Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

Dear students and colleagues, 

during the winter term 2025/26, the concept of the ‘idea of the university’ was critically examined across several courses within the Department of South Asian Societies and Cultures (SASC). The university was considered in terms of its role in knowledge production, social change, political protest and state control. The courses combined South Asian perspectives with transregional and global developments, considering both historical and contemporary examples. Particular attention was given to the role and self-perception of scholars, and to the tensions between institutional autonomy, the public educational mandate and political appropriation. Participants contributed a variety of topics and critically reflected on the conditions of academic practice. 

In this concluding session of the BERSAS Research Colloquium, we will present student contributions from all participating language and subject specific courses. 

We cordially invite all interested to attend this presentation and the subsequent joint discussion.

Best regards 

Nadja-Christina Schneider

Dear students and colleagues,

we are delighted to welcome you to the next BERSAS research colloquium with two exciting presentations. As always, we will start s.t. at 2:00 p.m. 

Dr. Ranjamrittika Bhowmik will kick things off with a screening of her film (42min).

“Goddess Durga Unveiled: The Timeless Power of Emotion”

 is a documentary film produced by the Berlin University Alliance that traces

Goddess Durga's journey as both a museum object in Europe and a living

deity in India, exploring affect, decolonization, postcolonial museology,

and Durga Puja traditions through living practices. The film has been

screened in Berlin, Oxford, King's College London, and at the British

Association of South Asian Studies Conference at the University of

Lancaster.

Dr. Ranjamrittika Bhowmik has worked as a postdoctoral researcher

at Humboldt University of Berlin, trained in Cultural Anthropology and

Comparative Literature, with a DPhil from University of Oxford (2023). Her

work explores esoteric yoga traditions, oral literatures, indigenous

knowledge systems, and alternative social imaginaries in South Asia, and

her current research spans histories of emotion, decolonization, and AI

ethics.

The second speaker is Aseela Haque, PhD Candidate in Human Geography at Freie Universität Berlin.

She will present her research on the topic

“Asphalt City: Roads and the Politics of Inhabitation in Karachi.”

This dissertation project makes visible the ways in which urban dwellers in Karachi, who are not only left out of the urban planning imaginary but are also subject to its targeted violence, experience and inhabit unequal conditions. The talk introduces the four empirical threads of the thesis (flyovers, street vending, pigeon-human relations, and urban walking) that weave an emergent asphalt city, wherein roads as infrastructures are implicated in the production of uneven geographies of dwelling for humans and non-humans in Karachi.

The session will be moderated by Dr. Sadia Bajwa (IAAW).

We look forward to seeing you there and to a lively discussion.

Best regards

Nadja-Christina Schneider

Einladung

Am Dienstag, 27.01.2026 findet um 09:00h s.t. in Raum 117 am IAAW die öffentliche Verteidigung der Masterarbeit von 

Jakob Alfred Münch

statt. 

Titel der Masterarbeit: 

Urbane Moderne zwischen Staatsvision und Weltpolitik.

Islamabad als postkoloniales
State und Nation-Building Projekt

Gutachtende: 

Dr. Sadia Bajwa

Prof. Dr. Nadja-Christina Schneider

Interessierte sind herzlich eingeladen, bitte prüfen Sie vorab ggf. erneut die Raumangabe!