20th Annual South Asia Conference
University of California, Berkeley
Report
by: Joti Singh, University of California, Berkeley
The
Twentieth Annual South Asia Conference at the University of
California, Berkeley, drew academics from all regions of the
country and a variety of academic disciplines. The conference
was held at the International House on February 11th and
12th. The keynote lecturer, Dr. J. Mark Kenoyer,
is the Director of the Center for South Asia and Professor
in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison.
His talk drew upon archeological
discoveries from over two million years ago to
the Early Historical Period, around 300 B.C. He
suggested innovative ways of interpreting “models
of culture change,” including a controversial critique
of the Indo-Aryan invasion model. Most of his fieldwork was
conducted in present-day Pakistan, the seat of the Indus Valley
Civilization. Other highlights of the conference included a
panel titled “Who is Muslim? Religion and Politics in
Pakistan Fifty Years after the Munir Report (1954).” The
panel was chaired by Professor Tariq Rahman, the Quaid-i-Azam
Chair of Pakistan Studies at UC Berkeley, and covered topics
ranging from modern education in Pakistan to the politics of
Sufism.
