SCHEDULE

University of Manitoba

GURPREET SEHRA

Saturday (February 18, 2012)

Welcome Introduction Past Imaginings (10:30-12pm) Bandana Kaur Guneeta Bhalla Lunch (12-1pm) The Identity of Law (1-2:30pm) Jasmine Kaur Singh Kiranpreet Dhillon Cha Break (2:30-2:45pm) On Taal and Partaal (2:45pm-4:15pm) Neelamjit Dhillon Harpreet Neelam Roots of Love (Harjant Gill Film) (4:15-4:45pm) Conclusion Day 1 (4:45-5pm)

SIKHOLARS
sikh professional networking conference

Third Annual

Gurpreet Sehra was born and brought up in the Greater Toronto Area. She is an artist who is working primarily in paint and video. She is presently working on her Master of Fine Art degree at The University of Manitoba. In her current body of work she is concerned with questioning the construction of her identity, which is closely tied with questioning the construction of Sikh-Punjabi masculinity in the Canadian diaspora.

February 18th & 19th, 2012

California State University, East Bay | Hayward, CA

Sikh-Punjabi Identity in Flux: Examining Youth Masculinity in the Diaspora Through Art

I am questioning the construction of my identity and that of the Sikh-Punjabi diasporic community. I am particularly interested in exploring Sikh-Punjabi masculinity and the male body as a site of fetishization, in the Canadian and North American diasporas. Through the depiction of youth and hip hop-based Sikh-Punjabi masculinities, I contest and question the kind of impact these representations could have on other gendered positions, such as my own position as a Sikh-Punjabi female. Using poetic visual language, painting, performance and moving images, I intend to transform and subvert notions of masculinity and femininity. In looking more specifically and directly at constructions of Sikh-Punjabi youth masculinity, I explore conceptions of gender as related to aggression, feminization, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, cultural appropriation and power.

SaFaR / SikhRI / IamCommunity

KIRPA KAUR

Kirpa Kaur is based in Vancouver, she volunteers closely with the Sikh Research Institute; she is one of the co-founders of I am Community, a self-empowerment and community support program for South Asian single mothers and their children; is on the Board of Directors of SAFAR- Sikh Feminist Research Institute; and is working on her Masters in counseling and community psychology with a focus on social justice education and policy.

Hair Speaks: Sikh Women Voicing Spiritual, Sexual and Identity Body Politic

Through a Sikh Feminist Perspective this paper will attempt to draw attention to one of the five Kakkars of the KhalsaKesh. Through this inquiry, I will highlight a journey of layered complexities and questions that Khalsa-initiated and pre-contemplative Khalsa initiated women silently negotiate their bodies within. The inquiry will explore questions as: what hair on the body constitutes as Kesh? How? By who? And For whom? The paper will illustrate an aspect of the depth of complexities that manifest in a place where womens bodies, their bodily hair, and their experiences are disregarded, negated and given no space. In this paper, I offer to juxtapose these two places where womens voices and political bodies have been rendered insignificant. I will engage in ethnographic analysis of narratives of the initiated as well as precontemplative Khalsa-initiated women in terms of their spiritual, sexual and identity body politics and experiences.

Sunday (February 19, 2012)

Mapping Arenas of Politics Anand and Resistance (10:30-12pm) Loveleen Kaur H. Bindy Kaur Kang Lunch (12-1pm)

Sikligar is a documentary portraying the lives of the Sikligar Sikhs: the blacksmith/iron smiths and weapon makers of the Khalsa Army. Very little is known about them in India and abroad, as they have been displaced by years of colonization and government oppression. Originally named Sikligar by Guru Gobind Singh Ji, they now live the slums of Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra. Kept illiterate and poor for the last 300 years, the Sikligars are beginning to empower themselves. Learn about their history, their current challenges and what is being done to assist in the growth and development of this community.

SIKLIGAR (a film by Mandeep Sethi)

(de)Constructing Diasporic Masculinities and Femininities (1-3pm) Ashveer Singh Gurpreet Sehra Kirpa Kaur Sikhligar (Mandeep Sethi Film) (3-3:30pm) Final Comments (3:30-3:45pm) Sabharwal Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies

Special Thanks: The Matharu Family, Anitika Beesla, Karaminder Ghuman, Satinder Kaur, Aman Singh, Sunny Nijjar, Manpreet Kalra, Mona Mann, Ravneet Kaur, Manish Punjabi and CSUEB Sikh Student Association

Named in memory of Ajeet Singh Matharu, two prizes are awarded annually to graduate students pursuing Sikh studies that best reflect the high intellectual and scholarly ideas exemplified by the life and work of Ajeet Singh Matharu (1983-2010). The prize was established by the Matharu Family in 2011, to be administered by the Jakara Movement.

AJEET SINGH MEMORIAL PRIZE IN SIKH SCHOLARSHIP

In loving memory of Ajeet Singh Matharu 1983-2010

PAST IMAGININGS
Yale University / EcoSikh

University of Southern California

KIRANPREET DHILLON

MAPPING ARENAS OF POLITICS ANAND AND RESISTANCE

Wilfrid Laurier University

BANDANA KAUR

Bandana Kaur works with EcoSikh, an organization that connects Sikh institutions to Punjabs Post-Green Revolution ecological issues. She recently graduated from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she spent two summers in Punjab with farmers that were reviving soil and water systems through biodiversity based agriculture. She has a Bachelors from Barnard College, Columbia University, and is passionate about the ability of normal, everyday people to effect real change.

Kiran is a third-year law student at the University of Southern California. During school, she externed for U.S. District Court Judge Dale S. Fischer and EEOC Administrative Law Judge Diane Arkow Gross. Kiran is a Writing Fellow in USCs Legal Writing & Advocacy Program and a Copy Editor on the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal. Kiran currently works as a law clerk at Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris Hoffman & Harrison, LLP. Kiran graduated cum laude from Occidental College.

LOVELEEN KAUR

Covering Turbans and Beards: Title VIIs Role in Legitimizing Religious Discrimination Against Sikhs

Green Revolutions Revisited: Women, Biodiversity, and Folk Knowledge in Rural Punjab

Punjab became the epicenter of the Green Revolution in the subcontinent, after private foundations sponsored a package of high-yield seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, and farm machinery to increase agricultural production in the developing world. The experiment was initially hailed as a success, but today poses considerable challenges for Punjab, as it rapidly loses its agrarian base. This research examines the lived reality of the Green Revolution from women living in the semi-arid southern Malwa region of Punjab, an area recognized for the economic and social challenges posed to the farming community. Through the experiences of Punjabi women farmers I explore how complex agricultural systems that include women, biodiversity, and folk cultural knowledge are just as relevant for sustainability goals in a modern post-Green Revolution context as they have been historically, and can provide oft understudied, but critical, new directions for agricultural development in Punjab today.

The story of the Sikh who is not given a job or is fired despite being qualified because he wears a turban or has a long beard is one we have all heard time and again. The story we rarely hear is of the Sikh who succeeds on a claim of religious discrimination against such an employer. This paper analyzes why this is the case by looking at the intersection of the religious accommodation provision and the grooming codes doctrine under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Based on this analysis, I argue that groups who most need protection against religious discrimination, such as Sikhs, do not get it because of the employer-friendly standards established by Title VII caselaw. These standards reflect the trivialization of religion in America and force minorities to cover, or assimilate to dominant cultural norms. As a result, Title VII legitimizes the very discrimination it was meant to remedy and protect against.

Loveleen has a passion and dedication towards issues of social justice and equity. Shes served 2 terms as an executive member of the York Federation of Students and has been involved in events held by Sikh youth in the GTA. Upon completing her undergraduate degree in Political Science, specializing in Public Policy; she has moved on to an MA where she will be looking at the event of When Lions Roar held by the Sikh Activist Network and the role of the youth diaspora in changing discourse.

Sikh Marriage - An act of Resistance

ON TAAL AND PARTAAL

University of Toronto / SaFaR

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / 1947 Partition Archive

GUNEETA SINGH BHALLA

HARPREET NEELAM

As Sikhs have become an increasingly transnational community, there is a continuous negotiation of cultural/spiritual knowledge, customs, and traditions that are carried through to next generations. Marriage has been an important way in which communities connect to the past, live in the present and move to the future. However, I would argue that in many cases, the Sikh in Sikh marriage has become lost among the celebration that uses assimilated practices through domination. Looking at historical occurrences of Sikh marriage, it is evident that the Gurus intended for the institution of marriage to be one of political resistance. In line with dominant understandings of marriage and with targeted repressive state policies, it has become apolitical. The Hindu Marriage Act (1957) in India has served in one of the ways to depoliticize Sikhs both in India and abroad. But Sikh marriage in the diaspora should be seen as a subversive force that can slip beneath the dominant hegemonic culture.

Dr. Guneeta Singh Bhalla is a condensed matter physicist pursing post-doctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her area of expertise is transport in lowdimensional oxide systems. She is also the founder and Director of the non-profit start-up, The 1947 Partition Archive, which is working to preserve the last remaining memories of Indias Partition via oral history collection.

Harpreet is the Instructional Coordinator for Science and Technological Education in Curriculum and Instruction Support Services along and an Assistant Administrator for International Languages for the Peel District School Board. Harpreet is working on her MEd. from University of Toronto - OISE with a research focus on the cultural responsiveness of school leaders to Sikh students and families. She serves as the chair of SaFaR-Sikh Feminist Research Institute and is lover of Gurbani Kirtan.

University of British Columbia

H. BINDY KAUR KANG

The rewards and challenges of documenting Partition through citizen journalism

An exploration of Partaal and its significance in the rendition of the shabad Mohan Neend Na Aavey Haavey
There is a long tradition of Gurbani being sung and performed as kirtan in raag. An aspect of kirtan rarely explored is the importance of taal, the accompanying rhythmic elaboration of kirtan. A further extension of the rhythmic aspect of kirtan is the use of partaal, defined by Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha as verification, scrutiny, check, checking, audit, enquiry, investigating, confirmation. In this presentation I shall be giving a rendition (composed by Professor Tara Singh and elaborated and taught by Professor Paramjeet Singh) of a shabad of the fifth form Guru Arjan Dev Ji in raag Bilaval and instruction of partaal, from panna 830 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, rwgu iblwvlu mhlw 5 Gru 13 pVqwl <> siqgur pRswid] mohn nId n AwvY hwvY hwr kjr bsqR ABrn kIny ] aufInI aufInI aufInI ] kb Gir AwvY rI ]1] rhwau]. Through this rendition I hope to demonstrate that there is a need to further explore, in terms of both music theory and as a spiritual exercise, what exactly is the significance of partaal as an instruction in the heading of the shabad.

During Bindys MA, she explored representations of the Punjabi Sikh community in her thesis: Unveiling the Indo-Canadian Sikh Identity through Canadian Media. While she continues to be critically engaged with Diaspora studies and identity issues, Bindy is currently pursuing a doctoral degree with the University of British Columbia in the area of ethnicity and health; and continuing with her most inspiring and rewarding work - located in her motherhood role to her 16 month old daughter.

My Punjabi Sikh Wedding, my Canadian Homeland: An Autoethnography Exploring the Dynamics of Race

Reeling from economic looses suffered during WWII, Great Britain was no longer able to sustain its South Asian colonies, collectively known as India. As the British departed in 1947, ancient South Asian kingdoms were dissolved and consolidated and the new landmass was Partitioned into India and Pakistan. The new governments enforced an unprecedented population exchange that sent Muslims to Pakistan and Sikhs/Hindus to India. Recent estimates reveal that over 20 million individuals were displaced while over 1 million lost their lives. South Asia today is still reeling from the profound transformations left in the wake of Partition. Last year a few ordinary citizens realized what a great loss the lack of Partition knowledge has been for South Asian identity and cultural heritage. Armed with a dream and an archaic camcorder, we began collecting survivor stories. Here I discuss the rewards and challenges of documenting the worlds largest human displacement, one story at a time.

Post-colonial scholarship on Diaspora communities has challenged the notion of the cultural other as unchanging and timeless. While recognition of complicated identities is apparent, the exotification of the cultural other continues to perpetuate hegemonic ideals. Using autoethnographic vignettes from my Punjabi Sikh wedding, I present my negotiation as a soon-to-be-Sikh-bride. Key elements within the Sikh wedding ceremony prompted and revealed new sites of racialization and gendered stereotyping. Identity markers for my partner and I, such as Indian attire, wearing a turban and having a beard, were significant discussion areas. This autoethnography addresses the dislocation of my dual identifiedembodiment; my resistance to being a singular, traditional identity; and the hyper-visibility of my race and gender as I became a bride intersecting my Punjabi culture, Sikh faith and Canadian homeland.

THE IDENTITY OF LAW

UCLA

California Institute of the Arts

NEELAMJIT DHILLON

(DE)CONSTRUCTING DIASPORIC MASCULINITIES & FEMININITIES

University of Chicago

JASMINE SINGH

Jasmine Singh is an attorney at Arnold & Porter LLP in San Francisco, practicing in commercial litigation. She attended the UCLA School of Law and graduated, Order of the Coif, in 2008. While at UCLA, Jasmine specialized in Critical Race Studies, investigating the relationship between race, racism and the law. She received her B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of Michigan in December of 2004.

Neelamjit Dhillon is a professional musician equally versed in both Eastern and Western traditions. He has obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies (majoring in saxophone performance) from Capilano University and has also completed a Bachelor of Education degree in Secondary Music Education from the University of British Columbia. He is currently pursuing his masters in tabla performance at the California Institute of the Arts.

ASHVEER SINGH

Contemporary Approaches to Technology and the Solo Performer

Everything Im Not Made Me Everything I Am: The Racialization Of Sikhs In The United States

Through open source frameworks, technology has become easily accessible to the modern musician. Software platforms such as chucK, Arduino and Processing can be used to broaden the possibilities available to the solo performer. We will discuss these tools and show practical applications using live performance.

Ashveer Pal Singh is an anthropologist with interests in governance, science and technology studies, and identity politics. His previous research has focused on the Punjabi Sikh diaspora and identity politics in North America. He completed his undergraduate work in the department of anthropology at UC Berkeley, and his MA in the social sciences from the University of Chicago. He plans to enter a doctoral program in 2013 with a project focusing on the welfare state and identification in India.

Consuming Memory, Producing Nostalgia: Reflections on Bhangra Scholarship and the North American Bhangra Circuit

Racialization refers to the processes of the production of racial identities. These processes have been explained through the use of racial schemas, or cognitive structures that individuals use to classify the people they interact with according to race. Perceivers will place individuals, or targets, into certain racial categories, certain meanings attach to those categories, and those meanings will influence the interaction between the perceivers and the targets. This paper explores how Sikhs have been placed in different racial categories over time and how Sikh responses to the categories and to the meanings attached to those categories have, at times, perpetuated an unjust racial hierarchy and, at other times, challenged it.

Told through the stories of six different men ranging in age from fourteen to eighty-six, Roots of Love documents the changing signif cance of hair and the turban among Sikhs in India. We see younger Sikh men abandoning their hair and turban to follow the current fashion trends, while the older generation struggles to retain the visible symbols of their religious identity. The f lm is a timely and relevant exploration of the inherent conf ict between tradition and modernity, between pragmatism and faith. The choice of cutting ones hair is one that not only concerns the individual and his family, but an entire community.

ROOTS OF LOVE (a film by Harjant Gill)

Previous scholarship on the Punjabi folk dance and music genre bhangra has examined its performance and production from a cultural studies perspective. Such scholarship introduces Bhangra as a transnational phenomenon, its history as a musical movement in the United Kingdom, and various narratives of identity and multiculturalism in the US and the UK. In this paper I review the literature on bhangra, critiquing it from an anthropological approach. What is missing from much of research is sustained ethnographic analysis in any time or place, which I argue has concealed the strong Punjabi nationalism and identity politics evinced by North American bhangra circuit. I submit that this circuit is the dominant producer of bhangra performances, and by its transnational electronic viewership is shaping the global imaginary of bhangra.