Yin Cao, Adhira Mangalagiri to present on methods of studying India in China on April 20

The Institute for Chinese Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, and South Asian Studies Initiative will present a workshop featuring Yin Cao, Tsinghua University, and Adhira Mangalagiri, Queen Mary University of London, on Wednesday, April 20 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. online (registration required). Prof. Cao will present "Those Who Caused Big Troubles: Chinese Sojourners in Wartime India, 1941-1945" and Prof. Mangalgiri will present "Dialogue and its Discontents: Reading Records of Cultural Diplomacy."

Cao Abstract: This talk will tell the hidden story of the Chinese sojourners in India during World War II. These Chinese smugglers, sailors, deserters, and pilots caused great anxieties to the British and Chinese authorities alike. While the Chinese Nationalist government attempted to incorporate these sojourners into its wartime nation-building projects, the British authorities saw the disciplinary work of the Chinese government in India as a grand geopolitical conspiracy. The Chinese sojourners, in their turn, manipulated the misunderstandings and miscommunications between the British and Chinese authorities to pursue their own interests.

Mangalgiri Abstract: The study of non-Western or South-South literary contact unmediated by a colonial center of power often occurs under the sign of “dialogue.” Such approaches presume horizontality, shared political convictions, and unimpeded transfer of meaning between the literary spheres in question. Much of recent scholarship on China’s literary engagement with the emergent Third World in the 1950s tends to follow in this vein. Focusing on the case of 1950s China and India, this talk offers a different methodological approach to studying China’s literary programs of cultural diplomacy. When literary “dialogue” unfolds under the watchful eye of the nation-state, I call for attention to the ellipses – the silences, omissions, and interruptions – that necessarily constitute scripted literary exchange, yet that tend not to garner as much scholarly attention as loud proclamations of solidarity. These ellipses remain uninscribed in official records of the period, but accessing such moments can open lively and unruly forms of transnational literary relations that lie beyond the state’s reach. Ultimately, the talk warns against the tendency in studies of China’s literary engagement with the Global South to valorize the decentering of colonial powers as cultural mediators without a critical engagement with the nation-state's overseeing presence once it occupies that agential role.

Grace H. Zhou to present on the practice of linking business and marriage on April 1

The Department of Near Eastern Language and Cultures will present a lecture by Grace H. Zhou, The Ohio State University, on Friday, April 1 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Derby Hall, Room 060 (food provided). Dr. Zhou will present "Trading Intimacy: Kinship and Commodities across Central Asia."

Abstract: This talk considers Islamic second wife marriage (nikoh) between minority Uzbek businesswomen in Kyrgyzstan and persecuted Uyghur traders from Xinjiang. It analyzes the practice of linking business and marriage as a form of mobile intimacy that leverages the affordances and movement of commodities and goods over present-day geopolitical borders that circumscribe the movement of particular groups of people. Looking at forms of both mobility and immobility, I argue that commodity-mediated forms of transnational intimacy create spaces of safety and possibility in the face of carceral immobilities, state violence, and gendered limitations.

Ohio State to hold its annual Fulbright Week April 4-8

Each year the Office of International Affairs and the Undergraduate Fellowship Office combine efforts to provide a full week of activities to promote the prestigious Fulbright and Fulbright-Hays programs.

The events feature information sessions with our Fulbright administrators and panel discussions with Ohio State and international students and faculty who have received Fulbright and Fulbright-Hays grants in an effort to enhance awareness of the value the Fulbright experience brings to teaching, research and intercultural perspectives, as well as to attract further participation and support.

All Ohio State faculty, professionals, graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to participate in Fulbright Week from April 4-8. All sessions will be virtual.

Ohio State to celebrate Peace Corps' 60-year history at OSU April 6-7

Ohio State will host two distinct events on April 6 and 7 that will showcase the legacy of the Peace Corps and memorialize its 60-year history at Ohio State.

Join us for a screening and discussion with Alana DeJoseph, producer and director of "A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps," a documentary that takes viewers on a journey of what it means to be a global citizen. The event will be on April 6 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Sullivant Hall, Room 220.

The Peach Corps 60th Anniversary Commemorative Event will feature a panel discussion with returned Peace Corps volunteers on April 7 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Sullivant Hall, Room 220.

ADA Coordinator's Office to hold Multiple Perspectives conference April 11-12

The Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinators Office will host the ADA Multiple Perspectives On Access, Inclusion, & Disability Conference April 11-12 online (registration required). The theme for 2022 is "The Zen of Venn: Disability, A Facet of Lived Experience."

It is hoped that the annual conference will serve as a catalyst for positive change and a springboard for collaborations with our partners in education, business, public, and social service. Each year a series of workshops will provide a forum for individuals and organizations to expand their knowledge and perspectives, and an opportunity to increase community resources through the synergy of collaboration.

Free to Ohio State students, faculty, and staff.

Call for Papers for Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs