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A one-month scholarly workshop programme
Sufi Feminist Poetic Cultures in South Asia

South Asia and its Sufi poetic cultures have always been rich sources of feminist epistemology and revolutionary modes of thought. These modes have become marginal in the context of colonialism and modernity. Yet, through shrine spaces ranging from Sindh to Punjab, as well as the performance of Sufi literary-poetic traditions across Pakistan, feminist counter-publics and possibilities continue to be enacted every day.

About the Programme:
Sufi Feminist Poetic Cultures in South Asia is a month-long scholarly workshop programme for final-year humanities students in Pakistan. Designed to bring emerging and student scholars together who are interested in thinking the intersections of Sufi and feminist thought, the workshop programme will allow participants to develop their original research ideas, form ties with fellow peers and scholars as they read and critique each other’s work, as well as serve as an incubation space and breeding ground for newer ideas to emerge.

Collectively, we will read both theoretical and literary-poetic works by a diverse range of writers and poets such as Mira Bai, Bulleh Shah, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Fahmida Riaz, Kabir, and Annemarie Schimmel, amongst others. By approaching these writers, we will mine the radical and revolutionary – and feminist – potential of these Sufi poets and thinkers. We will read these thinkers for concepts such as gender, time, space, agency, and decolonial aesthetics.  

Our workshop programme will be divided into reading, writing, discussion, and translation praxis sessions spanning across a month (with a total of eight sessions, we will meet twice a week in the month of September, thus achieving our goals set for the workshop). A complete reading packet will be provided at the start of the programme. Texts will be in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Hindawi, but complete translations will be provided.

About the Instructor
This scholarly workshop programme will be taught by Asad Alvi. Alvi holds a degree from the Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts at the IBA, and their culminating dissertation project read feminist agency in the works of the Sindhi Sufi writer Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. 

Alvi has taught writing and poetry workshops internationally and in Pakistan, and their scholarly and literary work has appeared in Words Without Borders, Columbia: A Journal of Art & Literature, Dawn, The Hindu,and Kashmir Lit, as well as in the literary anthologies We Will Be Shelter: An Anthology of Contemporary Feminist Poetry (2014), Uprooted: An Anthology of Gender and Illness (2015) and The World that Belongs to Us (2020).

Why Apply?
We are interested in decolonizing normative modes of thought. We recognize that not only mentorship programs for liberal arts students struggling to do original research are lacking in Pakistan, but that archives and knowledge-systems created out of local, indigenous, and regional imaginaries, as well through felt, intuitive, and mystical experiences are undertheorized, discouraged, or dismissed as irrational and private. 

We therefore wish to offer informal support to such scholars, and offer a friendly, communal, and healing learning environment where we can collectively support and develop each other’s ideas, trust our intuitions about the world, and help each other in translating our felt experiences into analytical language and rigor. In this scholarly workshop programme, we will especially pay attention to critical feminist imaginaries available in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, and other non-European languages, and participants are encouraged to work with the languages they inhabit and know best. 

In the long run, we hope that through our scholarly workshop programme we can enhance the professional, theoretical and practical knowledge base of young and student scholars who are interested in exploring the theme of our scholarly programme.


Who can Apply?
The workshop is ideal for final-year social sciences and humanities students and recent graduates wanting to expand their learning and theoretical base in the intersections of Sufi and feminist imaginaries from South Asia, as well as a chance to visit alternative and decolonial archives of knowledge located within the diverse South Asian languages.

If you are a student from Pakistan whose research interests and goals align with our theme, please apply. Ifyou are not a final-year student yet but are passionate about the subject and are committed to joining anyway, please send in your application. We want our group of participants to be as diverse as possible. 


Workshop Outcomes
This workshop is ideal for final-year humanities or liberal arts students currently developing, expected to in the future, or in the process of writing a dissertation. At the end of the workshop, we wish and hope for our participants to walk away with solidly developed ideas and thoughts, and a newer outlook and frame through which they approach and appreciate some of their ideas. 

Dates
The workshop programme will take place in the month of September 2020. We will meet for two sessions in a week (days and timing will be decided in coordination with the participants), for two hours per session. We will meet, therefore, for a total of 8 sessions, and 16 hour working sessions.

Platform 
Our platform is Zoom. A meeting link will be emailed to all participants prior to the workshop. Our choice of platform also means that participants across Pakistan can join and do not have to physically travel in order to be considered for participation. 

Application Deadline:
Deadline to send in application: 25th August 2020, midnight PKT.

How to Apply
Fill and submit the following application form online: 
Application Form

Selection Procedure
Shortlisted participants will be contacted by 26th August 2020, midnight, by email. Selection is on a first-come first-serve basis. We will cap at a limited number of participants in order to keep our discussions intimate and engaging.

 

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