Traces of the Past

Tamil Studies Conference, Toronto, May 11-12, 2012

Program - May 11-12, 2012

• Traces of The Past - Seventh Annual Tamil Studies Conference | University of Toronto

Friday, May 11 2012

• 1.00 pm | Registration, William Doo Auditorium Lobby (and onwards)
• 1.00 - 2.30 pm | Welcome in William Doo Auditorium by Aparna Sundar and Yves Roberge
• 2.30 pm - 4.30 pm: SESSION 1
  
  
  • Panel A: Materialities of Memory New College Room 523
    
    
  • Francis Cody, Chair
  S.Ponnarasu:
  Reflections on Royal Lineages and History: A Case Study among the Palayakarars of Kongu Nadu 
  
  Jeffrey P. Martin:
  Diversity or Division? The Tamil Language Collections in American Libraries 
  
  Zoe E. Headley:
  Litigation and Precedence: The Social Life of Copperplates in Kallar Nadu
  
  Gita V. Pai:
  Tracing Heritage: Walking Past Madurai's History
  
  
  
  • Panel B: War and Peace: Contestations and Constructions William Doo Auditorium
    
    
  • Francesca Bremner, Chair
  Francesca Bremner:
  Vannar Caste in Trincomalee Revisited After the Demise of the LTTE
  
  Nimmi Gowrinathan:
  Cycles of Violence: Gender Based Violence and the Female Fighter
  
  Mariyahl Mahilmany Hoole:
  Female Narratives of Trauma in Post-War Jaffna
  
  Prashanth Kuganathan:
  Borders/Barriers/ Boundaries: The Resurrection of Caste in Post-War Jaffna?
  
  Meera Pathmarajah:
  The Role of Tamil Nadu refugees in post-war Sri Lanka
  
• 4.30-5.00 pm | Break
• 5.00 - 6.30 pm | Plenary Address, William Doo Auditorium
• Prof. Noboru Karashima:
  The Past as known from Tamil Inscriptions: Village Community and Challenge to the Caste System
  
• 6.30-8.30 pm | Dinner New College Cafeteria

Saturday, May 12 2012

• 8.30am | Registration (open until last event)
• 9.00 - 10.00am | Welcome
• 10.00 - 12.00pm |SESSION 2


• Panel C, Traces of Desire and Dislocation New College Room 523
  
  
• Bhavani Raman, Chair
R. Kurinjivendan (in Tamil):
Second World War and plantation Tamils in Malaysia

Sasikumar Balasundaram & Chandraskarn Marrimuthu (TBA)
Kalyani Thurairajah:
Ethnic Conflict and the Evolution of the Tamil Cultural Narrative

Amarnath Amarasingam:
Flag Wars and Frame Wars: The Tamil Diaspora and the 2009 Protests in Toronto



• Panel D, Traces of the Past in Contemporary Tamil Poetry William Doo Auditorium
  
  
• Chelva Kanaganayakam, Chair
Chelva Kanakanayagam:
Tracing a Literary History for Postcolonial Tamil Poetry from Sri Lanka

Lakshmi Holmström:
A landscape of their own: The poetry of Kutti Revathi and Sukirtharani

Sascha Ebeling:
Sri Lanka’s Past and Present in the Poetry of R. Cheran



• 12.00 - 1.30pm | Lunch New College Cafeteria
• 1.30 - 3.30pm | Session 3


• Panel E, History and Nostalgia in Tamil Textual and Cultural Productions William Doo Auditorium
  
  

  Moderator: Ram Mahalingam

  Ravi Vaitheespara:
  Writing History and Writing the Tamil Past in Late Colonial Tamilnadu
  
  Perundevi Srinivasan:
  Re-encoding Nostalgia and Encountering the Present: Discourses of Land and Time in "Ayirathil Oruvan"
  
  Maithili Thayanithy:
  Absence of nostalgia in the writings of immigrant Tamil women
  
  
• Panel F, Narrating Politics through the Past New College Room 523
  
  
• Ponni Arasu, Chair
Mark E. Balmforth:
"The Myth of Exile: Samuel Newell and the Origins of the American Ceylon Mission, 1813-1814"

Ponni Arasu:
Activism in Sri Lanka: A History

S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole:
Nationalist Suppression of the Tamil Past to Create Dominant Self-Images: Individual and Collective



• Panel G, (In Tamil): Tracing Dis/continuities in Tamil Literary Criticism (In Tamil) New College Room 524
  
  

  Moderator: Saroja Sivachandran

  Yamuna R:
  Tamil and English Political Novels of Eelam: A Literary Critical Appraisal
  
  Dr. Subramanya:
  Tolkappiam and the Practice of Literary Criticism
  A. Selvam:
  Magazines and the Poetics of Literary Criticism
  
  
• 4.00 - 6.00pm | SESSION 4




• Panel H, Landscapes of the Poetic Imagination, New College Room 523
• Aparna Sundar, Chair
N Chandra Segaran:
Reminiscing Sangam Poetry Traditions in modern Tamil poems on Ezham Genocide

Geetha Sukumaran:
Pari's Parampu poems and the typology of Tolkappiam

M. Najma (in Tamil):
Historiography of Tamil Socio-culture on the basis of 'Thinai'

Natalia Swidzinska:
Do Memorial Stones Commemorate?



• Panel I: Recasting the Past and Relocating Caste William Doo Auditorium
  
  
• Katherine Young, Chair
Katherine Young:
A Non-Brahmin Narrative from the World of Performance

Radha Kumar:
A Rule of Procedure: Policing Tamil Criminal Tribes, c.1900-1950

Malarvizhi Jayanth:
Caste-ing Subjectivity

Sinthujan Varatharajah:
Memories of belonging: The geographic and social dislocation of caste



• 6.30 - 8.00 pm | Plenary Address William Doo Auditorium
• Prof. A.R. Venkatachalapathy:
  (Damodaram) Pillai and (Swaminatha) Iyer: Caste and Region in the Contestation of Tamil Pasts