Jump to events from any year: Current events 2023-2024 2022-2023 2021-2022
Events 2024-2025
Hollow Bones
Screening and conversation with Karthik Pandian and Mike Forcia
January 23, 2025 | 7PM
In partnership with Blackwood Gallery
Sikh Aesthetics: Philosophy, Feminism, and Praxis
A public talk with Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh
January 23, 2025 | 11AM-1PM
It All Began in Assam: The Long Partition and India's Citizenship Muddle
A graduate workshop with Sanjib Baruah
November 25, 2024 | 6-8PM
Citizenship, Indigeneity and Political Turmoil in Northeast India
A panel with Sanjib Baruah, Thonkholal Haokip and Mabel Gergan
November 25, 2024 | 11AM-1PM
An Evening with a Violin Legend: V.V. Subrahmanyam in Concert
Featuring VVS Murari (Violin), Trichy Sankaran (Mridangam), KV Gopalakrishnan (Kanjira) and Babu Jaiganesh (Tambura)
November 2, 2024 | 6:30PM
Co-presented with Bharathi Kala Manram
Redefining Manhood: Navigating Mental Health Among Young Muslim Men
Book launch of "Masculinity and Mental Health of Muslim Men of Colour: Diaspora and Intersectionality of Canadian Youth" by Mustahid Husain
October 21, 2024 |10AM-12PM
Event in partnership with the York Centre for Asian Research
Events 2023-2024
Sniff - An Art Installation and a Conversation with Noni Kaur
Closing talk of 2024 artist-in-residence, Noni Kaur
May 21, 2024 | 5:30PM
Melodic Cascades: T.M. Krishna in concert
Vocal Music Recital
April 5, 2024 | 6:30PM
Co-presented with Bharathi Kala Manram
Listening to Hindi-Urdu Radio Archives
Workshop on the use of Urdu-Hindi aural archives with Isabel Huacuja Alonso
March 21, 2024 | 3-5PM
Co-presented with Centre for South Asian Studies
Agrarian Crisis in India's Age of Inequality
A talk and photo exhibition with P. Sainath
March 5, 2024 | 3-5PM
Munshis and their "Successors": The Fraught Genealogies of Modern Hindu Thought
2024 Aziz Ahmad Memorial Lecture with Supriya Gandhi
February 23, 2024 | 1PM-2:30PM
This event is hosted in partnership with the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies at University of Toronto.
Crossing the Rubicon: How Bangladesh is Becoming a One-Party State
A talk by Ali Riaz
Feb 13, 2024 | 3PM-5PM
Fantasy and Subversion: Children's Fantasy Literature in Colonial Bengal
A talk by Mayurika Chakravorty
November 3, 2023 | 12-2PM
Muslim Identity, the Partition of India and the Making of Pakistan
A talk with S. Akbar Zaidi
October 24, 2023 | 4:30PM-6PM
In partnership with the Muslim Materialities Lecture Series
Reclaiming hope as radical lexicon: some experiments from African feminist political campaigns
Feminist lunch series event with Shireen Hassim
October 19, 2024 | 12PM-1:30PM
In partnership with Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at University of Toronto, Mississauga
Dalits and the Left: Eelam writer K. Daniel's Pañcamar
Discussion between Daniel Vasanthan, Mark Balmforth, Srilata Raman and Ashik Kumar
September 26, 2023 | 3-6PM
Events from 2023-2022
An Evening of Poetry and Cinema
Closing event with our 2023 artist-in-residence, Leena Manimekalai
A three-course event:
1. Poetry Reading
with Leena Manimekalai on her latest Tamil poetry anthology, எட்டாம் கன்னிமார் திரட்டு - லீனா மணிமேகலை கவிதைகள் (Eighth Virgin’s Grand Collection). Poems will be read in Tamil with English translation.
Nedra Rodrigo and Kaalam Selvam moderated and discussed her works within larger Tamil poetry scapes.
2. Short films exhibition
UTM students who participated in a series of workshops, Making Media with Manimekalai, are exhibiting their short films!
Featuring:
Waiting for Trains by Oishe Paul
Iris by Bianca Delmar, Alyana Jandumon and Gladys Lou
Idols by Bhairavi Prasanna
For Earth by Peijia Huang
Dkalien by Tony Lam
3. Montages from Leena Manimekalai's filmography
Co-sponsored by Tamil Worlds Initiative at UTSC
Sikh Philosophy and the Diasporic Impulse: Past Encounters, Future Possibilities
A talk by Arvind-Pal S. Mandair
March 20, 2023 | 5PM-7PM
Co-presented with Sikh Foundation of Canada
Masterclass with Arvind-Pal Mandair
On his upcoming book "Geophilosophical Encounters: Disaporicity, Decolonial Praxis and Sikh Thought"
March 21, 2023 | 12PM-2PM
Making a book out of memory
Creative writing workshop with Mohammed Hanif
March 14, 2023 | 2PM
CSACH invited students to an interactive creative writing workshop with a renowned Pakistani author, Mohammed Hanif. Following Hanif's presentation of his experience of transforming a childhood memory into an art form, there was interactive creative writing session with participating students.
Politics of Memory and Memorialization
Graduate workshop with Thomas Blom Hansen
March 19, 2023 | 1PM-3PM
Graduate workshop with leading anthropologist on Hindutva politics, Thomas Blom Hansen. The master class will cover issues pertaining to historical memory, symbolism and narrative frames. We read texts on the memory politics in Aurangabad and another forthcoming text (in the journal History and Anthropology) on memory politics and expulsions in Durban, South Africa.
Making Media with Manimekalai
Series of four workshops with selected cohort of students on:
March 14, 2023 | 2PM-5PM
March 7, 2023 | 2PM-5PM
February 28, 2023 | 2PM-5PM
February 7, 2023 | 2PM-5PM
"We are not here to die" Documentary Screening
January, 27, 2023 | 6:15PM
Screening of documentary by Deepa Dhanraj
Presented in partnership with South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network (SADAN)
Supported by:
Chetna Association of Canada
Dr. Ambedkar International Mission, Toronto
Sri Guru Ravidass Sabha Ontario
Canadian Council for Indian Muslims(CCIM)
Tamil Nadu Multicultural Association of Canada(TMAC)
Jamhoor Canada
Poetry from the Margins - A Musharia
November 23, 2023 | 5:30PM-7:30PM
Salman Haider reading from Hashiyay Pay Likhi Nazmain
Haider will be joined in the mushaira by shayar:
Irfan Sattar
Seema Naqvi
Naseem Syed
Rasheed Nadeem
A brief talk by Bilal Hashmi on the historical role of poetry in the politics of Pakistan will precede the mushaira.
Events from 2022-2021
Jainism summer school
Second annual Jainism summer school
August 2 - August 7, 2022
Jainism lectures at the Brampton Jain Temple
Jainism and the Ramayana: Revisiting the death of Valin, a talk by Eva De Clercq
The Preachings of Nayadhammakahao, a talk by Saloni Joshi
August 6, 2022 | 10AM-12PM
Unskilled: An Exploration of South Asian Textile from Seed to Closet
Closing talk by our first artist-in-residence, Meera Sethi!
April 23, 2022 | 11AM-1PM EST
Centre for South Asian Civilizations (as it was known then) showcases its first film festival featuring queer and feminist nonfiction films from India with Q&A with all the film directors!
Desi Liberation Film Festival
Day 1 - Priya Sen
Yeh Freedom Life
Feb 15th, 2022 | 10:30PM-11:30PM EST
Day 2 - Paromita Vohra
Two films -
Q2P and Morality Our Loving Jehad
Feb 22, 2022 | 10:30PM-11:30PM EST
Day 3 - Sameera Jain
Mera Apna Sheher
March 8th, 10:30PM-11:30PM
Marxism in South Asia
November 26, 2021 | 10AM-6PM
Organized by CSAC's year long reading and writing group, Marxism in South Asia featuring established and early career scholars and graduate students!
10:15am: Opening remarks: Kristin Plys
Panel 1, 10:30am - 12pm: Rethinking Marxism in South Asia
“Development and Socialism in Sri Lanka: The Anti-Imperialist Marxisms of G.V.S. de Silva and S.B.D. de Silva” Kanishka Goonewardena
“Alavi Contra Alavi: Towards a Conjunctural Awareness” Ayyaz Mallick
Discussants: Priyansh + Waqas Butt
— Lunch break —
Panel 2, 1pm- 2:30pm: Who is a Marxist Theorist?
“Murder as Praxis? Theorising Marxist Feminism in Pakistan through Akhtar Baloch’s Prison Narratives” Umaima Miraj
“Mohammad Azharuddin as a Figure of Shock: A Former Muslim Indian Cricket Captain as Seen Through the eyes of Marxist Aesthetics” Priyansh
Discussants: Kristin Plys + Shivaji Mukherjee
— Coffee break —
Panel 3, 3pm- 4:30pm: Anti-imperialist Marxism's Pasts and Presents
“Anti-colonial Marxism in French and Portuguese India Compared: Varadarajulu Subbiah and Aquino de Bragança’s Theories of Colonial Independence” Prof. Kristin Plys
Discussants: Kanishka Goonewardena + Ajay Rao
In conversation with Himani Bannerji
5pm - 5:30pm:
Poetry Reading by Salman Haider
5:30pm: Closing remarks: Kanishka Goonewardena
