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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260609T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260609T200000
DTSTAMP:20260514T145605
CREATED:20251111T170025Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T103858Z
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SUMMARY:Reception Room\, Wing D Film Screening
DESCRIPTION:Synopsis\nInside the small waiting room of a large government office in New Delhi\, India\, the film follows the receptionists receiving the arriving public as they navigate the labyrinthian bureaucracy beyond. As files\, food\, chai\, sweets\, and gossip circulate between people\, an intimate portrait of the state emerges. It raises a deeper moral question: What is the state’s duty of care? \nAbout the Film Makers\nDr Ikuno Naka is a  postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Economic Experimentation and  the Constructing Urban Futures in Asia (CUFA) research group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. \nDr Garima Jaju is a Lecturer at the Department of International Development at King’s College London. \n  \nFree and open to all. Note\, this will not be accessible online.
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/event/dr-garima-jaju-title-tba/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2026-03-26-at-13.28.07.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260611T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260611T200000
DTSTAMP:20260514T145605
CREATED:20251111T170237Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T103949Z
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SUMMARY:Dr Megnaa Mehtta - Rules of the Jungle: Human and Nonhuman Sovereigns in the Bengal Delta
DESCRIPTION:About the Talk\nThe Sundarbans mangrove forests\, located in the Bengal Delta\, are internationally famous as a habitat to conserve the Bengal tiger. Conservationists and forest department bureaucrats try to protect the tiger\, while forest rights activists’ have attempted to campaign against exclusionary conservation practices using the vocabulary of rights. Taking coastal residents’ ways of relating to the forest as a starting point\, the talk reveals how several animated\, nonhuman agents of the region guide both resource use and social relationships through a set of rules known as the “rules of the jungle” (jongoler niyam).  The source of these rules are deities\, demons\, and spirits—that is\, “cosmic polities”—that\, alongside bureaucratic laws and secular activism\, also govern life in the Sundarbans. Nonhuman sovereigns act as a source of care and provide the basis of an ecological consciousness but are also capable of exclusion and discrimination. By exploring a set of questions such as what kind of a property is a forest? What are the different means of relating to such a property—as a natural resource to be extracted\, a state-owned property to be protected\, a commons to subsist on\, or a territory governed by sylvan deities and demons\, this talk explores the diverse and complementary forces that govern life in a forest. \n  \nAbout the Speaker\nMegnaa received her PhD in Anthropology from the London School of Economics in 2020. Her writings have appeared in journals such as Current Anthropology (CA)\, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)\, and Comparative Studies of South Asia\, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAME). She has two ongoing research projects supported by the AXA-IOC UNESCO Research Fellowship. The first project Centring a Household in a Climate Emergency explores migration\, health\, marriage\, social reproduction and broader ideas of well-being as these themes intersect with climate adaptation policies\, land dispossession and long-standing vulnerabilities in the Bengal Delta. Her second research project The Banglascapes of Venice makes legible the lives of the Bangladeshi community in Venice. As racialized imaginaries create panic about impoverished brown and black bodies from the Global South washing up at the shores of Europe (and the United Kingdom)\, through the microcosm of Venice\, the book reveals the ways in which Italy depends on these very bodies for labour. It makes visible a population that is seen yet unseen\, known yet unknown—a part of the daily life of Venice that produces and reproduces it\, yet remains entirely segregated and often unacknowledged. \n  \nTo join online\, please register here.
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/event/dr-megnaa-mehtta-title-tba/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/the-view-from-the-Bali-no.-9.jpeg
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260617T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260617T200000
DTSTAMP:20260514T145605
CREATED:20251112T124428Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260508T111742Z
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SUMMARY:Lydia Walker - Beyond States-in-Waiting: Rights\, Recognition\, and Sovereignty in South Asia and the World
DESCRIPTION:[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””] \nAbout the Lecture\nWhat does it mean to claim rights without recognition? And what happens to sovereignty when statehood remains perpetually deferred? States in Waiting traced how political movements in South Asia and beyond navigated a twentieth‑century international order in which external recognition\, rather than territorial control alone\, determined access to statehood. Highlighting Northeast India—a region characterized by porous borders\, insurgent movements\, and overlapping claims to authority—the book showed how nationalist movements collaborated with advocacy networks to articulate claims to rights\, autonomy\, and self‑determination. In doing so\, these struggles reveal a persistent tension between aspirations towards universal rights and an international system that privileges recognized sovereignty. \nThis lecture moves beyond that framework by returning to the unresolved questions at the heart of the book’s conclusion. If recognition remains uneven\, delayed\, or denied\, what alternative forms of political belonging emerge? If sovereignty can be suspended\, fragmented\, or deferred\, how should we understand the temporalities of the international order itself? By foregrounding these open questions\, this lecture argues that states‑in‑waiting are not anomalies of a colonial past\, but enduring features of a global present in which rights\, recognition\, and sovereignty continue to be contested\, renegotiated\, and reimagined. \nAbout the Speaker\nLydia Walker is the Seth Andre Myers Chair in Global Military History and a Provost Scholar Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University. She is a historian of twentieth‑century global decolonization whose work spans South Asia\, Southern Africa\, military intervention\, and insurgent resistance. She is the author of States‑in‑Waiting: A Counternarrative of Global Decolonization (Cambridge University Press\, 2024)\, which received the 2025 Busuttil Prize and Medal from the Royal Asiatic Society\, and has published in the American Historical Review\, Past & Present\, and elsewhere. She holds a PhD and AM from Harvard and a BA from Columbia\, and has held visiting or research fellowships at Dartmouth College\, the Institute of Historical Research\, the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (New Delhi)\, Leiden University\, and Magdalene College\, Cambridge. \n  \nTo join online\, register here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/event/lydia-walker-beyond-states-in-waiting-rights-recognition-and-sovereignty-in-south-asia-and-the-world/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260618T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260618T203000
DTSTAMP:20260514T145605
CREATED:20251112T124835Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T184034Z
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SUMMARY:Michael Dillon Book Launch: A comprehensive new history of Shanghai\, revealing its vital place in Chinese history and politics across the centuries
DESCRIPTION:[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Michael Dillon in-conversation with Professor Kerry Brown \nAbout the Book\nHome to 25 million people\, Shanghai is the most populous and wealthiest city in China. A meeting point between China and the wider world\, the city has become the beating heart of Chinese capitalism\, a place of initiative\, confidence\, and forward thinking. It is a city of stark contradictions\, suffused with both extreme wealth and poverty\, luxury living\, and a highly organised criminal underworld. \nMichael Dillon explores the full history of Shanghai\, from its origins as a small fishing village to the bustling financial hub of today. The city has been central to some of the most turbulent events in China’s modern history\, from the British and French colonial concessions of the nineteenth century\, to the birth of the Chinese Communist Party and its vital role in Chinese economics and politics today. Shanghai is a fascinating portrait of China’s most dynamic city—and explores its future role in the country’s development. \nAbout the Author\nMichael Dillon is professor of history and an affiliate of King’s College London’s Lau China Institute. An expert on modern Chinese history\, politics\, and society\, he is the author of numerous books\, including We Need to Talk About Xi\, a history of modern China\, and biographies of Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. \nKerry Brown is professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. He is the author of over twenty books on modern Chinese politics\, history\, and society. \nTo join online\, please register here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/event/michael-dillon-book-launch-a-comprehensive-new-history-of-shanghai-revealing-its-vital-place-in-chinese-history-and-politics-across-the-centuries/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260625T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260625T200000
DTSTAMP:20260514T145605
CREATED:20251206T151423Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260508T111834Z
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SUMMARY:Dr Avishek Ray - Epistemology of Roma Origins: India and the Question of Academic Authority
DESCRIPTION:[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]This talk critically examines the widely circulated claim that European Roma populations originate from India—a thesis often treated as settled within academic discourse\, yet not unequivocally endorsed by Roma communities themselves. It asks what is at stake epistemologically when such origin narratives become institutionalized: how they shape knowledge production\, authority\, and the politics of representation\, and how they may contribute to the social reproduction of dominant academic voices within academia. \nAbout the Author\nDr Avishek Ray teaches at the National Institute of Technology Silchar. His research examines mobility\, marginality\, and cultural historiography. He is author of The Vagabond in the South Asian Imagination (2022). He co-authored Digital Expressions of the Selfie (2024) and Temporal Spaces in Calcutta (2026). He edited Decolonial Travel (2025). His work appears in journals including South Asia\, Contemporary South Asia\, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies\, Mobilities\, and Race & Class. He has held fellowships at University of Edinburgh\,  University of Minnesota\, Mahidol University\, Pavia University\, IFK Vienna and Purdue University\, and received the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (2021). \n  \nTo join online\, register here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/event/dr-avishek-ray-epistemology-of-roma-origins-india-and-the-question-of-academic-authority/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
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