The dates of the colloquium in the winter semester 2024/2025 are now fixed. Detailed information on the lectures can be found under Details of the Institute Colloquium.

Speaker: Dr. Mara Matta ( Associate Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Rome 'Sapienza')

Date of Talk: 24.01.2024

Time: 4 pm- 6 pm

Place: R03 (Seminarraum, access from the courtyard)

In March 1996, Bangladesh inaugurated the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka. While the online introduction to the museum underscores 1947 as an unfortunate event leading to the "unnatural separation of Bengali society on the basis of religion" and the creation of an "unrealistic and dysfunctional state," specific references to 1947 in relation to 1971 and the establishment of Bangladesh are notably scarce. Despite the pride in narrating Bangladesh's history and the Liberation War of 1971, as evident in films produced over the last 50 years by Bangladeshi filmmakers, there is a conspicuous absence of reflection on the memories of the 1947 Partition of Bengal.

This apparent erasure finds reflection not only in the museum's narrative but also in the memories of Bangladeshi youth and migrants in Rome. The recollections and histories of 1947 remain largely forgotten, with Bangladeshis often preferring to celebrate the victory of 1971 over the Pakistani 'enemy' in a hyper-nationalistic manner.This talk will try to look at partition films, migrants' narratives, and the Dhaka Liberation War Museum, viewing them as components of an ongoing effort to construct an archive of shared memories. The deliberate omission of 1947 from Bangladesh's historical discourse is seen as a political strategy rather than stemming from a sense of shame or an attempt to silence memories of the Partition. The dissonances, silences, and absences surrounding the memories of 1947 are of particular concern, as they appear incongruent or even detrimental to the harmonized version of '1971 Bangladesh.' This analysis seeks to explore the implications of such deliberate omissions and the shaping of a collective historical narrative.

Dear students,

From December 01 to February 25, 2024, the Poupou, a Maori

carving from the collection of the Institute of Ethnology, will be on display at the City Museum Tübingen.

We invite you to the workshop discussion on 07.December. The students will present the project here.

Admission is free, please come along.

As part of a seminar, students of ethnology and the MuSa

profile studied the history of the Poupou. The Poupou is an ancestor of the Maori iwi from Tolaga Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand. The

ancestor is still very important to the community there today. The

Institute has a long-standing connection with the iwi. The carving came to Europe via James Cook's first voyage in 1771.

For the research, we have therefore also exchanged ideas with some of her descendants

and thus developed approaches to collaborative exhibiting. The results of the project are now on display in a small workshop exhibition in the (post)colonial laboratory of the Stadtmuseum.

Guided tours (in German) of the exhibition will take place on 14.12, 5 pm and 28.01 and 25.02, 3 pm.

We look forward to your visit!

Best regards,

Johanna Annau

Lisa Priester-Lasch

Markus Schleiter