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DOCUMENTING LANGUAGES: TRANS-HIMALAYAN THEORY, METHODS, PRACTICES
VENUE: INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELHI
A two-day workshop of lectures, panels, and screenings
A two-day workshop of lectures, panels, and screenings
Convenors
Convenors
Dr. Divya Dwivedi
Dr. Divya Dwivedi
Dr. Sahiinii Lemaina Veikho
Co-Convenors
Haidamteu Zeme, Florence Laldinpuii, Nove C
Concept Note
Concept Note
This workshop initiates constructive and critical deliberation on theories, methods, epistemologies, and practices of documentation of and research on the languages, cultures, and histories of trans-Himalayan regions. The unique cultures of the Trans-Himalayan region reflect significant diversity that offers valuable insights into the history of the people in the region and the world in general. In most cases, the spoken languages are the only remnants of these invaluable living heritages. Sadly, many of these languages are spoken by only a small number of speakers—ranging from just a few hundred to a few hundred thousand.
In this and analogous contexts, language documentation enables communities to safeguard their cultural heritage in state-of-the-art archives, which have gained renewed importance due to the rapid endangerment of these cultures, driven by modernisation and the dominance of major languages such as English and Hindi. This method involves audio-video recordings of conversations about culture, which are then systematically annotated using current technology with proper metadata, making them a rich and versatile resource. The outcome is vital for multiple purposes: it supports community-driven literature development while also benefiting academic scholars, including linguists, speech scientists, historians, and social scientists.
Additionally, documentation and research on languages require critical attention to extant methodologies and epistemologies through which the relation between language-culture-people is approached. The category of “Trans-Himalayan” not only names and gathers a range of languages and cultures but also constitutes an ongoing interrogation of and engagement with extant categories. It is an index of how the studies of the Himalayan regions have grappled with interdisciplinary reconceptualisations borrowing from theoretical postulations of the “Zomia” (Schendel 2002, James Scott 2009, Jean Michaud 2010), “Himalayan Triangle” (Pachuau and Schendel, 2022), “Highland Asia as world-region” (M. Heneise and J.P. Wouters, 2022) “the Himalayan massif” (Shneiderman, 2010), to notions of “competing frontiers” (J. Guite 2018). These reconceptualisations reflect the centrality of questions around borders, belongingness, crossings, migrations, statehood, and statelessness that are congruous to the formation of the regions, in particular the intellectual history of what ‘Himalayan’ studies are. Focusing on the plurality of movements, mobilities, and migrations, theorists have settled on “Trans-Himalayas” as a framework that operates beyond binaries and constructed borders. Dan Smyer Yü and Jean Michaud locate the term “Trans-Himalayas” in Swedish explorer Sven Hedin’s (1865-1952) work, Trans-Himalaya: Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet, as the first instance of its usage. The positioning of the trans-Himalayas today far exceeds this geographical limit. The frame of reference extends from northeast India, upland Bangladesh, mainland southeast Asia, southwest China, and Northwest China to the Tibetan Plateau (Scott, 2009; Yü and Michaud, 2017).
Considering this fibrous network of continuities, discontinuities, and “multi-state” lifeworlds, the workshop contributes to scholarship that seeks to enquire the uneasiness of addressing questions of and from the regions, which also evidences a problematics in naming. The workshop will be led by invited speakers and panelists from diverse disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas, including linguistics, literature and folkloristics, art and museology, and social sciences, whose work and practice reflect the processual nature of the trans-Himalayas. Alongside lectures and panel discussions, the workshop offers interested scholars new methodologies of documenting languages.
Keynote Lectures
Keynote Lectures
October 24th
October 24th
Keynote Lecture I
"Limbu and Levels of Linguistic Analysis"
Professor George van Driem
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
Universität Bern
Switzerland
October 25th
October 25th
Keynote Lecture II
"Indigenous Futures: Making Knowledge, Weaving Memories, Cultivating Hope"
Professor Arkotong Longkumer
Professor of Anthropology and Modern Asia
University of Edinburgh
United KingdomThe Speakers
The Speakers
Dr. Senganglu Thaimei
Associate ProfessorDepartment of English, Miranda House, University of Delhi
Associate ProfessorDepartment of English, Miranda House, University of Delhi
D. Junisha Khongwir
CuratorNortheast India AV Archive.
CuratorNortheast India AV Archive.
Dr. Deepak Naorem
Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Dr. Desmond Kharmawphlang
ProfessorDepartment of Cultural and Creative Studies, North-Eastern Hill University
ProfessorDepartment of Cultural and Creative Studies, North-Eastern Hill University
Dr. Michael Heneise
Associate ProfessorDepartment of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Associate ProfessorDepartment of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Dr. Joy L.K. Pachuau
ProfessorCentre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
ProfessorCentre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Dr. Manjeet Baruah
Assistant ProfessorSpecial Centre for the Study of North East India, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Assistant ProfessorSpecial Centre for the Study of North East India, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Dr. Swati Chawla
Associate ProfessorSchool of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University
Senior Fellow for Dalai Lama and Nalanda Studies Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Associate ProfessorSchool of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University
Senior Fellow for Dalai Lama and Nalanda Studies Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Dr. Divya Dwivedi
ProfessorPhilosophy and Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
ProfessorPhilosophy and Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Dr. Sahiinii Lemaina Veikho
Assistant ProfessorLinguistics, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Assistant ProfessorLinguistics, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Catriona Haihangyile Child
Executive DirectorHighland Institute Kohima, Nagaland.
Executive DirectorHighland Institute Kohima, Nagaland.
Dr. Noopur Desai
ResearcherAsia Art Archive in India
ResearcherAsia Art Archive in India
The Venue
The Venue
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Main Building, Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Hauz Khas, Delhi -110016.
Registrations open!
Registrations open!
Find the link below: (Note: Limited seats only)
Find the link below: (Note: Limited seats only)
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