South Asia Global Forum

Established in 2016, the University of Victoria’s South Asia Global Forum promotes academic research, teaching and public engagement with South Asia and multi-faceted South Asian diasporic populations as a link to globally situated questions and conversations.
The forum sponsors a regular lecture series, an annual mini-conference and occasional events of academic interest, such as book launches, film screenings and roundtable discussions about issues of pressing contemporary concern. Additionally, the forum serves as an informational clearinghouse for faculty, students and UVic community members interested in South Asia and related topics in Victoria, BC.
Associated faculty include scholars who centre South Asia and/or South Asian diasporas within their research questions and agendas. Spread across the many units of the university, the forum features faculty who specialize in art history and visual culture, business, gender studies, history, law, and political science.
The forum encourages wide-ranging approaches to the region and its peoples through comparative engagement with themes that connect South Asia with ongoing studies of globalization, such as postcolonial democracy, indigeneity, migration and border politics, sustainability, labour movements, student protests, land rights and resource extraction, cultural flows in and out of South Asia, religion and nationalism, literary activism, cinema, legal pluralism and transnational regulation, trade and economic issues in the region, art and the public sphere, and the contested terrain of history in public culture.
Associated UVic Faculty
- Sikata Banerjee, Gender Studies (2019-2020 lead contact for the group)
- Melia Belli Bose, Art History
- Neilesh Bose, History
- Raveendra Chittoor, Gustavson School of Business
- Rita Dhamoon, Political Science
- Aditi Gupta, Engineering & Science Librarian
- Rishi Gupta, Engineering
- Sudhir Nair, Gustavson School of Business
- Sada Niang, French
- Pooja Parmar, Law
- Victor V. Ramraj, CAPI and Law
- Supriya Routh, Law
- Reeta Tremblay, Political Science
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute
The University of Victoria is a member of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, which provides students and faculty with funding opportunities for various academic activities related to bridging India and Canada. All interested applications should contact Neilesh Bose.
Visiting Shastri Scholars

Tiasa Basu Roy |
- Academic program, home institution:
MPhil in History, University of Calcutta, India - Duration of visit at UVic:
June to August 2019
Past SAGF Events
Film screening and discussion: “The World Before Her”
4 November 2019
Sikata Banerjee (UVic Gender Studies) and Jyoti Ahlawat (Post Doc, UVic Gender Studies)
Amma’s Daughters - A memoir
10 January 2019
Meenal Shrivastava (Athabasca University)
in conversation with Sikata Banerjee (UVic Gender Studies)
South Asia Global Forum reception
20 September 2018
with a presentation by Supriya Routh (UVic Law)
Between Indigenous and Immigrant: A Workshop on South Asian Migrations in Global History
26-28 October 2017
University of Victoria
Welcome reception and book launch for Gender, Nation, and Popular Film in India
2 October 2017
Sikata Banerjee (UVic Gender Studies)
Academic Freedom and its Discontents in India
28 February 2017
Niraja Gopal Jayal (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Invisibility of Women and Failure of Social Policy
21 February 2017
Meenal Shrivastava (Athabasaca University)
Related Events
Unmooring the Komagata Maru: Charting Colonial Trajectories [Book Launch]
10 October 2019
Rita Dhamoon (UVic Political Science) and Davina Bhandar (Athabasca University)
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and revocation of Kashmir’s autonomy
3 October 2019
Reeta Tremblay (UVic Political Science) and Zhera Abrar (UVic Law)
Learning to ‘see’ today’s caste
18 April 2019
Ramesh Bairy (Indian Institute of Technology)
A Theory of Imperialism
29 March 2019
Prabhat Patnaik (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Jutta Gutberlet (UVic Geography), and William Carrol (UVic Sociology)
Growth and Poverty Under Neo-liberalism
28 March 2019
Prabhat Patnaik (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
The Collection of Indian paintings at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
6 March 2019
Dhir Sarangi (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Inhabitations of Violence: The Local and the Global Political Economy of Urban Delhi
CAPI Research Seminar Series
4 July 2018
Sushmita Pati (Azim Premji University)
Green Consumption: The role of Life Events and Communities of Trust
CAPI Research Seminar Series
4 July 2018
Sunayana Ganguly (Azim Premji University)
Right to Good Governance in India: Towards a Model of Citizen Centric Accountability
CAPI Research Seminar Series
12 October 2017
Yashomati Ghosh (National Law School of India University)
Forest and Wildfire Management in Nepal
14 March 2017
Ivan G. Somlai (Director, Ethnobureaucratica)
Related Publications
Amartya Sen and Law
co-edited by Victor V. Ramraj and Supriya Routh
Routledge, 2019
Unmooring the Komagata Maru: Charting Colonial Trajectories
co-edited by Rita Dhamoon (UVic Political Science) et al.
UBC Press, 2019