East and West collide at UVic pop culture conference

Bridal bodies on display, Hindi films and pop music, religion and politics in Indian circus performances; these South Asian cultural expressions seldom grace mass-market travel posters, yet all are part of South Asian popular culture and will be the focus of attention at the South Asia Pop Culture Conference, April 22 to 24 at the University of Victoria's Cadboro Commons Conference Centre.

The third instalment in UVic's annual Asia Pop Culture Conference series, this conference brings together more than 60 scholars and practitioners from around the world to make presentations on popular music, cinema, television, visual arts, literature, fashion, religion and gender relations in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the diaspora. The broad range of topics includes South Asian comics, female sexuality in a Bengali feminist magazine, the impact of cricket on Sri Lankan culture, rikshaw paintings in Bangladesh as "rage on wheels," and arranged marriages among Indians in Canada.

The conference is organized by UVic's Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives and Faculty of Fine Arts and co-sponsored by the University's Office for International Affairs, the Society for Indian Classical Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canadian Airlines, and the Clarion Hotel Grand Pacific. Registration is required.

All presentations are open to the media, and no special media registration or accreditation is necessary.

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