Upcoming Events

For our inaugural 2023/24 academic year, MERiSA’s programing is organized around expanding our notions of “citizenship.”

What are the media of belonging and participating in the expansive communities of global South Asia?

Through carefully curated lectures, roundtables, and workshops, we invite scholars, media makers, and activists to bring their own perspectives on shaping our understanding of citizenship in ways that critique, work around, exceed, or otherwise complicate exclusively “formal,” state-centered legal frameworks.

2023/24

  • Headshots of Profs. Hull and Hayat

    Bureaucratic Regimes

    (Public Seminar)

    September 22, 2023 10:30AM EST

    Matthew Hull (U. Michigan)
    &
    Maira Hayat (U. Notre Dame)

    Co-Sponsors: NYU Anthropology

  • Scrapbook Social

    (for Graduate Students)

    October 10, 2023 10:30AM EST

    An open invitation for graduate students working on South Asia-related projects to meet and exchange ideas.

    We request participants to please bring one piece of media (e.g., photo, short video, audio recording, object) to share an aspect of your research in lightning-round introductions.

  • Media Workshop 1: Making Media

    (for Graduate Students)

    November 10, 2023 9AM EST

    E. Gabriel Dattatreyan (NYU Program in Culture & Media)

  • Borders and Mobility

    (Public Seminar)

    November 21, 2023 7:30PM EST

    Malini Sur (Western Sydney U.)
    &
    Sahana Ghosh (N. U. Singapore)

    Co-Sponsor: NYU Office of Student Life

  • Queering the Law

    (Special Public Event)

    December 14, 2023 10:30 AM EST

    Roundtable on Trans* Legal Activism in South Asia featuring:

    Pema Dorji (Queer Voices of Bhutan, Thimphu)
, Tara Asgar (Independent Artist and Activist, NY/Bangladesh), 
Mehrub Moiz Awan (Gender Interactive Alliance, Pakistan)
 & Vikramaditya Sahai (Visiting Faculty, Literary Art, Ambedkar University, Delhi)

    Moderated by Kareem Khubchandani (Tufts U.).

    Co-sponsor: NYU Gallatin

    Collaborator: Feminism in India

  • News Worlds

    (Public Seminar)

    February 2, 2024 - 10:30 AM EST

    Frank Cody (U. Toronto)
    &
    Amrita Ibrahim (Georgetown)

    Moderated by Arvind Rajagopal (NYU)

    Co-Sponsor: NYU Anthropology

  • Resource Sharing Happy Hour

    (for Graduate Students)

    February 9, 2024 - 10:30 AM EST

    An informal opportunity to meet with MERiSA co-organizers and senior graduate students to learn and share about resources and opportunities for media-centered PhD research on South Asia.

    Salwa Hoque (PhD Candidate, NYU MCC) and MERiSA co-organizers Tierney Brown (PhD Candidate, NYU Anthropology), Matthew Raj Webb (PhD Candidate, NYU Anthropology), and Rohan Sengupta (PhD Candidate, NYU Anthropology).

  • Authoritarianism

    (Public Book Talk)

    March 14, 2024 - 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM EST


    Suchitra Vijayan (NYU Gallatin, and Executive Director of The Polis Project) in conversation with Gabriel Dattatreyan (NYU Anthropology and Culture and Media) about her new book: How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners (Pluto Press, 2023).

  • Platforming Digital Inclusion

    (Public Seminar)

    March 29, 2024 - 10:30 AM EST


    Ramsha Usman (UCSB)

    &

    Sandeep Mertia (U. Penn)

    in conversation with

    Lilly Irani (UCSD)



    RSVP

  • Performing Cultural Memory

    (Public Performance and Discussion)

    May 2024 - Date and Time TBA


    Raminder Kaur (U. Sussex) plus special guests.

Please note: All of our events are hosted online via Zoom and provide accessibility options as requested by attendees. Where possible, recordings will be made available in our Archive after each event .