The "Chicago Dialogues" initiative began in September 2020 as a series of online, web-based conversations, to highlight and generate interest in the breadth of scholarship undertaken across disciplines at the University of Chicago. Featuring stalwarts from various university departments, the talks aimed to creating a series of engaging, insightful and thought-provoking discussions of current interest, accessible to a non-specialist transnational audience, while retaining the intellectual depth of the underlying research. Encompassing a wide spectrum of subjects and themes, film studies, political science, medieval history, present-day elections in the US and other democracies, music, immunology, religion, philosophy, linguistic and literary theory, finance, economics, and climate change. The series was broadcast live on UChicago Center in Delhi and Prohor.in digital platforms (Facebook and YouTube).
The inaugural episode of the Chicago Dialogues series sheds fresh light on some of the lesser known contours in the work and genius of the auteur, Satyajit Ray. For instance, the film-makers who left a deep impact on him, the subtle political undertones in his films, the eternal present-ness of the Calcutta Trilogy, the selective use of leitmotifs, and the uniqueness of his music.
History is replete with the unfulfilled promise of princes cut down in their prime. The Mughal Empire is no exception. This episode traces the life and times of the crown prince, Dara Shukoh, his prodigious talent as a chronicler, poet, philosopher and connoisseur of the arts, his deeply syncretic ideas, the bitter rivalry with his brothers, leading to an open War of Succession – and his tragic end.
In today's context, is Physics still about the study of fundamental properties of nature? Or has some of the focus shifted to the study of emergences?
This episode explores what it means to think about passions, affect, and atmospheric solidarities in politics. At what point does politics exceed the calculation of interests? How do we think about contradictory interests and conflicting fantasy investments when investigating our current political worlds? How can we repurpose ideology to understand its relation to affect? How do visions premised on reasoned judgment and rational deliberation fall short in analyzing the present? How do revolutionary energies and efforts at political retrenchment play out differently in the streets and in cyberspace? How might a theory of democracy look different when passions and polarization are adequately taken into account?
2020, the year of the pandemic, has also been a watershed for American politics. The high drama of the US Presidential Election, and its equally eventful aftermath, have raised serious doubts about the level of polarization within the populace, the powers of the President, and the robustness of the American democratic setup. To gain fresh insights on all these questions - and more - please join us for an engrossing conversation with Professor John Mark Hansen.
Born from the fusion of Persian and Indian cultures, Hindustani musical cosmopolitanism runs deep. This episode addresses cosmopolitanism in the life and work of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, India’s preeminent sarod artist and a lifelong traveler across artistic, religious, and geographic boundaries.
How does an abiding love for knowledge lead to break-throughs in pathology? How can technology play an empowering role in medical education and healthcare delivery, in advancing the progress of medical science? What does research at the cutting edge of pathology entail, in our current times? And, in the final analysis, do humanity and humility score higher than technical expertise?
In 1963, when she was 22 years old, Wendy Doniger lived in India, mostly in Shantiniketan and Calcutta, for the first time. She wrote frequent long letters to her parents, forgotten until she rediscovered them in 2018. These letters reveal a supremely gifted intellect, an insatiably curious spirit, a passionate love of Indian architecture and music and literature, and a fascinating and charming cast of characters whom Doniger met.
Join us for the much-awaited Episode #8 of 'Chicago Dialogues', as Gary Tubb and Avik Chanda discuss this treasure trove with Wendy Doniger, to discover what she left out as well as the stories behind what she put in.
Martha Nussbaum in conversation with Jayati Ghosh, Tanika Sarkar and Zoya Hassan.
Dr. Raghuram Rajan in conversation with Dipesh Chakrabarty and Avik Chanda on Indian history, society, and politics.
Academic and author Dipesh Chakrabarty’s latest book, The Climate of History in a Planetary Age, argues that impact of climate change dismantles deeply ingrained ideas of history, modernity and globalisation. Steeped in historical and philosophical research, the narrative encourages us to view the human condition from a planetary and global perspective to truly understand the changing realities of our times.
The session begins by examining the relationship between Mughal political culture and the two dominant strains of Islam's Sufi traditions in South Asia: one centred around orthodoxy, the other focusing on a more accommodating and mystical spirituality - and then goes on to explore broader historiographical questions.
David Shulman has produced pathbreaking translations from Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit, as well as a history of the imagination in South India, among many other writings on the poetry, history, and spiritual cultures of India and on the politics of his adopted homeland, Israel. He has recently completed a new book, Introspection and Insight: South Indian Minds in the Early Modern Era. In this Chicago Dialogue, Professor Shulman will be in conversation with two of his colleagues from UChicago’s Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, Gary Tubb and Whitney Cox. Topics will include the changing modes of inner life since 1500 in the Deccan and further south, Shulman’s own early introspections during his childhood in Iowa, his long standing connections with the University of Chicago, and the relationship between his scholarship and his work for peace in Israel-Palestine.
Climate Change has often been described as the biggest problem human civilization has ever faced. It is also a problem deserving our immediate attention. Yet why are nations and societies slow to address it? Why is the urgency of the problem so difficult to communicate?
Learn about the professional and personal journey of Dr. Mohan Gundeti, an acclaimed innovator and international leader in the field of pediatric urology at the University of Chicago.
The shift from Mughal rule to the British Empire in South Asia has long been a subject of interest to scholars and non-scholars alike. Old historical explanations about the decline of the Mughals and the rise of British rule have been challenged recently by new accounts in the overlapping fields of South Asian, British, and global history that have sought to reexamine some fundamental questions: Why and how did the East India Company come to acquire a territorial empire in India? What was the nature of the change? Why did Mughal power wane? What effect did this transition have on the social and economic development of the subcontinent? What relationship was there between the developing British Empire in South Asia and the loss of the British Empire in North America?
All of these important questions have been addressed in the wide-ranging writings of William Dalrymple. His work has won numerous awards and attracted readers all over the world because of his elegant and innovative interpretations. This episode of Chicago Dialogues will bring Dalrymple into conversations with three scholars from the University of Chicago interested in the emergence of British India and the British Empire more generally.