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The Africa Institute hosted a book launch and discussion on Love and Revolution in the Twentieth-Century Colonial and Postcolonial World on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Professors Patricia Hayes, G. Arunima, and Premesh Lalu, co-editors of the book, were joined by Professors Javed Majeed, English and Comparative Literature at King’s College London, and Behrooz Ghamari, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, in a discussion moderated by Professor Elizabeth Giorgis to explore major themes in the book.

Book Synopsis

The book addresses emancipatory narratives from two main sites in the colonial world, the Indian and Southern African subcontinents. This volume is unique in exploring the interrelation between love and revolution, drawing on theories of affect to interrogate political histories and thus establishing a meaningful link between the two. The chapters engage with the affinities of those who live with their colonial pasts, encompassing a crisis of expectations, colonial national convulsions, memories of anti-colonial solidarity, and even shared radical libraries. The text draws attention to the specific and singular way in which notions of love for the world were born in a precise moment of anti-colonial struggle—a love for the world for which one would offer one’s life, with little precedent in the history of earlier revolutions. As a result, it offers new perspectives for understanding shifts in global traditions of emancipation over two centuries.

Editors

G. Arunima

G. Arunima is Professor in the Centre for Women’s Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and currently the Director of Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. She has researched and published on both historical and modern contexts in India, focusing particularly on cultural, visual and material texts, and rethinking the politics of the contemporary.

Patricia Hayes

Patricia Hayes is is the National Research Foundation SARChI (South African Research Chairs Initiative) Chair in Visual History & Theory at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape. She has published extensively on history and colonial and documentary photography in southern Africa.

Premesh Lalu

Before joining the Africa Institute in Sharjah, Professor Premesh Lalu was a founding director of the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He is co-editor of Remains of the Social: Desiring the Post-apartheid (Wits University Press, 2017), and Love and Revolution in the Twentieth-Century Colonial and Postcolonial World (Palgrave, 2021). His forthcoming book, Undoing Apartheid, will be published by Polity Press in the UK in November 2022.

Discussants

Javed Majeed

Javed Majeed is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at King’s College London. He is the author of a number of books and articles on modern South Asia, including Ungoverned Imaginings: James Mill’s the History of British India and Orientalism (1992); Autobiography, Travel and Postnational Identity: Gandhi, Nehru and Iqbal (2007); and Muhammad Iqbal: Islam, Aesthetics and Postcolonialism (2009). He is also the editor, with Christopher Shackle, of Hali’s Musaddas: The Flow and Ebb of Islam (1997), and with Isabel Hofmeyr, India and South Africa (2016). His two-volume study of G.A. Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India was published as Nation and Region in Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India (2018). He is currently working on the cultural and linguistic politics of lexicography and conceptions of the English language in 19th century colonial India. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2021.

Behrooz Ghamari

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, holding a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Additionally, he serves as the Director of Princeton University’s Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. He joined the Department of Near Eastern Studies in February 2019 after spending fourteen years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he was a Professor of History and Sociology, as well as the Director of the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Ghamari-Tabrizi is the author of three books that explore different aspects and the historical context of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and its aftermath: “Islam and Dissent in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Abdolkarim Soroush and the Religious Foundations of Political Reform,” “Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment,” and “Remembering Akbar: Inside the Iranian Revolution.” He has contributed extensively to various journals and book chapters on the topics of social theory and Islamist political thought. Currently, he is working on a project on Mystical Modernity, a comparative study of the philosophy of history and political theory of Walter Benjamin and Ali Shariati.

Moderator

Elizabeth Giorgis

Elizabeth W. Giorgis is Associate Professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism at The Africa Institute. Read more.

The Africa Institute hosted a book launch and discussion on Love and Revolution in the Twentieth-Century Colonial and Postcolonial World on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

The Africa Institute hosted a book launch and discussion on Love and Revolution in the Twentieth-Century Colonial and Postcolonial World on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Professors Patricia Hayes, G. Arunima, and Premesh Lalu, co-editors of the book, were joined by Professors Javed Majeed, English and Comparative Literature at King’s College London, and Behrooz Ghamari, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, in a discussion moderated by Professor Elizabeth Giorgis to explore major themes in the book.

Book Synopsis

The book addresses emancipatory narratives from two main sites in the colonial world, the Indian and Southern African subcontinents. This volume is unique in exploring the interrelation between love and revolution, drawing on theories of affect to interrogate political histories and thus establishing a meaningful link between the two. The chapters engage with the affinities of those who live with their colonial pasts, encompassing a crisis of expectations, colonial national convulsions, memories of anti-colonial solidarity, and even shared radical libraries. The text draws attention to the specific and singular way in which notions of love for the world were born in a precise moment of anti-colonial struggle—a love for the world for which one would offer one’s life, with little precedent in the history of earlier revolutions. As a result, it offers new perspectives for understanding shifts in global traditions of emancipation over two centuries.

Editors

G. Arunima

G. Arunima is Professor in the Centre for Women’s Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and currently the Director of Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. She has researched and published on both historical and modern contexts in India, focusing particularly on cultural, visual and material texts, and rethinking the politics of the contemporary.

Patricia Hayes

Patricia Hayes is is the National Research Foundation SARChI (South African Research Chairs Initiative) Chair in Visual History & Theory at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape. She has published extensively on history and colonial and documentary photography in southern Africa.

Premesh Lalu

Before joining the Africa Institute in Sharjah, Professor Premesh Lalu was a founding director of the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He is co-editor of Remains of the Social: Desiring the Post-apartheid (Wits University Press, 2017), and Love and Revolution in the Twentieth-Century Colonial and Postcolonial World (Palgrave, 2021). His forthcoming book, Undoing Apartheid, will be published by Polity Press in the UK in November 2022.

Discussants

Javed Majeed

Javed Majeed is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at King’s College London. He is the author of a number of books and articles on modern South Asia, including Ungoverned Imaginings: James Mill’s the History of British India and Orientalism (1992); Autobiography, Travel and Postnational Identity: Gandhi, Nehru and Iqbal (2007); and Muhammad Iqbal: Islam, Aesthetics and Postcolonialism (2009). He is also the editor, with Christopher Shackle, of Hali’s Musaddas: The Flow and Ebb of Islam (1997), and with Isabel Hofmeyr, India and South Africa (2016). His two-volume study of G.A. Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India was published as Nation and Region in Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India (2018). He is currently working on the cultural and linguistic politics of lexicography and conceptions of the English language in 19th century colonial India. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2021.

Behrooz Ghamari

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, holding a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Additionally, he serves as the Director of Princeton University’s Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. He joined the Department of Near Eastern Studies in February 2019 after spending fourteen years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he was a Professor of History and Sociology, as well as the Director of the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Ghamari-Tabrizi is the author of three books that explore different aspects and the historical context of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and its aftermath: “Islam and Dissent in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Abdolkarim Soroush and the Religious Foundations of Political Reform,” “Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment,” and “Remembering Akbar: Inside the Iranian Revolution.” He has contributed extensively to various journals and book chapters on the topics of social theory and Islamist political thought. Currently, he is working on a project on Mystical Modernity, a comparative study of the philosophy of history and political theory of Walter Benjamin and Ali Shariati.

Moderator

Elizabeth Giorgis

Elizabeth W. Giorgis is Associate Professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism at The Africa Institute. Read more.

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