AIIS 60th Anniversary Webinars

As a part of the 60th Anniversary of the American Institute of Indian Studies, we invite you to join us for two webinars celebrating diverse US-India scholarly collaboration though the years.

Save the dates and RSVP!

Join us for a discussion on forms of home inspired by the 2016 collaborative conference between Elon University and the University of Madras entitled “To Take Place: Culture, Religion and Home-Making in and Beyond South Asia.” In this conference, “speakers addressed the means and practices by which migrants, displaced persons and various other subcommunities in South Asia establish physical, conceptual and emotional spaces that put them at home or give rise to conflict with other groups.”

With conference co-creators Amy Allocco and James Ponniah we look to how AIIS has supported various forms of institutional collaboration, how concepts of the home shift in spaces and places, and how to successfully build a base (or home) from which to build long-lasting dialog and partners in scholarship.

Join us for an exploration of the Nilgiris Field Learning Program at Cornell University. The program connects “Cornell faculty and students with practitioners and community members in the Nilgiris, the “blue hills” of southern India. Since 2015, the NFLC learning community has explored a range of issues around sustainability, conservation, livelihoods and education in a region recognized for its biodiversity. Students from Cornell and the indigenous communities of the Nilgiris develop leadership and research skills in a collaborative, cross-cultural, field-based learning environment.”

We will be talking to program members Neema Kudva, Andrew Willford, Pratim Roy, and Anita Varghese to explore how AIIS has supported this collaborative work, research methods in ethnographic collaboration and co-creation, what it means to work at the intersection of climate change, health, well-being, development, and study abroad.