Presented By: Center for South Asian Studies
The 14th Annual CSAS Pakistan Conference | Seeing Pakistan
The 14th annual conference on Pakistan at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, brings our focus on Pakistani culture as it interacts with the processes of seeing and being seen. How do countries, peoples, and cultures come to be seen in a global framework? How might the shared qualities of sight and vision unite experiences as disparate as the art museum, the social media site, and the movie theater?
We kick off our conference with a screening of the 2023 film Wakhri, directed by Iram Parveen Bilal, at 7pm on Thursday, January 30th at the Michigan Theater. Wakhri dramatizes the extraordinary life and tragic death of Qandeel Baloch (1990-2016), who is often described as Pakistan’s first social media celebrity.
On Friday, January 31st, we will begin with a keynote address from the film’s director, Iram Parveen Bilal. A Pakistani writer, director, and producer based in Los Angeles, Bilal will speak to us about the process of making the film, what it means to be a Pakistani-American filmmaker today, and how her own use of the cinematic medium reflects upon Qandeel Baloch’s use of the visually oriented world of social media. What parts of Wakhri the film, and of Baloch the historical figure, are particularly Pakistani, and what parts might we more correctly see as indicative of a shared global predicament as moving image media and social media respond to one another?
Our conversation about seeing and being seen will be given historical and contextual depth through a second keynote address by Prof. Saleema Waraich, an Associate Professor of Art History at Skidmore College and an expert on the long and rich tradition of art and aesthetics in Pakistani art and architecture. Prof. Waraich will help us to understand the visual specificities of Pakistani culture: what should we see when we approach a Pakistani painting about Pakistan, or even a European print that claims to be about Pakistan? How might our lived or imagined experiences of seeing Pakistan firsthand – for instance, by touring the storied Shahi Qila in Lahore – inform our apprehension of Pakistan as it is digitally mediated today? And how do our memories, the sights and sites that each of us carry with us, inform our ability to apprehend a rapidly changing nation?
Our conversations will move full circle to questions of art and cinema, through a final keynote address by Prof. Iftikhar Dadi, John H. Burris Professor of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University. Both an artist and an art historian, Prof. Dadi will contextualize the film Wakhri within his own work on Lahore cinema, as for instance in his 2022 monograph Lahore Cinema: Between Realism and Fable.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at csas@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
We kick off our conference with a screening of the 2023 film Wakhri, directed by Iram Parveen Bilal, at 7pm on Thursday, January 30th at the Michigan Theater. Wakhri dramatizes the extraordinary life and tragic death of Qandeel Baloch (1990-2016), who is often described as Pakistan’s first social media celebrity.
On Friday, January 31st, we will begin with a keynote address from the film’s director, Iram Parveen Bilal. A Pakistani writer, director, and producer based in Los Angeles, Bilal will speak to us about the process of making the film, what it means to be a Pakistani-American filmmaker today, and how her own use of the cinematic medium reflects upon Qandeel Baloch’s use of the visually oriented world of social media. What parts of Wakhri the film, and of Baloch the historical figure, are particularly Pakistani, and what parts might we more correctly see as indicative of a shared global predicament as moving image media and social media respond to one another?
Our conversation about seeing and being seen will be given historical and contextual depth through a second keynote address by Prof. Saleema Waraich, an Associate Professor of Art History at Skidmore College and an expert on the long and rich tradition of art and aesthetics in Pakistani art and architecture. Prof. Waraich will help us to understand the visual specificities of Pakistani culture: what should we see when we approach a Pakistani painting about Pakistan, or even a European print that claims to be about Pakistan? How might our lived or imagined experiences of seeing Pakistan firsthand – for instance, by touring the storied Shahi Qila in Lahore – inform our apprehension of Pakistan as it is digitally mediated today? And how do our memories, the sights and sites that each of us carry with us, inform our ability to apprehend a rapidly changing nation?
Our conversations will move full circle to questions of art and cinema, through a final keynote address by Prof. Iftikhar Dadi, John H. Burris Professor of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University. Both an artist and an art historian, Prof. Dadi will contextualize the film Wakhri within his own work on Lahore cinema, as for instance in his 2022 monograph Lahore Cinema: Between Realism and Fable.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at csas@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
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