Jointly organized by South Asian Studies Programme, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
CHAIRPERSON
Dr Vasugi Kailasam, South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore
ABSTRACT
This talk is a progress report from the midpoint in a 5-year comparative project on the Anthropology of Conscience, Ethics and Human Rights. For the Sri Lanka case study in this project, which is being carried out with colleagues from Open University in Sri Lanka and her at NUS, we have been interviewing dissenters, Sinhala and Tamil survivors of the 30-year civil war who took a stand against the violent claims of rival ethnonationalisms. The talk will combine some reflections on the translatability of the idea of “conscience” with preliminary analysis of the dissenters’ accounts of their lives and motivations.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jonathan Spencer is Regius Professor of South Asian Language, Culture and Society at the University of Edinburgh. He has carried out research in Sri Lanka since the early 1980s. His most recent book, Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque (2014) concerns the role of religious organizations in the Sri Lankan civil war, and was co-authored with a team of Sri Lankan and European researchers.
REGISTRATION
Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you click on the “Register” button above to RSVP.
