Port City Environments in Global Asia

NYU Abu Dhabi Conference Center Building A6 Room 004

Wednesday January 15

9:00-9:15. Introductory Remarks

9:15-10:30. Panel: “Global Asia Collecting and Collected” Chair: Tansen Sen

• Mark Swislocki (NYU Abu Dhabi): “Forgetting Yvette Borup Andrews: An Artist among Naturalists in the American Museum of Natural History”
• Salila Kulshreshtha (Arts and Humanities, NYU Abu Dhabi): “Francis Buchanan and ‘Collecting’ Knowledge in 19th century ”
• Ezra Rashkow (Montclair State University): “‘To secure the fast vanishing animals of the world before they are exterminated’: the American Museum of Natural History’s India expeditions, 1922-1930”

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-11:45. Panel: “Global Asia and the Digital Humanities: Research, Pedagogy, Archive” Chair: Mark Swislocki

• David Wrisley and Nora Barakat (NYU Abu Dhabi) “Open Gulf: Digital History in a Global Asian Context”
• Jessica Abdala Molina, (NYU Abu Dhabi): “VIP, Research, Pedagogy, Archive”
• Israa Mograbhi (NYU Abu Dhabi), “Family Business Histories: A Research Partnership with The Tharawat Space”

12:15-1:15. Lunch: Catered in A6-117 (upstairs from conference center), from Circle Cafe

1:30-3:15. Panel: “Port City Environments in the Indian Ocean World” Chair: David Ludden

• Duane Corpis (NYU Shanghai): “Beyond the Parish: Atlantic and Indian Ocean Ports in the Pietist Networks of the Eighteenth Century”
• Elke Papelitzky (NYU Shanghai): “Connecting Ayutthaya to the World: Sailing Routes and Knowledge Transfer”
• Vidhya Raveendranathan (NYU Shanghai): “Who owns the beach? Property making, policing and coastal labour regimes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Madras.”
• Tansen Sen (NYU Shanghai): “Inter-Asian Connections in the Indian Ocean World: Port, City, Environments”
• Boris Wille (Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg): “Littoral Engineering: First Observations in the Maldives and Prospects for Indian Ocean Studies”

3:15-4:00 Break

4:00-5:30. Keynote Address. Don Worster (Renmin University, Beijing, China)

“China as the Ecological Civilization: What Does It Mean and What Should It Mean?” 5:45: Bus to Sheraton Corniche.

7:00-9:00. Dinner: Al Mayass, Sheraton Corniche

Thursday January 16

9:00-9:30: Coffee and Tea reception

9:30-10:45. Panel: “Coastal Environments in Monsoon Asia” Chair: David Ludden

• John Burt (NYU Abu Dhabi): “Building from the Sea: The Coral Masonry of Historic Jezirat Al-Hamrah, UAE”
• May Joseph (Pratt Institute): “Island Ecologies and Minor Seas: The Maldives, the Malabar Coast and the Lakshadweep ”
• Norman Underwood (New York University): “Making the Roman Indian Ocean: Ancient Supply Chains from Sicily to Sri ”

11:00-12:00. Panel: “New Perspectives on Port City Environments in Global Asia” Chair:

• David Ludden (New York University): “Traumas of National Territory in Global Asia”
• Peter Valenti (New York University) “Kuwait as Najdi Entrepot: The Arabian Horse Trade as a Truly Global Asia ”

12:15-1:15. Lunch: Catered in A6-117 (upstairs from conference center), Emirati Cuisine

1:30-2:30. Panel: “Belt and Road Initiatives” Chair:

• Sophia Kalantzakos (NYU Abu Dhabi): “Showdown in Djibouti: Geopolitics in the BRI Era”
• Marina Kaneti (National University of Singapore): “The Persistence of Memory: ports and maritime imaginaries in South Asia”

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45-4:00. Panel: “Eurasian Borderlands: Comparative and Connected History” Chair:

• Nora Barakat (NYU Abu Dhabi)
• Masha Kirasirova (NYU Abu Dhabi)
• Mark Swislocki (NYU Abu Dhabi) 4:00: Activities, anybody?

Louvre Abu Dhabi The Grand Mosque

7:00-9:00. Dinner: Indigo