Yasmin Saikia

Plenary and Keynotes

1. ‘Blurring the Boundaries: History, Literature, and Peace,’ in ‘Historic Metafiction: Problematizing History and Redefining Fiction,’ Kashmir University, India, April 20, 2017.   
2. ‘Nation, Neighbours, and Humanity: Destroyed and recovered in war and violence,’ in ‘Emotions and Memory: an international workshop,’ Melbourne University, Australia, May 26, 2016.
3. ‘Freedom Dream: Middle Actors and the Imagination of Azadi from Colonialism,’ 25th International History Conference, Karachi, Pakistan, January 19-21, 2016.
4. ‘Destroyed by Love: Nation, Memory, and Humanity in South Asia, in ‘Critical Approaches in South Asian Studies Workshop,’ York University, Toronto, Canada, February 26-27, 2015.
5. ‘Unruly Subjects, Freedom Imaginings: Transborder Connections in Colonial India,’ Annual South Asia Lecture, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, May 7, 2014.
6. ‘Humanities for Peace: What South Asia has to Teach Us,’ Asian Studies Development Conference 20th Annual National Conference, Asian Studies, Houston, Texas, March 15, 2014.
7. ‘Perpetrators Remember: Re-Telling the 1971 War of Bangladesh,’ in ‘Memory and Commemoration in Asia and the West: An International Workshop,’ University of Melbourne, Australia, February, 15, 2014.
8. ‘What the Desert Teaches Us?: New Directions in Education and Peace,’ Sanjoy Ghosh Memorial Lecture, Desert Resource Research Center, URMUL, Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, December 11, 2011. 
9. ‘The Muslim World, Global Connectivity, and Human Dignity,’ 13th McDonald Lecture Series, Angel Fire, New Mexico, August 7-9, 2011.
10. ‘Assam, India and Southeast Asia: The Tai-Ahom Connection,’ in ‘South and Southeast Asia: Histories of Connections,’ Indira Gandhi National Council of the Arts, New Delhi, India, March 22, 2010.
11. ‘Traumatized Bodies, Resilient Voices: The Unforgettable War of Bangladesh (1971) in Women’s Memories,’ Inaugural Lecture, Journal of Women’s History, SUNY- Binghamton, October 14, 2009.
12. 'Local Nationalism and Religious Politics in Assam,' in 'Religion and Politics in South Asia,' South Atlantic States Association for Asian and African Studies, Plenary Speaker, Spring Meeting, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina, April 5, 2003.

Select Invited Presentations

1. ‘Itinerant Itineraries of India’s Freedom: Muslim Revolutionaries against British Colonialism,’ Ashoka University, Sonepat, April 13, 2017.
2. ‘History, Fiction and Identities among the Muslims in India's Northeast,’ Jawaharlal Nehru University, April 7, 2017.
3. ‘Social Sciences and the Humanities: Why do they matter,’ Aligarh Open University Initiative Lecture, Aligarh Muslim University, March 24, 2017.
4. ‘Returning to Celebrate: Sheikh Abdullah’s Legacy and Women’s Education,’ Memorial Lecture, Founders Day Event, Women’s College, Aligarh Muslim University, February 20, 2017.
5. ‘New Trends and Perspectives on Research,’ Inauguration of Aligarh Open University, Aligarh Muslim University, February 12, 2017.
6. ‘Violent History, Unforgettable Memories: Insaniyat for Tolerance,’ Lahore University of Management Studies, Lahore, Pakistan, December 2, 2016.
7. ‘Coming to terms with violence in Pakistan: A Historical approach,’ Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan, October 31, 2016. 
8. ‘Love’s Destruction: Men, Women and the Memories of 1971 War of Bangladesh,’ Northern Arizona University, November 6, 2015.
9. ‘Lived Histories: Dialogues with the Local,’ History Department, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan, October 8, 2015.
10. ‘History, again: Narrating Lived Experiences,’ Forman Christian College University, Lahore, Pakistan, October 8, 2015.
11. ‘Uncolonializable: Freedom in the Mind of the Muslims in Colonial British India,’ School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, March 12, 2015.
12. ‘Humanities and the Reaffirmation of the Human: Writing a People’s History of Peace in South Asia,’ Gender Justice and Conflict Transformation and Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, March 11, 2015.
13. ‘Uncolonizable: Freedom in the Mind of the Muslims in Colonial India,’ South Asia Forum Lecture, New York State University, November 5, 2014.
14. ‘Contagious Peace: Humanities and the Reaffirmation of the Human,’ Global Islam Lecture, Lehigh University, November 3, 2014.
15. ‘The Peace Contagion in Muslim South Asia: Friendship, Hospitality, and Humanity,’ Arizona Muslim Women’s Annual Lecture, Tempe Museum, AZ, October 20, 2014.
16. ‘The Loss of History: Memory, History and Humanity after 1971,’ University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, May 21, 2014.
17. ‘Women, War and Peace,’ International Women’s Day, University of Pennsylvania, March 5, 2014.
18. ‘Thinking about Peace: Oral History after the 1971 War,’ Bricklane Circle, London, March 25, 2012.  
19. ‘Strangers, Friends, and Survivors: Narratives after the 1971 War of Bangladesh,’ Annual South Asia Forum, Harvard University, March 19, 2012.
20. ‘Remembering to be Human: An Islamic Approach to Peace and Justice in South Asia,’ Center for Civilizational Dialogues, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, March 21, 2011.
21. ‘Impure History: At the Borderland of Assam, India, 3rd Asian Studies Graduate Students Conference, Arizona State University, Tempe, November 19, 2010.
22. ‘Forgetting/Remembering: Rethinking a postcolonial narrative of war and violence in 1971, Bangladesh,’ Conference in Gender and Sexuality in South Asia, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, June 18, 2008.

Invited symposiums and conference panels

1. Chair and Panel Discussant, International Conference on ‘Hundred Years of the End of the Indenture System,’ Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, March 28, 2017.
2. ‘Approaching Migration and Migrants from an Islamic Perspective: Cases from twentieth century South Asia,’ International Workshop on ‘Religion and Global Citizenship,’ London, August 7-9, 2016.
3. Panel Discussion ‘New Directions for the History of Pakistan,’ in ‘Trending Pakistan: An International History Workshop, April 29, 2016.
4. ‘Private Memories as Intellectual History: The “unordinary” experiences of 1971,’ in ‘An Intellectual History for Pakistan,’ St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, March 1, 2016.
5. ‘The Present/Absent Muslim in Assam, India,’ Conference on ‘Democracy and Pluralism,’ Columbia University, February 12-13, 2016.
6. ‘Becoming free from colonialism: ‘Middle-actors’ and a different imagination of “The Republic of God”,’ in International conference ‘Life Writing – Writing Lives Engaging Knowledge, Time and Self,’ Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, September 30 – October 2, 2015.
7. ‘Musa Say Marx Tak: Sibte Hasan and the life worlds of Pakistani progressives,’ Discussant, in International conference ‘Life Writing – Writing Lives Engaging Knowledge, Time and Self,’ Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, September 30 – October 2, 2015.
8. Panel Discussant, ‘Cultural History II,’ in ‘Future Directions in Pakistan Studies,’ University of Michigan, April 4, 2015
9. ‘Love and Hate in South Asia: Rethinking Humanity after 1971,’ in International Conference ‘Tolerance in Contemporary Muslim Thought and Practice,’ King’s College, London, March 16-17, 2015.
10. ‘Muslim Women and Everyday Practices of Peace,’ The Power of Religion: Religion, Conflict and Peace in Contemporary World, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, December 12-13, 2013.
11. ‘Unruly Subjects: Freedom Imaginings in the Independent Territories of Colonial India,’ Religious Studies Forum, Arizona State University, November 13, 2013.
12. ‘Seeking Human Connections in Global Disjunctures: Fieldnotes of an Historian and Anthropologist,’ Sulaimanyeh University, Kurdistan Iraq, April 11, 2013.
13. ‘(Mis)Communications: Culture, Language, and Survivors testimony of the 1971 war of Bangladesh,’ 3rd International Conference on Translation, Ministry of Culture, Baghdad, Iraq, April 5, 2013.
14. ‘Writing a Muslim History of Northeast India: Is there a need for such a history?’ in International Workshop ‘Far from the Nation Close to the State: Hazy Sovereignty and Anxious Citizenship in India’s North East, Stanford University, March 14-15, 2013.
15. Panel Discussant, ‘Translations Studies in Pakistan: New Horizons,’ Gujrat University, Pakistan, June 6, 2012.
16. ‘Abdullah Hall, AMU: Living Adab in a Women’s World,’ in International Symposium on ‘Being Muslim in the World: Everyday Ethics and Cultures of Adab,’ Islamabad, Pakistan, May 23, 2012.
17. ‘Human Rights and Man’s Dignity: Reading the post-1971 memories from an Islamic perspective for Peace,’ in Human Rights through the Prism of Gender and Religion, Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, Arizona State University, March 16, 2012. 
18. ‘Global Dialogue on the Advancement of the Humanities in the Muslim World,’ Lahore University of Management Studies, Lahore, Pakistan, January 3, 2012.
19. ‘Thinking with the Heart: Narratives of the quest for justice after the 1971 war of Bangladesh,’ Center for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, India, December 16, 2011.
20. ‘Looking for History at the Source: Oral History after Violence and War in South Asia,’ Public History Brown Bag Series, Arizona State University, September 14, 2011.
21. ‘The Difference a Decade Makes: Religion, Politics and Public Life,’ tenth anniversary of 9/11, Center for Religion and Conflict, Arizona State University, September 8, 2011.  
22. ‘Role of Women in Peacebuilding,’ Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Committee, Rajghat, New Delhi, July 29, 2011.
23. ‘Telling 1971: Reconciliation and Indigenous Knowledge for Peace,’ North East Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, July 22, 2011
24. ‘The Islamic Habitus in South and Southeast Asia,’ International Academy of Islamic Studies, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 4, 2011.
25. ‘In the face of Oppression: Muslims, Resistance and Identity-Making in Colonial South Asia,’ Public Forum, Academy of Islamic Studies and the Center for Civilization Dialogues, University of Malaya, July 1, 2011.
26. ‘Islam: A Panel Discussion,’ Scottsdale Community College, Arizona, November 18, 2010.
27. War, Rape and Traumatic Memories: Reconciling with 1971 in South Asia,’ Religious Studies Lecture Series, November 4, 2010.
28. ‘Assam’s Past in the Present: Limits and Possibilities of a new History,’ Jawaharlal Nehru University, International Conference on Northeast India and Southeast Asia, March 21, 2010.
29. ‘Making/unmaking a nation: Muslims, Violence, Memories (1971),’ Quaid-e-Azam University, Department of History, Islamabad, Pakistan, May 29, 2009.
30. ‘1971: An Oral History,’ History Department, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan, April 10, 2009. 
31. ‘An Oral History of 1971: Ignored Voices,’ Pakistan Studies Center, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, April 1, 2009.
32. ‘Nation, State, Violence and History: Emerging voices of Insān (1971),’ Social Science Council, Islamabad, Pakistan, March 27, 2009.
33. ‘Insān at the edge of History and Memory: Retelling the 1971 War of Bangladesh,’ Department of History Delhi University, Delhi, March 5, 2009.
34. ‘War, Violence, Rape: Hidden histories of 1971, East Pakistan/Bangladesh,’ History Forum, Davidson College, North Carolina, Oct 22, 2008.
35. ‘Finding Humanity in Violence: 1971, East Pakistan to Bangladesh,’ Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, April 10, 2007.
36. ‘They were Human: Men, Women, and Violence in 1971, East Pakistan,’ Rice University, April 14, 2006.
37. ‘Unfinished War Stories, East Pakistan, 1971,’ Center for Studies in Social Science Research, Calcutta, India, June 9, 2005
38. ‘Reclaiming the Right to be Human: War and Violence in 1971,’ Karachi University, Pakistan, February 16, 2005.
39. ‘Uncivil War Stories: Narratives of ordinary men and women about 1971,’ Lahore University of Management Studies, Pakistan, December 21, 2004.
40. ‘Waking Up to our Southeast Asian Past? Tai-Ahom Shows the Way,’ International Conference on Assam and Southeast Asia, Center for Northeast India, South and Southeast Asia, Guwahati, Assam, September 21, 2004.
41. ‘My Body is in Pain:’ Violence, the State and Women in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971,’ South Asia Speakers Series, University of Oregon, Eugene, 15 April, 2004.
42. 'Telling History: Violence, the State, and Women in the Liberation War of Bangladesh,' in Alternate Histories of the Family in South Asia, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, September 19-20, 2003. 
43. 'Making a Recent and Ancient Tai-Ahom Identity in Assam and Thailand,' in Borders and Regional Markets, Economies and Cultures, Social Science Research Council South Asia and Southeast Asia Program, Chiang Mai, Thailand, July 4-6, 2003.
44. 'Overcoming the Silent Archive in Bangladesh: Women Bear Witness to Violence in the 1971 Liberation War,' in Women and the Contested State: Religion, Violence and Agency in South Asia, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, April 11-12, 2003.
45. 'Rape, Violence and Historical Memory in Bangladesh,' in ‘Women, War, and Violence,’ Women’s History Conference, Duke University, March 28, 2003. 
46. 'The Politics of Tai-Ahom Identity in Assam: Is it Local Nationalism or Secessionism?' in 'The Dynamics of Diversity: Narratives of Pluralism in South Asian History,' The South Asia Council of the Association of Asian Studies, Bloomington, February 22, 2003. 
47. 'Women, War and Historical Memory in Bangladesh,' United Nation's Association at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, November 21, 2002.
48. 'Local Nationalism in South Asia,' Duke University, Durham, November 19, 2002.
49. ‘The 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh: memories of violence women had never spoken about,' American Association of University Women, Chapel Hill, October 19, 2002. 
50. ‘Women, War, and Historical Memory in Bangladesh,’ Feminist Women in History Group, North Carolina, March 1, 2002.            
51. ‘With their Bodies and Blood: Women and the Bangladesh War of Liberation of 1971,’ Bangladesh Civil Service Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 14, 2001.
52. ‘I Can’t Be Silent: Bearing Witness to Women’s Traumatic Memories of 1971,’ American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 13, 2001.
53. ‘Speaking Through Silence: Women and the War of Bangladesh in 1971,’ Women Studies Colloquia, University of North-Carolina - Chapel Hill, March 23, 2000.

Select conference presentations

1. Opening Address and Chair for the Pre-Conference on ‘Modernity and Tradition in South Asian Muslim Thought: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on the Modernist Legacy of Syed Ahmed Khan in South Asia,’ Annual South Asia Conference. Madison, WI, October 20, 2016.
2. Panel Discussant on Venkat Dhulipala’s book ‘Creating a New Medina,’ Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 21, 2016. 
3. Opening Address, ‘People’s Peace: Culture, Agency and Lived Experience,’ Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, Arizona State University, April 16-17, 2015.
4. ‘Unruly Subjects and Freedom Imagining: Transborder Connections in Colonial India,’ Annual South Asia Conference at Madison, WI, October 17, 2014.
5. ‘Untraceable History: The Muslims in Assam,’ Annual South Asia Conference at Madison, WI, October 18, 2014.
6. ‘Engendering War and Violence in 1971: Memories as Records of an Alternative History of the Pakistan Army,’ Berkshire Women’s History Conference, Special Invited Panel in honor of Luisa Passerini, May 24, 2014.
7. ‘Engendering War and Violence in 1971: Memories as Records of an Alternative History of the Pakistan Army,’ Annual American Historical Association, January 3, 2014. 
8. ‘Are we losing our Humanity,’ Round Table on ‘The Summer of Violence in Northeast India,’ Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, October 14, 2012.
9. Panel Chair and Discussant, ‘Visions of Coexistence: Thinking Beyond Violence in Northeast India,’ Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, October 12, 2012.
10. Panel Chair and Discussant, ‘Crossroads or Limits? Recognition, Camouflage, and Friendship as Articulations of the Border in South Asia,’ Annual Asian Studies Conference, March 17, 2012.
11. ‘Impure History: At the borderland of Assam, India,’ in panel ‘Rethinking National Imaginaries in South Asia: The case of Kashmir, Pasthunistan, and Assam,’ American Historical Association, January 7, 2012.
12. ‘Public History Goes Global: A Roundtable of Issues and Themes,’ American Historical Association, January 7, 2012.
13. ‘Another Way of Thinking about Peace: Insāniyat after the 1971 war of Bangladesh,’ in ‘Peace Education for Sustainable Development National Convention,’ Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti Annual Conference, December 14-15, 2011.  
14. Panel Discussant and Chair, ‘Topographies of Power, Paradoxes of Identity: Perspectives form India’s Northeast Borderlands,’ 40th Annual Conference on South Asia,’ Madison, Wisconsin, October 21-23, 2011.
15. ‘A space of freedom: 1971, survivors’ memories, and regained humanity,’ paper presented in ‘Beyond Security: Democratic Contestations in Bangladesh and Pakistan,’ Columbia University, October 14-15, 2011.
16. ‘Enduring Humanity beyond zulm (oppression): The case of 1971,’ Perspectives on Islam and the West: The Need for Cultivating Moderate Outlooks, Center for Civilization Dialogue, University of Malaya and Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, June 16-17, 2011.
17. ‘Retributive Justice? Restoring Humanity after 1971,’ International Conference on ‘Building a Field of Scholarship and Dialogue on 1971,’ 1971 Collective and BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 15-16, 2011. 
18. Panel Discussant, ‘Political Religion in South Asia,’ American Historical Association, January 8, 2011.
19. Panel Chair and Discussant, Round Table on Babri Masjid, 39th Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, October 15, 2010.
20. Discussant, ‘Margins and Centers in Modern South Asian Muslim Politics,’ 39th Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, October 17, 2010.
21. ‘The Past in the Present: Limits and possibilities of writing a new history of Assam,’ International Symposium on North-East India, Indira Gandhi National Council for the Arts and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, March 20-23, 2010.
22. ‘Traumatized Bodies, Resilient Human: The War of 1971 in Women’s Memories,’ A Feminist Preconference ‘The State of Sexuality,’ 38th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, October 22, 2009.
23. ‘Keepers of Order’: Military and Fragmentation of Pakistan, 1971,’ 38th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, October 23, 2009.
24. Discussant, ‘Contested Belongings in South Asia,’ 37th Annual Conference on South Asia, October 16-19, 2008.
25. ‘Collective memory, individual stories and historical interventions on 1971,’ in Preconference session, ‘Pakistan/Bangladesh/India: Building a Field of Scholarship and Dialogue on 1971,’ 36th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, October 12-14, 2007.  
26. ‘Interstitial Conversations of War and Violence, 1971: Victims, Perpetrators and a Historian,’ International Conference on the Sixtieth Year of India and Pakistan, University of Southampton, U.K., July 17-20, 2007.
27. ‘Lost in Violence: History, memory, and humanity in 1971, East Pakistan,’ in Engaging with East Pakistan-Bangladesh 1971: Building a Field of Scholarship and Dialogue, Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Pakistan, January 4-7, 2007.  
28. ‘Gender and Conflict: A Humanist reading of the 1971 War of Bangladesh,’ in Human Rights in the Age of Empire, The American University in Cairo, November 6, 2006.
29. ‘They were Human: Men, Women and Memories of Violence in 1971, East Pakistan, in Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, University of Iowa, April 27-30, 2006. 
30. ‘Listening to the Enemy, Doing History: The Pakistan Army, violence and memories of 1971,’ in Beyond Crisis: A second look at Pakistan, John’s Hopkins University, March 30-April 2, 2006.
31. ‘Understanding the Human in the Subcontinent: East-East encounters in 1971 and beyond’, Annual Pakistan Studies Workshop, Lake District, England, May 6-8, 2005.
32. ‘Bodies in Pain: Writing a People’s History of 1971,’in ‘Troubled Times’ - 9th Annual International Conference on Pakistan, Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan, December 8-10, 2004. 
33. 'Listening to Pain: Narratives of Violence in the Liberation War of Bangladesh,' 32nd Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, October 24-26, 2003.
34. 'Bihari, Bengali, and the War of Liberation of 1971: Speaking Silence and Displacement,' 55th Annual Asian Studies Meeting, New York, March 27-30, 2003.
35. 'Victims of Nationhood: Speaking Silence of Bangladeshi Women,' 100 Annual Conference of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November 21-25, 2002.
36. ‘Are There Tribes in Assam? 29th Annual South Asia Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 16-18, 2000.
37. ‘Why Talk about It?” Silence and the Politics of Memory in Bangladesh,’3rd International South Asian Women’s Conference, Los Angeles, May 5-8, 2000.
38. ‘Our Ancestors are Gods:” Tai-Ahom Identity and Religious Imagination,’ South Asia Council Panel - New Perspectives on Regional and Religious Identities in Colonial South Asia, 52nd Association of Asian Studies, San Diego, March 9-12, 2000.
39. ‘Local Religion and Sites of Resistance: Performance and Politics of Tai-Ahom in Assam,’ 15th Annual South Asia Conference, University of California - Berkeley, February 19-20, 2000.