certificate.
If you would like to register as a guestfor this event, please book a ticket using our online form at (https://tinyurl.com/2xshrdzp). The registration fee is £10 per person.
We look forward to seeing you in Oxford* soon!
* The organisers reserve the right to change the venue without giving any reason/s.
Punjab Research Group ‘Punjab: Past, Present, Future’ Punjab Research Group Conference, March 26, 2022 (St Antony’s College, Oxford)
DETAILED PROGRAMME
09.30- 09.45: Registration
09.45- 10.00: Welcome address: Pritam Singh, Prof Emeritus, Oxford Brookes University
10:00-11.05: Session I. Sikh studies
Chair: Prof. Gurnam Singh, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick
10.00-10.20: Application of Life Course Perspective: Understanding Panjab through Life Courses of Sikh Political Prisoners
Baljeet Kaur, Associate – Mitigation, Project39 A, National Law University Delhi, India
10.20-10.40: The Road to Empire: The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs in the late 1600s
Satnam Singh, Independent researcher, Master of Arts (M.A) University of Copenhagen, and currently Senior Advisor to the Danish authorities in the prevention of honor-based violence against women.
10.40-11.05: Discussion
11.05-11.30: Tea/Coffee Break
11.30-12.35: Session II. Political Studies
Chair: Dr Pippa Virdee, Reader in Modern South Asian History, School of Humanities, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
11.30-11.50: Punjab and the Politics of the 18th Constitutional Amendment in Pakistan
Salman Rafi, Doctoral Researcher, Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
11.50-12.10: Collaboration, Resistance, and state surveillance in Punjab: Multan’s Role in ‘Munity’ of 1857
Sohail Khan, Visiting Scholar at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London
12.10-12.35: Discussion
12.40-13.00: Honouring of Late Dr Darshan Tatla with Lifetime Achievement Award
13.00-14.00: Lunch Break
14.00-15:35: Session III. Punjabiyat and culture
Chair: Dr Pargat Singh, Sikh Education Council, UK
14:00-14:20: Punjabiyat: An Emerging/reviving Phenomenon in Pakistani/west Punjab
Sadia Masood, PhD scholar at National Institute of Pakistan Studies, QAU, Islamabad
14:20-14:40: Sikhism and Covid-19: Ethics of community service and activism
Nadia Singh, Senior Lecturer Economics, Northumbria University, UK
14:40-15:00: Culture of Punjab in Gurdial Singh’s Parsa: Society and Tradition
Aarti Malhotra, Assistant professor in English, General Shivdev Singh Diwan Gurbachan Singh Khalsa College Patiala, Punjab, India
15.00-15:35: Discussion
15.35-16.00: Tea/Coffee Break
16.00-17.05: Session IV. Gender studies
Chair: Prof. Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emeritus, Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, Centre for Educational Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry
16.00-16.20: Medical knowledges and Embodied Identities in late colonial Punjab: The case of Punjabi Masculinity
Nikita Azad, PhD researcher in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology at the University of Oxford
16.20-16.40: Incest Abuse: Stories of shame to be silenced or supported?
Supreet Dhiman, Director – Research & Projects, End Incest Trust, Chandigarh, India
16.40-17.05: Discussion
17:05-17.15: Deliberation on/Announcement of Best Presenter Award
17.15-17:20: Vote of Thanks
Professor Pritam Singh, Conference Director
cfp: ‘Punjab: Past, Present, Future’ Punjab Research Group Conference, March 26, 2022 (St Antony’s College, Oxford)
The Punjab Research Group has been hosting conferences at least twice a year since 1984 and was established as an inclusive and all-embracing forum to provide a platform for discussion and debate on issues pertaining to East and West Punjab as well as the Punjabi diaspora. During the past 37 years, the PRG has provided space for academics to interact with each other regardless of territorial or disciplinary boundaries. This is especially important given the often-strained relationship between India and Pakistan, which has prevented discussion and dialogue between scholars of East and West Punjab.
Our first conference for 2022 will be held as a one-day event on Saturday 26th March at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. We welcome submissions from scholars, academics, young researchers, journalists, artists, and activists for an inter-disciplinary discussion focusing on the theme of ‘Punjab: Past, Present and Future’.
Speakers are invited to give paper-presentations/performances that can cover a broad range of content, including, but not limited to: history, philosophy, politics, gender, religion, environmental studies, economics, diaspora issues, linguistics, literature, poetry, arts, and culture.
We particularly welcome proposals exploring the genesis of Punjab, intersections between the ‘3 Punjabs’, going beyond the 1947 borders: to deepen our perspective on the ‘connected histories’, and to envision interrelated futures, of the region.
Please submit an abstract (200 words) and a brief CV to Raj (RS Mann) at punjabresearchgroup@gmail.com by 20th February 2022. Submissions from grad/postgraduate students are encouraged. Best Presenter Award will be presented to a doctoral student whose presentation is judged to be the best from amongst all the full time doctoral student presentations. The Award includes cash and a certificate.
If you would like to register as a guest for this event, please book a ticket using our online form at (https://tinyurl.com/58xksc5j). The registration fee is £10 per person.
We look forward to seeing you in Oxford soon!
Book discussion: Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience and Migrant Creativity in Worlds of Flux (in conversation with Prof. Parminder Bhachu (Clark University)
Goddard Library and the Dean of the Faculty are delighted to invite everyone to the first volume of a new series dedicated to celebrating the works of Clark authors. The series will kick off with a conversation with Professor Parminder Bhachu who will discuss her book, Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience and Migrant Creativity in Worlds of Flux (Routledge, 2021). Prepare to learn not only about her current work but about her life, what inspired this work, and why it is important both to her and to our world.
Please join us via Zoom, 21 September 2021, 7-8pm, https://clarku.zoom.us/j/96014537909.
Exhumation – The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra (Leena Dhingra)
Leena Dhingra
Leena Dhingra’s powerful book about her great uncle’s historic act – and her family’s
displacement by Partition – is now available
Punjab Research Group 
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