Majoritarian Violence in South Asia | CSS Speaker Series
Join the Center for Security Studies for a conversation about the rise of majoritarian violence in South Asia. This discussion with a panel of experts will look at the main drivers of this phenomenon, the reasons for its rise, and its implications for inter-state relations in South Asia.
The livestream is open to the public with an RSVP via Zoom, but is not open to the public. Automated live captioning will be provided on Zoom. For requests for accommodations due to a disability or medical condition, contact securitystudies@georgetown.edu no later than Thursday, March 23. A good faith effort will be made to fulfill all accommodation requests.
About the Speakers
Bidisha Biswas is a Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University. Professor Biswas’ research interests include international security, conflict, immigration and diaspora politics. Much of her research has a policy orientation, and she has previously worked with Women in International Security, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (South Asia Division) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She has authored numerous publications and has presented at several national and international settings. At Western, she teaches courses on International Relations, Transnational Terrorism, International Intervention in Civil Wars, Conflict Processes & Conflict Resolution, and the Politics of South Asia. She also serves as faculty advisor for the Political Science department’s Honors program.
Neil DeVotta is a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. His research interests include South Asian security and politics, ethnicity and nationalism, ethnic conflict resolution, and democratic transition and consolidation. He is the author of Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004). In addition to coauthoring and editing books on Sri Lanka and India, respectively, his publications have appeared in Nations and Nationalism, Journal of Democracy, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, Civil Wars, Journal of International Affairs, and Contemporary South Asia. His current research examines the links between nationalist ideologies and communal violence in South Asia.
Dina Siddiqi is a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU’s School of Liberal Studies. Professor Siddiqi’s research, grounded in the study of Bangladesh, joins development studies, transnational feminist theory, and the anthropology of Islam and human rights. She has published extensively on the global garment industry, non-state gender justice systems, and the cultural politics of Islam and nationalism in Bangladesh. She is currently engaged in a project on economic development, discourses of empowerment and the travels of civilizational feminisms. Professor Siddiqi is a member of the New York University Society of Fellows, on the advisory board of Dialectical Anthropology, and on the editorial board of Routledge’s Women in Asia Publication Series. She is on the Executive Committee of the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS), and an Advisory Council member of the South Asian feminist network, Sangat. She has frequently collaborated with Bangladeshi human rights organizations including Ain o Salish Kendra, Nagorik Uddyog, and Bangladesh Legal and Services Trust (BLAST).
Dr. Mohammad Taqi is a columnist for the Wire India and a doctor with the UF Health Shands Hospital. He has written extensively about Pakistan’s politics, military, religion and foreign relations. In addition to the Wire, his work has also appeared in the Indian Express, the Daily Times, the Diplomat, Scroll.in, and Foreign Policy magazine. Dr. Taqi received his MBBS degree from the Khyber Medical College.
C. Christine Fair (moderator) is a Professor in the Center for Security Studies within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She previously served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate at USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. She has served as a Senior Fellow at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center, a Senior Resident Fellow at the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis (New Delhi), and as a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow. Her research focuses on political and military affairs in South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka).