This page lists upcoming PLS speakers. To view previous speakers, click on the year below. About PLS
Dr. Qasid Mallah received his MA (1997) and PhD (2000) from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. His profossional training is in experimental archaeology (ceramics), with a specialization in servey and excavation. He is currently Professor and Chair in the Department of Archaeology at Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan. He has written numerous articles for international journals on Indus period archaeological finds and ancient civilization. He is also the editor of a research journal entitled Ancient Sindh.
Friday, October 8: Archaeology Brown Bag Lecture
The Archaeology of the Hakra River System in the Thar Desert of Sindh, Pakistan
The now dry river system that runs parallel to the Indus has been referred to by many names, including the Saraswati-Ghaggar-Hakra-Nara River. This system has long been known to have supported large numbers of settlements in the upper reaches, but only recently have the lower reaches of this river system been investigated. This presentation will include discoveries made over the past 10 years in the course of surveys by faculty and students of the Department of Archaeology, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Sindh. These discoveries have begun to shed new light on the settlement patterns of human communities along this river system, dating from the Mesolithic and Neolithic, through the Early Harappan, Harappan and post Harappan periods. Surveys and preliminary excavations of a wide range of archaeological sites provide a complete chronological sequence of the region. The presentation conveys all detail about each developmental phase of the culture and explains how the people of Hakra system were interacting with those who living on Indus river system and in further regions of Gujarat.
Lakhan-Jo-Daro, Sindh: New Excavations at an Urban Center of the Indus Civilization
Indus valley civilization is one of the largest civilization of the world which covers huge area of South Asia i.e. the entire length of present Pakistan and parts of India. More than 2000 settlements are recorded with several major urban centers. The largest settlements so far known are Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, and Ganweriwala. Recent excavations at the site of Lakhan-Jo-Daro are revealing this new site as another large urban center.
The settlement of Lakhan-Jo-Daro is located along right bank of Indus River in a development area of Sukkur City at Latitude 27°.43′.27" North and 68°.50′.51" East degrees longitude. Until now three major mounded areas such as western mounds central mounds and eastern mounds; collectively all mounds encompass area more than three kilometer radius. The central mounds are further divided as “A” , “B” , “C” and “D” mounds. These mounds have been investigated since 1988 and six excavation seasons (1994, 1996, 2000, 2006, 2008 and 2009-10) have been launched. In the course of the most recent excavation project important new features of Indus architecture and artifacts have been recovered that confirm the overall significance of the site. This lecture will provide an overview of the site and recent discoveries in the larger context of contemporary studies of the Indus civilization.
Lakhan-Jo-Daro, Sindh: New Excavations at an Urban Center of the Indus Civilization
Indus valley civilization is one of the largest civilization of the world which covers huge area of South Asia i.e. the entire length of present Pakistan and parts of India. More than 2000 settlements are recorded with several major urban centers. The largest settlements so far known are Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, and Ganweriwala. Recent excavations at the site of Lakhan-Jo-Daro are revealing this new site as another large urban center.
The settlement of Lakhan-Jo-Daro is located along right bank of Indus River in a development area of Sukkur City at Latitude 27°.43′.27" North and 68°.50′.51" East degrees longitude. Until now three major mounded areas such as western mounds central mounds and eastern mounds; collectively all mounds encompass area more than three kilometer radius. The central mounds are further divided as “A” , “B” , “C” and “D” mounds. These mounds have been investigated since 1988 and six excavation seasons (1994, 1996, 2000, 2006, 2008 and 2009-10) have been launched. In the course of the most recent excavation project important new features of Indus architecture and artifacts have been recovered that confirm the overall significance of the site. This lecture will provide an overview of the site and recent discoveries in the larger context of contemporary studies of the Indus civilization.
Friday, October 14: Political Movements in Pakistan
Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan
Tuesday, October 19: The World Beyond the Headlines Lecture
Title TBA
Reconsidering the Legacies of the Early Nineteenth-Century Jihad of Sayyid Ahmed Shaheed
The story of Sayyid Ahmed Shaheed who led a jihad against the Sikhs in the Pashtun north-west in 1826-31 is widely known and is often referenced as a moment of unusual and transformative political organization and mobilization by Muslims, but primarily for the claims made by W. W. Hunter, entitled The Indian Musalmans in his 1872 pamphlet defining a ‘Wahhabi’ imperative as underlying Muslim militarism before and during the anti-British uprisings of 1857. Following in this trend, popular accounts of Sayyid Ahmed’s movement have remained focused on Sayyid Ahmed as a jihadi, and Sayyid Ahmed’s death on the battle field in the Pakhtun North-West is understood to be the end of his movement and the failure of his scheme.
I propose an alternative to this view by considering the ways in which Sayyid Ahmed both taught the principles of mystical devotionalism in simplified and easily transmitted terms, and disassociated community based practice and the interrogation of the Quran and the hadith from the authority of ulama of Noth Indian madrassas. Thinking about the manner in which Sayyid Ahmed’s teachings intellectually rationalized and structured community-based religious practice allows us to look beyond the violence, vitriol and short life of the movement, and consider instead the ideas, pedagogies and notions of authority which it introduced.
The Pakistan Lecture Series is a program designed to support academic exchange between Pakistani and US scholars and to promote field of Pakistan studies as a whole. As a part of this program a Pakistani scholar, artist, musician, etc, is invited to travel to the USA for two to four weeks and present lectures at a minimum of three US institutions that are AIPS members. PLS speakers must be nominated by AIPS members or member institutions. A three member committee has been established to solicit and screen potential PLS speakers. The final selection and approval of the PLS speaker is made by the AIPS Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees, and is contingent upon available funds. Approximately four PLS speakers are supported each year.
The Trustee or Member Institution who is proposing a PLS speaker is expected to make all initial arrangements in terms of the speaker's itinerary and the lectures that they will present. This information should be filled out in the PLS Proposal Form and submitted by email to the AIPS President (jkenoyer@wisc.edu) for review by the PLS Speaker Committee and eventually the Executive Committee/ Board of Trustees.
Please allow two weeks for Executive Committee consideration. Once the Executive committee has approved a PLS Speaker, it can take up to three months to obtain US visa clearance. Please submit your application with sufficient time to accommodate these requirements.
AIPS provides each PLS speaker with round trip International Travel from Pakistan, as well as US domestic air/rail travel that must be purchased prior to their departure from Pakistan. Once the itinerary has been finalized it cannot be changed without total cancellation and considerable additional expense. AIPS will not be responsible for any additional costs resulting from changes in the itinerary. Each PLS speaker is provided a modest honorarium that can be use for incidental expenses that are not covered by host institutions.
Each host is expected to provide local hospitality for the PLS speaker, including accommodations, meals and local transportation.
Professor Sultan-i-Rome has agreed to lead the AIPS Roundtable at the AAS meetings in March and also be a PLS speaker. The roundtable and his ensuing PLS talks will provide a critical analysis of the situation in Swat, Malakand district, NWFP, both by providing an historical context and elaborating on current issues in the ongoing conflict today.
Swat is part of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of NWFP, and has been periodically invaded by formidable armies, of which the present deployment of a huge number of the Pakistani armed forces is an example. The situation in Swat became extremely volatile in 2007 as both government forces and extremist factions clashed. After some resistance, one of the militant leaders, Maulana Fazlullah, went underground. Clashes erupted again in spring 2009, which resulted in millions of IDPs (internally displaced persons) fleeing Swat.
The tragedy of the present situation is that there are many players involved with conflicting agendas, but that the victims continue to be the civilians of Swat. Swat is at a crossroads and if both sides refuse to budge, it is likely to spell ruin for Swat and its inhabitants. Professor Sultan-i-Rome will discuss agendas of the major factions, including the provincial government, Tanzim Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law), and Swat's local Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), with an eye towards understanding how a peaceful way out of an increasingly volatile situation could be forged. It is especially important to understand the goals and priorities of the various factions involved in this conflict given that these groups have an obligation under their ethical and moral code of conduct to abide by the promises made and understanding reached between them.
Swat: An Analysis of Political, Administrative, Socio-Political and Economic Developments: Professor Sultan-i-Rome will provide a critical analysis of the situation in Swat, NWFP, by providing an historical context and elaborating on current issues in the ongoing conflict today. Swat has been periodically invaded by formidable armies, of which the present deployment of the Pakistani armed forces is an example. The situation in Swat became volatile in 2007 as both government forces and extremist factions clashed. Clashes erupted again in spring 2009, which resulted in millions of IDPs (internally displaced persons) fleeing Swat.
There are many players involved with conflicting agendas. Swat is at a crossroads and if both sides refuse to budge, it is likely to spell ruin for Swat and its inhabitants. Professor Sultan-i-Rome will discuss agendas of the major factions, including the provincial government, TNSM, and Swat's local Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), with an eye towards understanding how a peaceful solution from this increasingly volatile situation could be forged.
Note: Professor Sultan-i-Rome will give the same lecture at the following locations:
Thursday April 8, 2010; 206 Ingraham Hall
To view Professor Sultan-i-Rome's CV, please click here.