Presentations

Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Talks

2025. Instructing to Print, Printing to Instruct: How printing technologies transformed knowledge production in South Asia. A panel co-convened by Martina Palladino (Ghent University) and Pranav Prakash for the 28th European Conference for South Asian Studies (ECSAS), South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, October 1–4.

2025. Philology’s Prism: Histories, Politics and Futures of Textual Scholarship. A conference co-organized by Jeremiah T. Coogan, Pranav Prakash and Paul Michael Kurtz, under the auspices of the ERC-funded project PhiSci: Philology as Science in 19th-Century Europe (Grant agreement ID: 101042729 and DOI: 10.3030/101042729), at Sint-Pietersabdij in Ghent, Belgium, June 4–6.

2025. 50th Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions 2025. Co-organized by Jim Mallinson (University of Oxford), Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford), Avni Chag (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Karen O-Brien Kop (King’s College London) and Kush Depala (Heidelberg University), at Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK, May 2–4. Website.

2024. “An Omnibus of Maithili Chapbooks: How Unorthodox Printing Engaged Religious Communities in Colonial South Asia?” A Paper for a symposium on “Religious Entanglements in Modern South Asia,” co-convened by Dr. Ankur Barua (University of Cambridge) and Dr. Soumen Mukherjee (Presidency University) at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, UK. November 9, 2024. Website.

2024. A Beginner’s Guide to the Basic Principles of Perso-Arabic Calligraphy. A hands-on workshop for the Cambridge Bibliophiles, University of Cambridge, UK, November 7.

2024. “An Inquiry into the Transregional Imagination of Book Arts in Persianate Societies (12th–15th Centuries CE).” Paper for a symposium on “Craft Geographies: Unraveling Material Cultures and Communities in South and Central Asian History” at the 52nd Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, October 30. Weblink.

2024. Craft Geographies: Unraveling Material Cultures and Communities in South and Central Asian History. A symposium co-organized by Amanda Lanzillo (Brunel University London) and Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford) at the 52nd Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison, October 30. Weblink.

2024. “Premodern Hindu Narratives + New Persian Genres of the Islamicate World + A Millennium of Literary Production = An Archive of Persian Purāṇa Manuscripts?” Paper for the workshop titled “‘South Asia’ + ‘Middle East’ + ‘Early Modern’ = ?,” organized by the UCL Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World and the UCL Middle East Research Centre, and funded by the Institute of Advanced Studies and UCL Centre for Transnational and Global History at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, London, UK, June 21. Weblink.

2024. “How the Queen of European Sciences ascended the seat of traditional learning in South Asian colonies?” Paper for a seminar organized by Paul Michael Kurtz and Martina Palladino for their ERC project PhiSci: Philology of Science in 19th-century Europe, Sarton Centre for the History of Science, University of Ghent, Belgium, May 24. Weblink.

2024. Interreligious Interactions in South Asia. Second virtual colloquium co-convened with Ankur Barua (University of Cambridge), Hina Khalid (University of Cambridge), and Pranav Prakash, April 3–12. Weblink.

2024. "Scribal Cultures, Transregional Poetics and Interreligious Interactions: Querying the Ethos of Islamicate South Asia in Early Modern and Colonial Times.” An invited lecture at the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, US, February 12.

2024. Book-Objects at the Crossroads of Bibliography and Philology. A virtual roundtable co-organized with Jeremiah T. Coogan (Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley) and Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford), and funded by the Programs Committee of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography, Rare Book School, University of Virginia, US, January 19.

2024. “The Early Modern in Persian Purāṇas.” Paper for the annual meeting of the Early Modern South Asian Network, co-convened by Rosalind O’Hanlon (University of Oxford) and Roy S. Fischel (SOAS London), January 5.

2023. “Unorthodox Printing: A Brief History of Maithili Chapbooks in Colonial South Asia.” Paper for a symposium on Printing Religion in South Asia at the 51st Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, October 18. Weblink.

2023. Printing Religion in South Asia. A symposium co-convened with Megan Eaton Robb (University of Pennsylvania) and Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford) at the 51st Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison, October 18. Weblink.

2023. “A Reckoning with Persian Purāṇas: Exploring the Ethos of Textual Production in Early Modern and Colonial South Asia.” Paper for a symposium on “Material Texts: Religion, Mobility, Responsibility,” co-organized by Elizabeth A. Cecil (Florida State University) and Sonia Hazard (Florida State University), hosted by the European Research Council’s PURANA Project, at Leiden University, Netherlands, October 5–7. Weblink.

2023. “The Ethos of Friendship and Literary Imagination in Akhsitān Dihlavī’s Basātīn al-Uns (The Gardens of Fondness, 1325-26).” Paper for a workshop titled, “Rethinking Lyric Communities in Premodern Worlds,” co-organized by Laura Banella (University of Notre Dame), Irene Fantappiè (Freie Universität Berlin), Francesco Guisti (University of Oxford), and Nicolas Longinotti (Freie Universität Berlin) at Christ Church's Research Centre, University of Oxford, UK, June 20–21. Weblink.

2023. Interreligious Interactions in South Asia. First virtual colloquium co-convened with Ankur Barua (University of Cambridge), Hina Khalid (University of Cambridge) and Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford), April 3–12. Weblink.

2023. “A Cowherd’s Chapbook: An Inquiry into the Ethics of Literary Historiography.” An invited lecture for the South Asia Seminar at St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford, UK, February 28.

2023. History of the Book in South Asia. A workshop on early modern manuscripts organized by Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford) at the British Library, London for students and researchers specializing in the study of classical Hindi literature, February 8. Weblink. Weblink.

2023. “The Book of Love by Ḥasan Sijzī Dihalvī (1253–1336).” An invited lecture for the Department of Religious Studies and Classics, under the auspices of the School of International Languages, Literatures and Cultures, at the University of Arizona, US, January 30.

2023. “A Reception History of ‘Ishqnāma (1301): Notes on Textual Transmission and Literary Historiography.” Research Conversation at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, UK, June 16.

2023. “A Ghazal by Ḥasan Sijzī of Delhi.” Paper for a workshop titled “Translating Silence,” organized by Adriana X. Jacobs and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh at Harris Manchester College and Schola Musicae of the Old Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, UK, June 9.

2023. “An Introduction to Nastaʿlīq Calligraphy.” Workshop co-organized by Megan Eaton Robb (University of Pennsylvania) and Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford) for the Annual Meeting of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography, Rare Book School, University of Virginia, US, May 24-25. Website.

2023. “A Cowherd's Chapbook: An Inquiry into the Ethics of Literary Historiography," Research paper presented for the South Asia Seminar at St. Anthony's College, University of Oxford, UK, February 28, 2023. Weblink.

2022. “The Ethics of Literary Historiography: As Revealed by a Cowherd Playwright's Chapbook.” Paper for the symposium Critical Contours of Maithili Studies at the 50th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, Oct 19, 2022. Weblink.

2022. Critical Contours of Maithili Studies. A symposium co-organized with Coralynn V. Davis (Bucknell University), Christopher L. Diamond (Australian National University) and Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford) at the 50th Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 19. Weblink.

2021. “Colophons and Scribal Communities in South Asia: The case of 19th century scribe copying Sanskrit panegyrics dedicated to Mughal elites.” Paper presented for the symposium "Material Texts in Post-Print South Asia: Approaches to 'History of the Book” at the 49th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, Oct 21, 2021. Weblink.

2021. Material Texts in Post-Print South Asia: Approaches to “History of the Book.” A symposium co-organized with Megan Eaton Robb (University of Pennsylvania) and Pranav Prakash (University of Oxford) at the 49th Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison, October 19. Weblink.

2021. “Ḥasan Dihlavī and The Book of Love: Reimagining Sufi Poetics in South Asia.” An invited lecture for the Asian Studies Program at the Hamilton College, New York, US, March 14.

2021. “The Things We Create: Literary Imagination and Book Objects.” An invited lecture for the Summer Institute of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, US, February 12.

2020. “Interweaving Indian Tales and Persian Genres: Akhsitān Dihlavī's Basātīn al-Uns (c. 1325–26).” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Washington DC, October 10–13, 2020. Conference program and weblink.

2020. “Reimagining Sufi Poetics in South Asia: Ḥasan Dihlavī and The Book of Love.” An invited lecture for the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, US, on February 10.

2020. “Speaking of “Stupid Hands”: Book Arts in South Asian and Persian Histories.” An invited lecture at Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK, February 4.

2019. “Weaving Indian Tales in Persian Genres: The Gardens of Fondness (Basātīn al-Uns) of Akhsitān Dihlavī.” Paper presented at the Ninth European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS9), Freie Universitāt, Berlin, Germany, September 12, 2019. Conference program and weblink.

2019. “Healing and History at the Tomb of a Sufi Poet: The Legacy of Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī in Khuldabad.” Lecture delivered for a seminar on Histoire et anthropologie des sociétés musulmanes dans l’Asie du sud contemporaine [History and Anthropology of Muslim Societies in Contemporary South Asia], organized by Michel Bovin, Delphine Ortis and Fabrizio Speziale at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, February 6, 2019.

2018. “Reimagining Sufi Poetics in South Asia: Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī (1253-c.1337) and the Masnavī Tradition.” Lecture delivered for a seminar on Asie du Sud et culture persane. Productions savantes, traductions, interactions [South Asia and Persian Culture: Intellectual production, Translation and Interaction], organized by Fabrizio Speziale at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, December 11, 2018.

2018. “Re-envisioning of Genres and Social Criticism in Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī’s The Book of Love.” Paper presented for a panel entitled “AIIS Showcase on New Research: Texts in Contexts: Genres as Socio-Cultural Agents in South Asia” at the Annual Conference of the Association of Asian Studies in Washington, D.C., US, March 22-25, 2018. Conference program and weblink.

2017. “Notes on the Political Origins of Maithili Literary Histories: Critical Reflections on Decolonization and Democratization in South Asian Historiography.” Paper presented at History and Democracy: A Workshop organized by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and International Center for Advanced Studies at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, India, December 11-12, 2017.

2017. “Literary Genre, Humour, and Politics in a Mithilā Nāṭak.” Paper presented at the International Conference on Bihar and Jharkhand: Shared History to Shared Vision (In Memory of Arvind Narayan Das), organized by the Asian Development Research Institute for its Silver Jubilee Celebrations in Patna, Bihar, India, March 24-28, 2017. Conference program and website.

2016. “Kamāl-i Khujandī in Bodleian Tazkirahs.” Paper presented at an international conference entitled “Kamal Khujandi: Development of Literary Study and Literary Relations” at the Khujand State University named after Bobojon Gafurov, Khujand Tajikistan, October 28-29, 2016.

2015. “Rudra Kavi and the Mughal Elite.” Paper presented at the pre-conference on “Sanskrit in Persianate India” at the 44th Annual Conference on South Asia organized by the Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, October 22, 2015. Website.

2014. “The Pathology of Texts: S. M. Katre and Indology.” Paper presented as part of the South Asian Studies Program Seminar Series of the International Program, University of Iowa, Iowa City, US, November 17, 2014. Website.