Tamil Studies Conference May 11-14, 2006 in Toronto

The Centre for South Asian Studies of the University of Toronto and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the University of Windsor will host "Tropes, Territories and Competing Realities," the first of a series of annual, interdisciplinary Tamil Studies conferences from May 11-14, 2006.

Toronto is now home to the largest Tamil diaspora in the west and the annual conferences are part of a long term project to develop a Tamil Studies program in Toronto. This conference is among the first steps towards making Toronto a centre for Tamil Studies in North America.

To begin with the organisers intend, through this year's conference, to bring the Toronto Tamil community into a creative relationship with both the University of Toronto and the academy of Tamil Studies scholars in North America.

In addition, the conference will introduce students in Toronto to the diverse disciplines of Tamil Studies and the scholars pursuing them in North America.

The Toronto conferences will provide Tamil Studies scholars in North America with an opportunity to present their work before their academic colleagues and before members of the Tamil community of Toronto.

The conference will also enable scholars working on Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka to engage with each other’s work and to develop a more comparative approach to the study of these Tamil regions.

The conference is free, but advance registration is required of all attendees.

More information at http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~tamils/main.html

** A trope is the figurative use of an expression according to the dictionary. In the social sciences a trope is "a figuative use of words that organizes our understanding...The trope's specific function is to compress and inscribe historically developed collective understandings in a very short space." -- Eleanor Townsley

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