10 curated exhibitions by the Curatorial Intensive South Asia (CISA) 2023 Fellows. A key programme conducted by Khoj and Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi which brings together curators from India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka for a two-week curatorial fellowship. CISA aims to develop a diversity of perspectives on the medium of the exhibition in South Asia and Iran and to provide both a structured and an experimental inquiry into the possibilities of curatorial practice today.

Exhibiting curators include, Atefeh Khas; Bishal Yonjan; Bunu Dhungana; Jaisingh Nageswaran; Jatin Gulati; Neda Haffari; Pramodha Weerasekera; Snehal Morey; Sukanya Deb; and Umair Badheeu 

Preview on Tuesday, 12 December 2023 at 18:30 

There will be two performances during the preview

Performance by Fabienne Francotte
Curated by Neda Haffari

Performance by Ujjwala Maharjan
Curated by Bunu Dhungana

On 16 December from 11:30–13:00 & 14:30 to 16:00 in the Main Verandah Lawns
Sewing Circle with Sabeen Omar 
Curated by Pramodha Weerasekera

Two sessions with 10 participants each

(Collaboration: Khoj; and Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi)

Conceptualised by Dr. Ashwani Kumar

 
From 10:00 to 13:00
Workshop on Cancer Screening
To be conducted by the National Cancer Institute Team, AIIMS, New Delhi.
 
Open to IIC members and staff members of IIC only
 
At 16:00
Lecture on Major Cancers in India, Strategies for Minimizing Risks
Speaker: Dr. Alok Thakar, Professor & Head, Otorhinolaryngology & Head-Neck Surgery; Head, National Cancer Institute, AIIMS, New Delhi
 
Panel Discussion on vaccination for cancer- where and why; screening for cancers- how and when; familial and genetic cancers- detection and treatments; and effective tobacco cessation.
 
Panelists: Dr Neerja Bhatla, Prof. & Head, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, AIIMS; Dr S.V.S. Deo, Prof. & Head, Department of Surgical Oncology, AIIMS; and Dr Raja Pramanik, Addl Professor, Department of Medical Oncology, AIIMS.
 
Chair: Dr. Ashwani Kumar

A Multilingual Recitation by Dr Karan Singh

Chair: Shri Muzaffar Ali, filmmaker, designer, poet, artist, cultural revivalist, and social worker

(Organised by IIC-International Research Division in collaboration with The Poetry Society, India)

Curator: Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray

Early Buddhist Art at Sanchi: Power and Piety in Uruvela Narrative Cycle

Illustrated lecture by Prof. Seema Bawa who specializes in the History of South Asian Art and Culture, Department of History, University of Delhi. Books written by her include Gods, Men and Women: Gender and Sexuality in Early Indian Art and Religion and Art of the Chamba Valley, A.D. 700-1300. The areas of research focus on Indian Art, Ancient Indian Art and Iconography; Western Himalayan Art and Religion and Modern and Contemporary Indian Art. She was a recipient of DAAD Fellowship at the University of Bonn

Chair: Prof. Y. S. Alone, Jawaharlal Nehru University

This presentation focuses on the physical and imagined landscapes and locale within the visual narratives in early Buddhist art at Sanchi. The Uruvela or Uruvilva cycle, depicted on the pillar of the Eastern gateway at Sanchi Stupa 1, illustrates the interaction between the Kasyapa brothers and the aniconic presence indicating the Buddha. The fact that this is also a story that is based on the contestation between the established ideology of yajna and the emergence of Buddha as a proselytizing force makes nuanced reading of this visual even more interesting.

 

Public Administration and Corporate Governance

Speaker: Shri K.M. Chandrashekhar, retired Civil Servant who was Cabinet Secretary from 2007-2011

Remarks by Shri N.N. Vohra, Life Trustee, IIC

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC 

One-day Conference organised in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The Conference aims to initiate wider reflection on the discipline of education in the contemporary moment. A new vocabulary of reforms is reframing education and teaching with participation of new actors – global, national, and local, with coalitions of research and advocacy in the policy domain. The session of the Conference are planned to historically situate, and theorise the state and discipline of education with attention to its embeddedness in and relationship with political economy, democracy, nationhood, and culture

Inaugural Session 
Chair: Prof. Nargis Panchapakesan, formerly with University of Delhi

Conference Sessions:
10:00 to 11:30 – Institutional Formations of the Discipline of Education
12:00 to 13:30 – Understanding the Discipline: Political Economy, Market and Culture
14:15 to 15:30 – Language and Inequality: Contradictions of Education

16:00 to 16:55 – Valedictory Session
Valedictory Lecture by Prof. Krishna Kumar, former Director, NCERT - and former Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Delhi

Chair: Ms Beeba Sobti, Modern School, Barakhamba Road
 

Please click here for detail

Dramatised readings from A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” by Sunit Tandon and Sohaila Kapur

Love Letters is a play by A.R. Gurney, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play centres on two characters - Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. Though geographically located in different places, they sit side by side and write letters to each other, discussing what has passed between them throughout their separation. 

The play has had some popular adaptations in India. It was adapted into Urdu in 1992 as Tumhari Amrita with Farroukh Sheikh and Shabana Azmi. Kaif Aur Main, written and performed by Javed Akhtar along with his wife Shabana, was also inspired by it, as was another play, Aapki Soniya, starring Sonali Bendre. 

The play in its original form was first enacted by Sunit & Sohaila about three decades ago. It was directed by the late Arun Kuckreja under the banner of Ruchika Theatre.  

It is perhaps more age appropriate for the actors today, since the characters are celebrating a friendship of 50 years. 

Produced by Anuradha Dar & Sohaila Kapur for Three Arts Club & Katyayani.

Speaker: Prof. Sari Hanafi, Professor of Sociology, Director, Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies and Chair, Islamic Studies program, American University of Beirut.  He is the President of the International Sociological Association and was also the editor of Idafat: the Arab Journal of Sociology (Arabic) (2017-2022).

Discussant: Dr. Bhrigupati Singh, Ashoka University and Brown University

Chair: Prof. Rita Brara, Editor, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Senior Fellow, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi and Visiting Professor, Ashoka University

The CIS-IEG-SAGE Annual Lecture 2023

(Collaboration: Contributions to Indian Sociology; Institute of Economic Growth; and SAGE)
 

Speaker: Prof. Arogyaswami J. Paulraj, Professor Emeritus, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University.  
Prof. Paulraj is the inventor of MIMO wireless communications, a technology break through that enables improved wireless performance. MIMO is now incorporated into all broadband wireless systems. He also pioneered MIMOOFDMA that is now the core physical layer technology for 4G, 5G mobile, and WiFi networks

Moderator: Ms Aruna Sundararajan, IAS (retd.) former Secretary Telecom and Chairperson, Telecom Commission

Chair: Cmdre C. Uday Bhaskar

Prof. Paulraj will offer his views on the criticality of semiconductors, the structure of the global industry, its competitive dynamics, and then focus his talk mainly on its huge entry barriers.

‘Unfolding the Cosmos’ – The Significance of History and of Architecture as its Primary Source: The Case of the Red Fort

Illustrated lecture by Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, architect who has specialized in conservation and is Visiting Faculty, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. Anisha works as an independent designer and researcher and is Founding Director, Ambi Knowledge Resources and author of The Red Fort of Shahjahanabad (Oxford University Press: 2003); Jantar Mantar (Ambi: 2010); Renewing Design with Communities (co-edited with Snehanshu Mukherjee, Routledge, 2023) among other books

Chair: Anuradha Chaturvedi, Architectural Conservation, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

The talk will explore the significance of history in construing and constructing identity and memory — what we are, what we may have been, and what we can be. And the role of architecture in all this, through the example of the iconic World Heritage Site of the Red Fort, a symbol of political and cultural identity. Can architecture be considered a primary source of history? And how should we read it?