The British Council and Indo British Scholars Association (IBSA) invites you to an engaging fireside conversation with Prof. Ananya Jahanara Kabir as she explores Alegropolitics, or the politics of joyfulness, a concept coined by her referring to joy, pleasure, and embodied happiness as forms of connections, often found in postcolonial contexts like South Asian dance and Creole cultures, whereby communities also forge identity and fight marginalisation. In conversation with Dr Debanjan Chakrabarti, Director British Council, East and Northeast India, this session will reflect on how music, dance, and popular cultural forms function not merely as entertainment, but as spaces of memory and identity.
Event details: Monday 12 January at British Council library - 16 Camac Street, L&T Chambers, Kolkata 700017 from 6.00 p.m. (tea) followed by the discussion at 6.30 p.m.
About Ananya Jahanara Kabir FBA - Ananya Jahanara Kabir FBA is Professor of English Literature at King’s College London. Trained at the Universities of Calcutta, Oxford, and Cambridge, she taught at the University of Leeds before joining King’s in 2013. Her doctoral work was on the European Middle Ages. Professor Kabir theorises the relationship between creolisation, archipelagicity, and ’alegropolitics’ that explored the global popularity of African-heritage partner dances such as salsa, kizomba, bachata, and tango. From dance her interests now encompass textile, foodways, and built heritage as indices of creolisation. Professor Kabir is Fellow of the British Academy, and recipient of India’s Infosys Prize in the Humanities and Germany’s Humboldt Research Prize.
Engage with a groundbreaking cultural concept through a dialogue that bridges culture and politics, gaining new perspectives on joy, resistance, and identity. for more details write to Praveena.Ireland@britishcouncil.org