Dr. Kalyani Ramnath, Assistant Professor from the Department of History at the University of Georgia, will present a talk about her book Boats in a Storm.
Before World War II, traders, merchants, financiers and laborers moved across the Indian Ocean, trading goods, supplying credit and seeking work. This all changed as India, Burma, Ceylon and Malaya wrested independence from the British empire. During the tumult of postwar decolonization, Boats in a Storm centers the legal struggles of migrants to retain their traditional patterns of life. Kalyani Ramnath narrates how these former migrants battled legal requirements to revive prewar circulations of credit, capital and labor, in a postwar context of rising ethno-nationalisms that accused migrants of stealing jobs and hoarding land. Ultimately, she shows how decolonization was marked not only by shipwrecked empires and nation-states emerging from the debris of imperial collapse, but also by these forgotten wartime displacements, their unintended consequences and long afterlives.
This event is free and open to the public. Hosted by the South Asian Studies Initiative (a working group of the Humanities Institute), the Department of History and Mershon Center.
Dr. Kalyani Ramnath is a historian of modern South Asia, interested in researching and teaching legal history, histories of migration and displacement, transnational and global history and questions of archival method.
The Humanities Institute and its related centers host a wide range of events, from intense discussions of works in progress to cutting-edge presentations from world-known scholars, artists, activists and everything in between.
We value in-person engagement at our events as we strive to amplify the energy in the room. But we also recognize the fact that not all our guests will be able to visit our space. Zoom access will be available to this event upon request. If you wish to have such access or have any other accommodation request, please send your request to MacKenzie DiMarco: dimarco.33@osu.edu.
