Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities - UTM

@sirvanderbeek

@sirvanderbeek storytelling skills

Conner Singh VanderBeek @sirvanderbeek

Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities presents Singing the Immigrant Generation A performance and presentation by Conner Singh VanderBeek Date: Friday, March 6, 2026 Time: 6 pm – 8 pm Location: Maanjiwe nendamowinan, 2nd Floor Upper Lobby/North Reception Please register at the Eventbrite link: /CVanderBeek Description In 1994, farmer and writer Mohinder Singh Ghag (1931-2020) – Conner VanderBeek's grandfather – co-founded the Punjabi Sahit Sabha (literary society) of Yuba City-Sacramento. What began as a series of informal gatherings in Ghag’s California farmhouse garage blossomed into a cultural and linguistic community. Dozens of immigrant men and women gathered to share the intimacies of their immigrant experiences through sung and recited poetry. Ironically, Ghag’s children and grandchildren could not comprehend the depth of his writings or the Punjabi worldview they expressed while he was alive. “Singing the Immigrant Generation,” through storytelling, musical composition, and poetic recitation, tries to glimpse into the world Ghag and his colleagues built in California. It is based on Dr. VanderBeek's own scholarly research on diasporic Punjabi poetry and the interstitial lifeworld it encapsulates between Punjab-born subject and the diasporic-becoming subject, which he began following his nanaji’s passing. He engages the compositions of Ghag and his younger sister, Mohinderjit Kaur Thiara, to explore the secret language the two shared amongst themselves and among the Punjabi Sahit Sabha. Interwoven with these poems and their translations are personal stories of Dr. VanderBeek's family’s engagements with his nanaji’s poetry and new musical compositions

The Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities and Culinaria Research Institute present Subversive Smiths Nachiket Chanchani Date: Thursday, March 19, 2026 Time: 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm Location: 3230 Maanjiwe nendamowinan, 3rd Floor, 1535 Outer Circle, Mississauga ON M5P 1K3 Please register at: /NChanChani This talk will trace the production and circulation of hand-crafted brass and bell-metal food containers and reconstruct how these everyday objects became emblems of sovereignty, reshaped society, and furthered the rise of nationalism in Assam in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Presented by The Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities and Shehla and Adil Giving for Arts Foundation BOOK LAUNCH & PANEL DISCUSSION The Hyderabadis from 1947 to the Present Day Featuring: Daneesh Majid, Haroon Siddiqui, Ali Adil Khan, Meenakshi Alimchandani, & Brian Cannon Date: Friday, March 27, 2026 Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Location: Maanjiwe nendamowinan, 2nd Floor Upper Lobby / North Reception A book signing will follow the discussion. Please register via the following link: /DMajidbook From the annexation of Hyderabad in 1948 to the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956 and the creation of Telangana in 2014, the city’s political history is well known. Less visible are the voices of the communities who lived through communal violence, linguistic reorganization, bifurcation, and the long struggle for statehood. Daneesh Majid brings these perspectives to light. Drawing on generational interviews, oral histories, Urdu and English literature, and his own experiences, he crafts a people-centered modern history of Hyderabad.

Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities presents Begum in Kachehrii: Family, Law, and Sovereignty in Muslim Princely States A Lecture by Razak Khan Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026 Time: 12 pm - 2 pm Location: Maanjiwe nendamowinan, 5128 5th Floor, 1535 Outer Circle, Mississauga ON L5L 1C6 Register at: /Mar26Khan In this talk, Razak Khan studies the history of dialogue and dissent on the issue of family law from the princely state archives in Rampur, Bhopal, and Hyderabad. Taking a connected and comparative history approach, he argues the need to study debates in Muslim-ruled princely states as crucial in the larger histories of law and family in colonial and post-colonial India.

📍Tracing Twisted Trails: Theoretical & Methodological Approaches to the study of Contested Cultural Heritage A workshop with Nur Sobers-Khan 📋January 23, 2026 at 3PM ✏️CDRS, MN Room 3230 at UTM 🔗tiny.cc/TwistedTrails This workshop is organized in collaboration with Looting Lab. This workshop covers theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of looted cultural objects, with special attention to material from the Delhi Collection. Participants will explore practical approaches to working with scattered archives, incomplete metadata, and fragmented records to piece together the stories behind contested collections.We will discuss how archival research, digital tools, and close attention to historical context can help make sense of looted heritage. The workshop also considers how this kind of research connects to antiracist and anticolonial work, and what responsibilities scholars have when studying material taken through colonial violence.

🏛️ Books, Swords, & Holy Relics: The Colonial Looting of South Asian Heritage Public talk with Prof. Nur Sobers Khan! This event is held in collaboration with Looting Lab. ✏️January, 23, 2026 🖋️12PM at CDRS, MN 3230 RSVP: tiny.cc/Loot or with link in bio 📚This public talk explores the entangled histories of colonial conquest and cultural plunder in South Asia. Centering on three major cases—the Delhi Collection, material associated with Tipu Sultan, and Tibetan artefacts taken during the Younghusband Expedition—it traces how books, weapons, and sacred objects were seized and circulated through imperial networks. By bringing these looted collections into conversation, the talk uncovers the broader patterns of dispossession wrought by British colonization of India, and how they continue to shape museums, archives, and public memory today.

📢 Join CSACH in the first event of 2026! Gendering Contemporary Anticolonial Struggles in Pakistan A Talk By Prof. Nida Kirmani 📅 Tuesday, January 13, 2026 🕛 11AM-1PM 📍 MN 3230, Maanjiwe Nendamowinan building 🎫 RSVP here: tiny.cc/Nida or with link in bio The Baloch Yakjehti (Unity) Committee (BYC), emerged in 2020 and represents the most recent wave of the Baloch nationalist struggle in Pakistan. This non-violent movement is being led by women from urban centres in Balochistan and Karachi.

OPEN CALL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1, 2025 The deadline is approaching to submit applications for the 2026 Winter Artist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) ! This incredible opportunity is in partnership between SAVAC and the Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities (CSACH) for the winter semester (February-April 2026). We invite applications from contemporary practicing artists, who will come to UTM to develop work that will be site-responsive or site-specific, culminating in an eventual installation on campus. The art can be digital or material or performative, or in any other medium. This residency is intended for artists with roots in South Asia or its various diasporas. We are seeking artists whose contemporary practices engage the political and social concerns within South Asia and its diasporic communities across the globe. Individual artists who have been practicing in their fields for at least five years or more are invited to apply. This is a paid opportunity with a production budget! For more information on how to apply, eligibility and expectations visit our bio or website at: /csach/