CFE Series: Threats to Academic Freedom – Part 1: The Study of India

Increasingly, scholars of a nation’s history, politics, and culture are challenged as anti-national or hostile to the dominant religion, ethnicity, and culture. This panel will look at the growing challenges faced by scholars of South Asia since the 2014 election of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). When does critical disagreement become an attack on academic freedom? What can universities do to protect the integrity of scholarly work in such a deeply fraught environment?

Co-sponsors: Canadian Association of University Teachers, Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University, PEN Canada

Panelists:

• Vinayak Chaturvedi, Professor, Department of History, University of California, Irvine. Author of Hindutva and Violence: V.D. Savarkar and the Politics of History;
• Chinnaiah Jangam, Associate Professor, Department of History, Carleton University. Author of Dalits and the Making of Modern India.
• Malavika Kasturi, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Toronto. Author of Embattled Identities, Rajput Lineages and the Colonial State in Nineteenth Century Colonial North India.

Moderator:

• Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study.  Author of Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom

This is a free event and no registration is required.

Please contact cfe@ryerson.ca if you require accommodation to ensure inclusion in this event.