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About the Conference
Academic Organizers
- R. Cheran
R Cheran is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Windsor. His publications include History and Imagination: Tamil Culture in the Global Context, New Demarcations: Essays in Tamil Studies, Pathways of Dissent: Tamil Nationalism in Sri Lanka, and Empowering Diasporas: Dynamics of Post-war Tamil Transnational Politics.
- Francis Cody
Frank is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. His work is broadly concerned with postcolonial statecraft and the cultural politics of written language in Tamil-speaking South India. He is now completing a project on rural literacy activism in the Arivoli Iyakkam (The Enlightenment Movement), in which he examines the centrality of written language in efforts to democratize knowledge and reshape district governance. His new project will focus on the social history and contemporary political economy of language in Tamil daily newspaper circulation in small towns and cities.
- Sudharshan Durayappah
Sudharshan teaches at the University of Toronto, Scarborough and the Royal Ontario Museum. His research interests include Hinduism in the Diaspora, Trans-Asian Religious routes of the 7-9th century A.D. and Iconography.
- Chelva Kanaganayakam
Chelva is a Professor of English at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in Southeast Asian literature, contemporary Indian and Sri Lankan writing, literature of exile and postcolonial theory. His major publications include Moveable Margins: The Shifting Spaces of Canadian Literature (2005), Counterrealism and Indo Anglian Fiction (2002); Lutesong and Lament: Tamil Writing from Sri Lanka (2001); Dark Antonyms and Paradise: The Poetry of Rienzi Crusz (1997); Configurations of Exile: South Asian Writers and Their World (1995), and Structures of Negation: The Writings of Zulfikar Ghose (1993).
- Srilata Raman
Srilata is Assistant Professor of Modern Hinduism at the University of Toronto. She works on medieval South Asian/South Indian religion, bhakti, historiography and hagiography, religious movements in early colonial India. Her publications include, "Self-Surrender (Prapatti) to God in Srivaisnavism" in Tamil Cats and Sanskrit Monkeys (2007); "Who are the Vellalars? 20th century constructions and contestations of Tamil identity in Maraimalai Adigal" in Shared Idioms, Sacred Symbols: Process, Power, and the Articulation of Identities in South Asia (2007), and "Departure and Prophecy: The Disappearance of Ramalinga Adigal in the Early Narratives of His Life" in Indologica Taurenensia (2004).
Coordinators
- Hospitality: Arrathiyah Thirukkumaran
- Human Resources: Kuruparan selvarajah
- Media: Angela Britto
- Print & Promotion: Neerajah Vignarajah
- Publicity: Narmatha Jayakumar
- Registration: Kirubhalini Giruparajah
- Goji Anandarajah, Priya Ariya, Branavaa Devasenathipathy, Ajantha Gnanamuttu, Kajani Jegasothy, Deenosan Kirupa, Dinoba Kirupa, Jennifer Launa, Robert McKnight, Sangeetha Navaratnam, Surabi Paranirupasingam, Sopita Ponnampalam, Gauthamie Poolokasingham, Pamila Rasalingam, Rashminiy Raveendranathan, Sobika Sadacharam, Geetha Sanmugalingham, Gavasgar Selladurai, Mayuran Shankadev, Vasuki Shanmuganathan, Vino Shanmuganathan, Siva Sivarajah, Arathy Sivasubramaniam, Sarmilan Somasundaram, Brammya Srikantharajah, Shoba Subramaniam, Amanda Thambirajah, Nayani Thiyagarajah, Ashwin Vadivelu
