Join the virtual launch of The South Asia Resource and Research Centre (SARRC) Archive (featuring the papers of Pakistan’s democratic, left movements) and Revolutionary Papers (RP) Digital Teaching Tools (featuring 20th century left, anti-imperial and anti-colonial periodicals).
The event will be translated into Urdu and English.
SARRC is a self-funded, volunteer-managed archive and library based near Islamabad, Pakistan. Compiled by political organiser and poet Ahmad Salim over a forty-year period, it showcases magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, books and other materials produced by progressive and left-wing struggles in Pakistan and South Asia. SARRC will launch a digital search catalogue and revamped physical library that makes its 50,000-strong collection available to scholars and organisers researching progressive histories in Pakistan and South Asia.
Revolutionary Papers is a transnational research collaboration exploring 20th century periodicals of left, anti-imperial, and anti-colonial critical production. The project explores how left periodicals developed alternative networks at times of imperial and sovereign repression, and articulated unique political vocabularies, analyses, and critiques that addressed local concerns and tied them to global revolutionary politics. RP will launch its Digital Teaching Tools initiative, which aims to provide educators and organisers with the means to teach radical periodicals in classrooms and movement contexts.
As part of the joint launch, we will share the first two RP Digital Teaching Tools, based on two 1970s left-wing publications from the SARRC collection:
- Jabal, an underground bulletin of the Balochistan People’s Liberation Front | Presented by Mahvish Ahmad
- Mazdoor Kissan Party Circular, the party organ of the Maoist Workers’ and Peasants Party | Presented by Sara Kazmi
Read more on www.sarrc.org.pk and www.revolutionarypapers.org
Schedule
1.30pm to 1.40pm, Welcome: On Revolutionary Papers from Pakistan, Mahvish Ahmad
1.40pm to 2.10pm, Introducing the SARRC Archive, Ahmed Salim, Shahzad Abbas, Fahad Desmukh
2.00pm to 2.40pm, Teaching Revolutionary Papers: Jabal and MKP Circular, Chana Morgenstern, Sara Kazmi, Mahvish Ahmad, Koni Benson
2.40pm to 3.15pm, Q&A and Closing
Meet our speakers and chair
Shahzad Abbas is the Chief Librarian of the South Asia Resource and Research Centre
Koni Benson is Lecturer at the University of Western Cape and member of RP Collective
Fahad Desmukh is the Data Architect the South Asia Resource and Research Centre
Sara Kazmi is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge and a researcher with South Asia Resource and Research Centre, and member of RP Collective
Chana Morgenstern is a Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and member of RP Collective
Ahmad Salim is the Founder and Custodian of the South Asia Resource and Research Centre
Mahvish Ahmad is Assistant Professor at LSE Sociology, South Asia Resource and Research Centre Trustee, and member of RP Collective
The SARRC Archive has been digitally and physically conserved and catalogued through the laborious efforts of a 10-person team over the past year, as part of the project Conserving the Archives of Progressive Pakistan, co-funded by the Modern Endangered Archives Program at UCLA and LSE Sociology. The project is led by Ahmed Salim and Mahvish Ahmad.
Revolutionary Papers is a joint initiative of the University of Cambridge, the University of the Western Cape, and the London School of Economics. It is led by Koni Benson, Chana Morgenstern, and Mahvish Ahmad.