At the forefront of white nationalist border regimes, the Australian nation-state has long operated as an Anglo imperial outpost in the Indian Ocean world. If we look at Aboriginal language archives about South Asians, however, we see alternative epistemic grounds and spatial imaginations on which we can situate historical storytelling about race, gender, and migration. This presentation will follow two Muslim men into Australian deserts, where they encountered two Aboriginal sisters waiting for a train at a lonely railway station c.1897.

RSVP by 11 AM on Wednesday, October 14th to receive Zoom link and password.

Samia Khatun became a feminist historian because she once lost her way to a mathematics lecture at the University of Sydney. Since then, Khatun has chased truths about the past in Sydney, Antigua, Kolkata, Istanbul, Berlin, New York, Dunedin, Melbourne, London, and Dhaka. She researches the life-worlds of people colonised by the British Empire and her documentaries have screened on ABC and SBS-TV in Australia. She is the new Chair for the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS, London.

The Center for Cultural Studies hosts a weekly Wednesday colloquium featuring work by faculty and visitors. The sessions consist of a 40-45 minute presentation followed by discussion. We gather at noon, with presentations beginning at 12:15 PM. Participants are encouraged to bring their own lunches; the Center provides coffee, tea, and cookies.*

All Center for Cultural Studies events are free and open to the public. Staff assistance is provided by the Humanities Institute.

*2020-2021 colloquia will be held virtually until further notice. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own coffee, tea, and cookies to the session.