RECAST(E)ING SOUTH/ASIAN DANCE AND PERFORMANCE

Shaista Patel

Indian Americans Engulfing “American Indian”: Marking the “Dot Indians’” Indianness through Genocide and Casteism in Diaspora

View poster

UPDATE: DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, THIS TALK IS OPEN ONLY TO UCR FACULTY AND STUDENTS AND OTHER INVITED GUESTS. PLEASE EMAIL LILY SZETO (LILYS@UCR.EDU) IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND. ACCESS TO THE RECORDING WILL BE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST. 

Description

In this talk I contribute to the slowly emerging conversation on why South Asians must center caste in all our scholarly and other political work. I will argue that it is urgent to talk about the participation of non-Black, non- Indigenous people of color in upholding structures of violence, such as white settler colonialism, anti-Blackness, and casteism in order to challenge the epistemology of “colonial unknowing” in critical praxis. I am particularly invested in thinking about this urgency in relation to the participation by caste-privileged brown South Asians in various systems of domination in North America (specifically Canada and the US). To think about complicity of caste South Asians I will examine part of a photographic series called An Indian from India (2001–07) by Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, an Indian American photographer to show that even seemingly critical conversations on anti-indigeneity and anti-Blackness without centering caste are not only simply performative rhetoric but also casteist and, therefore, harmful to the work of political organizing. 

Bio

Shaista Patel works as an Assistant Professor of Critical Muslim Studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She identifies as a Pakistani Dalit Muslim feminist scholar. Mis-trained as delinquent and accidental anti-disciplinary scholar, her investment is in several questions that draw upon theories in Indigenous (to North America and parts of S. Asia), Black, Dalit and anti-caste, critical race, and transnational feminist studies. 

 

This talk is part of the 2021-2022 UCR Department of Dance Colloquium. For more information about the series, please see here.

 

As we strive to constantly renew our commitments to social and racial justice as a department, we acknowledge and recognize our responsibility to the original and current caretakers of the land where UC Riverside is located: The Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples (see full land acknowledgement). The life of our department and the upkeep of our facilities are maintained by the labor of so many people to whom we are grateful. Special thanks to Melanie Ramiro, Performing Arts Marketing Specialist, and Lily Chan Szeto, Department of Dance Event Specialist.

Event Details

See Who Is Interested

  • Priscilla Marrero
  • Misha

2 people are interested in this event

User Activity

No recent activity