Organizers: Aria Fani (University of Washington), Domenico Ingenito (UCLA), Mejgan Massoumi (Stanford University)
Afghanistan through Afghan Voices is a series of virtual workshops that highlights and critically engages with recent scholarship on one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world. It aims to open an inclusive and multidisciplinary space where Afghan scholars and artists come together in conversation with broad audiences to publicly reflect on their research endeavors and creative trajectories. Monthly programs include Afghan artists from around the globe in dialogue with scholars of literature, art, and history; panels featuring conversations on visual culture and media; and poetry readings in Persian/Dari, Pashto, and English.
The monthly series is hosted via Zoom by the UCLA Program on Central Asia and co-sponsored by the University of Washington’s Persian and Iranian Studies Program, Stanford University’s Center for South Asia and Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, as well as the Center for India and South Asia.
Schedule
Each meeting is held on the listed date from 9:30 to 11:00 AM Pacific time.
Session 1 | Mr. Blinken’s “Play List”: War, the State, and Empire in Afghanistan in the Age of Neo-liberal (Dis)Order
Thursday, January 27
RSVP Here (Zoom registration)
Wali Ahmadi (UC Berkeley)
Discussant: Munazza Ebtikar (University of Oxford)
Session 2 | Invisible Persons, Invisible Texts: Translation and Translators in Medieval and Modern Afghanistan and the West
Thursday, February 17
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Book Panel on Zrinka Stahuljak’s Les Fixeurs au Moyen âge - Histoire et littérature connectées
Zrinka Stahuljak (UCLA), Jawanshir Rasikh (Independent Scholar), and Arezou Azad (University of Oxford)
Discussant: Domenico Ingenito (UCLA)
Friday, March 11
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Panel with Marjan Wardaki (Yale University), Nicolas Roth (Harvard University), and Nicole Ferreira (UC Berkeley)
Discussant: Aria Fani (University of Washington)
Panel with Wazhmah Osman (Temple University), Helena Zeweri (University of Virginia), and Hosai Qasmi (University of Ottawa)
Discussant: Mejgan Massoumi (Stanford University)
Session 5 | How to (Not) Read Afghan Literature?
Thursday, May 5
Panel with Ahmad Rashid Salim (UC Berkeley), Zuzanna Olszewska (University of Oxford), and Samuel Hodgkin (Yale University)
Discussant: Aria Fani (University of Washington)
Session 6 | Inside/Outside the Line: Reading and Translating Afghan Poetry
Thursday, June 2
Panel with Parwana Fayyaz (University of Cambridge), Rahman Arman (Indiana University), Elyas Alavi (Adelaide, Australia), Julie Ershadi (UCLA), and Domenico Ingenito (UCLA)
