Events

DIGITALISING SOUTH ASIA: WHO BENEFITS?

Date/Time: Thursday | 28 October 2021 |  3.30pm UK

South Asian countries are rapidly advancing digital transformation strategies across economic sectors and governmental services. While the step from analog to digital remains relatively unproblematic, wider issues arise when digitalisation results in changed cultural precepts, new economic activities and altered people-to-systems modalities. This Roundtable will discuss these, and much more. 

Speakers: Anir Chowdhury (@anirchowdhury) is Policy Advisor to the a2i Programme (ICT Division), Government of Bangladesh;  Dibyendu Maiti is Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (@DelhiSchoolOfEC); Ammar Malik (@MalikAmmar) is Senior Research Fellow at Evidence for Policy Design, Harvard Kennedy School; Jagath Seneviratna is Programme Head -- Monitoring & Evaluation, Information & Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Sri Lanka (@icta_srilanka). 

Chair: Alnoor Bhimani (@AlnoorBhimani) is Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE), Professor of Management Accounting at LSE, and author of Accounting Disrupted: How Digitalization is Changing Finance (2021).

Please click here to register free for the event; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. 

SELF & SPACE: SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORIC PRACTICES

Date/Time: Thursday | 11 November 2021 | 11.30am UK

How does the South Asian diaspora negotiate and navigate identity? Through what practices -- food, education, art, lifestyle? This panel discussion will explore these complex issues in South and Southeast Asia. 

Speakers: Sean McLoughlin (@LeedsUniHajjRes) is Professor of the Anthropology of Islam (Muslim Diasporas) at the University of Leeds; Sandhini Poddar (IG: @sandhini.poddar) is an art historian from the Global South, and will discuss the art of Zarina Hashmi, whose work speaks strongly to diasporic identity; Venka Purushothaman is Deputy President & Provost, LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore (@LASALLESG), with a specialism in cross-cultural creativity between South & Southeast Asia.   

Discussant: Zehra Jumabhoy is Lecturer in Asian art histories, LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore (@LASALLESG).  

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

This event is in collaboration with LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore.

Please click here to register free for the event; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. 

FACT & FICTION

STATUES: CAN HISTORY BE TOPPLED? 

Date/Time: Thursday | 18 November 2021 | 3.30pm UK

Focused on a recently published book, this panel will discuss the raging debate on statues of historical figures & their place in public spaces and histories.

Speakers: Edward Anderson (@edanderson101) is Senior Lecturer in History, Northumbria University; his views on historical statues & related issues can be read here & here; William Beinart, formerly Rhodes Professor of Race Relations, is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford (@StAntsCollege; @AfricaOxfordUni)); his official Report on the Rhodes statue to Oriel College can be found here (pp 98-126); Kajri Jain is Professor of Indian Visual Culture & Contemporary Art, University of Toronto (@UofT); she researches on statues in India, and is the author of Gods in the Time of Democracy (2021); Haroon Khalid (@awhitetrail) trained as an anthropologist, writes extensively on historical cultural heritage in Pakistan, and is author of the acclaimed Imagining Lahore: The City That Is, The City That Was (2018); Alex von Tunzelmann (@alexvtunzelmann), historian, is author of Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues that Made History (2021).    

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

Please click here to register free for the event; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. 

BANGLADESH@50

GENDER & LABOUR MARKETS IN SOUTH ASIA: FEMINIST ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVES

Date/Time: Thursday | 25 November 2021 | 3.30pm UK

Three feminist economists reflect on: the interaction between economics & culture in the segmentation of labour markets in Bangladesh; factors explaining frequency of entry-exit in women’s labour force participation in India; and how the ‘recognition’ of women’s work in agriculture in Pakistan feeds into policy redistribution.

Speakers: Ashwini Deshpande (@AshwDeshpande) is Professor of Economics, Ashoka University, Sonipat, and author of The Grammar of Caste: Economic Discrimination in Contemporary India (new edn, 2019); Haris Gazdar (@HarisGazdar) is Senior Researcher at the Collective for Social Science Research, Karachi.

Discussant: Naila Kabeer (@N_Kabeer) is Professor of Gender & Development at LSE, author of Gender & Social Protection Strategies in the Informal Economy (2014), and co-editor (with Caroline Sweetman) of Gender and Inequalities (2018). 

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

Please click here to register free for the event; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. 

WOMEN & THE FUTURE OF WORK IN SOUTH ASIA 

Date/Time: Thursday | 2 December 2021 | 3.30pm UK

As demographic changes, technology & post-Pandemic 'return to work' reshape global labour markets, this panel will discuss emerging trends, need for contextualised solutions and the future of work for women in South Asia.

Speakers: Rubana Huq (@Rubanahuq) is Chairperson & Managing Director of Mohammadi Group in Dhaka; Deepa Narayan (@deepavop) is an independent Advisor on development & poverty, and author of Chup: Breaking the Silence about India's Women (2018); Uzma Quresh (@UQuresh) is Senior Social Development Specialist (Gender) at The World Bank in Pakistan. 

Chair: Alnoor Bhimani (@AlnoorBhimani) is Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE), Professor of Management Accounting at LSE, and author of Accounting Disrupted: How Digitalization is Changing Finance (2021).

Please click here to register free for the event; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. 

GEOPOLITICS BEYOND BORDERS 4

AFGHANISTAN: BACK TO THE FUTURE? 

Date/Time: Thursday | 9 December 2021 | 3.30pm UK

Four months after the Taliban's complete takeover of Afghanistan, where is it all going? This Roundtable of experts will discuss this, its implications for the geo-security of the region, and what may lie ahead for Afghanistan and her South Asian neighbours. 

Speakers: C. Uday Bhaskar (@theUdayB) is Director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi, and one of India's leading experts on geo-security, and publishes extensively on the subject; Antonio Giustozzi (@AntonioGiustoz2) is Visiting Professor, King's College London, Fellow at RUSI, and the author of several books on the Taliban in Afghanistan including The Taliban at War: 2001-2018 (2019); Michael Kugelman (@MichaelKugelman) is Deputy Director & Senior Associate for South Asia,  Wilson Center, Washington DC, and a commentator on US strategy in South Asia; Romain Malejacq (@afghanopoly) is Assistant Professor, Radboud University, Nijmegen, and the author of Warlord Survival: The Delusion of State Building in Afghanistan (2020); Ayesha Siddiqa (@iamthedrifter) is Research Associate, SOAS South Asia Institute, an expert on security studies in Pakistan, and author of Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy (2007).

Discussant: Christopher Coker is Professor & Director, LSE IDEAS (@lseideas), an expert on war, US security & terrorism, and author of Why War? (2021).   

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

This event is in collaboration with LSE IDEAS. 

Please click here to register free for the event; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event.