Urducosmo

Toward Partition and Beyond

I'm very pleased to share this project I've been a part of about rare historical photographs of the Pakistan movement and the 1947 partition of South Asia. The images were taken by Lahore-based photographer Muhammad Bakhsh Bhatti and generously made available by his grandson, Shahzeb Bhatti. 1/3

Modernism/modernity seeks a Book Reviews Editor (3-year term, 2026–2029).

The role involves commissioning and editing reviews for both the print journal and Print+.

Deadline to apply: March 16, 2026

Please share widely.

Happy Christmas to all those celebrating!

A Mughal virgin and child, by Ghulam Shah Salim before 1605, after an engraving by Flemish artist Bernard van Orley (1492-1542). Dedication to Prince Shah Salim who became the emperor Jahangir 1695–27.

In her Afterword to our new special issue, "The Language Challenge: Modernisms in Multilingual South Asia,” Rebecca Walkowitz writes about accepting the challenge of language, and rising to it.

Read it here: modernismmodernity.org/articles/wal...

With essays by myself, Gregory Goulding, Anjali Nerlekar, Toral Jatin Gajarawala, Supurna Dasgupta, Rahul Parson, and Preetha Mani! Afterword by Rebecca L. Walkowitz.

And check out this fabulous cover!

Excited to announce that my special issue of @mmodernity.bsky.social, co-edited with Preetha Mani, on The Language Challenge: Modernisms in Multilingual South Asia, will be out soon! Check out the Editor’s Note, TOC, and Afterword online now! modernismmodernity.org/current-prin...

Happy Diwali to all those celebrating!

This absolutely spectacular early 18C Kishangarh painting, reminiscent of the hand of great Mughal master Bhavanidas, is part of the most extraordinary collection of paintings up for auction next week at Christies.

www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6...

Why Did UChicago Destroy the Humanities? The answer is simple: to spend untold sums on useless buildings by starchitects.

wrote briefly about architecture and the situation at u Chicago www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Eric Hayot and Paula Krebs: It's not about Palestine, DEI or trans athletes We are facing a defunding of knowledge production in this country. This isn’t only a problem for academia. Many local economies, like Pittsburgh’s,...

Who benefits from attacks on higher ed?

Certainly not the US economy.
Certainly not the states where higher ed is the major employer.
Certainly not the American people.

excellent work @ehayot.bsky.social and @paulakrebs.bsky.social
www.post-gazette.com/opinion/gues...

Oh my goodness, this is amazing news! Mubaarak!

And of course I and many of my colleagues were recipients of FLAS fellowships at some point. @southasiacenter.bsky.social @uw-madsouthasia.bsky.social @uclacisa.bsky.social @modernlanguage.bsky.social @asianstudies.org

I think I represent many in saying that FLAS fellowships are crucial in training next generations in many widely-spoken and crucial languages.

This is a tough day (and a tough time), but also noting that yesterday Title 6 centers and FLAS fellowships were all terminated.

Hearty congratulations!

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

2 of my books, 12 of my articles.

I don’t mind at all that they were on LibGen — that someone out there made them free to read for less-privileged people who can’t pay for access.

I mind a great deal that Meta scraped my work for commercial gain.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

And seems like I should repost this, too.

Hello BlueSky! My first post here. Let me also speak out as a Columbia alum. When I was a student there in the late 90s, my impression was that the administration will do whatever it takes for money.