Friends,
 
Welcome back to Berkeley and best wishes for a healthy new year, one with less violence and greater justice. The coming semester at the Institute is as ever full of lectures, performances, and workshops, and we hope you can join us. 
 
Let me just mention a few of the many coming events to give you a sense of what your participation and support of South Asia research and teaching at Berkeley have made possible.

First, we are delighted that the University has honored Ustad Zakir Hussain with the 2015 Regents Lectureship.  Regents Lecturers comprise influential artists, intellectuals, politicians, and activists outside the academy with significant contributions to public life.  Past Regents Lecturers have included Rustom Bharucha and Gurcharan Das. Zakir Hussain will be at Berkeley for a jam-packed fortnight, including the Regents Lecture itself, "Zakir Talks Zakir Plays" on March 5 (with performance and a discussion with Professor Janaki Bakhle, History), "The Changing Role of the Tabla Player in Hindustani Classical Music" (a conversation with Professor Bonnie Wade, Music) on March 10, followed on March 11 by a Master Class in the Department of Music, and all of these events preceded by a screening of the film "Zakir Hussain: SF Jazz Sessions," a documentary by Anisa Qureshi (who happens to be Zakir Hussain's daughter). Registration is required for all four events so reserve your seats here.  

Second, we are privileged that for the formal Inauguration of the Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, the famed founder of BRAC Sir Abed Hasan Fazle will be coming to Berkeley on March 30.  Recently listed as one of the world's 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine, Sir Abed is a visionary social worker. He founded the world's largest NGO and has been one of the most prominent forces for social change in Bangladesh and globally.

Third, we are incredibly fortunate that the Indo-American Lecturer for 2015 will be Professor Nivedita Menon of JNU.  A renowned and prolific political theorist and feminist scholar, Dr. Menon is a key architect of the website Kafila that has transformed the critical public sphere of ideas in India and beyond.  The Indo-American Lectureship, established by the Indian American community in the Bay Area with support from the Government of India, brings top scholars to spend a week or more on campus delivering lectures, meeting students and faculty, and pursuing their research.  Professor Menon will be in residence April 6 through 11.

Fourth and fifth, we are delighted to host not one but two critical conferences on Pakistan as part of the Berkeley Pakistan Initiative led by Professors Munis Faruqui and Saba Mahmood and supported by the generosity of the Pakistani American community in the Bay Area. On February 7, please join us for Fixing Pakistan's Education: Innovative Solutions for a Major Challenge, and on February 27 and 28, for Pakistan: Beyond the Security State.  

Sixth, as part of our focus this semester on Public Health in South Asia, and in conjunction with the Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, we will be hosting a one-day conference on April 7, Experimental Populations/National Bodies, bringing together leading historians and science and technology studies scholars rethinking the position of South Asia within the entwined histories of medical and colonial modernity.

And finally, along with our consortium partners at Stanford, UC Davis, and UC Santa Cruz, we will be hosting the fourth annual graduate student conference South Asia by the Bay on May 8 and 9, entitled Precarious Exchanges. The conference, held at Stanford in 2012 and 13 and at Santa Cruz in 2014, unites the faculties of these four universities in bringing together a select group of emerging scholars for dialogue and debate.  All graduate students are encouraged to apply.

These are but the tip of the (globally warming) iceberg: please join us at Stephens Hall in 2015, and welcome back. 

Lawrence
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Spring 2015 Events. Please click on links for further information. 

PUBLIC LECTURES CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

1. Saturday, February 7, 2015
   Fixing Pakistan's Education: Innovative Solutions for a Major Challenge
   9 a.m.-4 p.m. | B 100, Blum Hall
    
2. Wednesday, February 25, 2015
   Social Enterprises in Developing Economies: Panel Discussion followed by Networking Hour
   5-7:30 p.m. | B100 Blum Hall
    
3. Friday, February 27-28, 2015
   Pakistan: Beyond the Security State
   TBA
    
4. Friday, May 8-9, 2015
   Precarious Exchange: Materiality, Network, and Value in South Asia in the World. "The 4th South Asia by the Bay Graduate Student Conference"
   8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. |  UC Berkeley

SCREENINGS

1. Monday, March 2, 2015
   Zakir Hussain: SF Jazz Sessions
   5-8 p.m. |  PFA Theater
    
2. Monday, April 20, 2015
   Gulabi Gang: The Documentary
   5-7:30 p.m. |  PFA Theater