The SASI hosted its second annual symposium on November 30, 2018. This year’s theme to the conference was Interpretations and Expressions: The Evolution of South Asian Canadian Experiences.
Building on the 2017 symposium which invited scholars to reflect on their ideas of the understanding and representation of South Asia in Canada, the 2018 symposium opened a broader conversation about how we address South Asia and South Asian Canadians’ evolving experiences across different disciplines, sectors, and modes of expression. The aim of the conference was to continue the dialogue on the intersections between retrospection, identification, and aesthetic within Canadian teaching, research, performance, critique and translation.
The keynote address featured Dr. Renisa Mawani discussed her newest publication Across Oceans of Law in which Dr. Mawani draws on what she terms “oceans as method” – a mode of thinking and writing that re-positions land and sea – to examine the historical and conceptual stakes of situating histories of Indian migration in maritime worlds.
The symposium included a vibrant arts and culture round table titled Forward, Backwards, Sideways: Critical Turns in South Asian Canadian Art and Culture. The round table was moderated by Mo Dhaliwal and featured artists: Farheen Haq, Sandeep Johal and Zool Suleman. The artists and practitioners shared their insights and experiences on the evolutions, meanings and impacts of South Asian Canadian arts and culture in the diaspora.
The symposium was well attended with students and colleagues from UFV and across the Lower Mainland. Shirley Hardman provided a warm and powerful welcome onto traditional and unceded Sto:lo territory while Dr. Sylvie Murray provided a welcome from UFV.
