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CHS organises a seminar by Dr Tyler W. Williams

CHS organises a seminar by Dr Tyler W. Williams

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CHS organises a seminar by Dr Tyler W. Williams
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The Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

CHS Seminar Series

 

‘The Archive is Dead, Long Live the Archive:  Hindi, Archives, and the History of Writing’

 


Dr Tyler W. Williams,
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago

 

4th December 2024, at 3 PM,
in Room No. 326, CHS, SSS-III

 

Abstract: Will digitisation, not only as technology but as techne within literary and historical studies, spell the end of the archive as a physical, social, and institutional space? At stake are the memory and understanding of the history, structure, and logic of the archive(s). A study of the variegated terrain of handwritten textual artefacts in precolonial Hindi that reside within archives–including hymnals, personal notebooks, storybooks, and scriptures–reveals an unexpected landscape of genres and audiences as well as surprising routes of circulation and transmission that existed from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries. This talk also poses questions regarding Indian language archives as they exist today.

 

Tyler W. Williams teaches in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He completed his MA and MPhil in Hindi literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University and his PhD at Columbia University. He has published widely in journals and edited volumes and is the author of a book If All the World Were Paper. A History of Writing in Hindi. (2024)

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.