Curriculum Vitae
AFFILIATIONS
2022-Date Visiting Faculty Integrated Arts and Culture Program UNPAR
2017-Date Gender Consultant, Kota Kita https://www.kotakita.org/partners.
2019-2020 Visiting Lecturer at The Language Centre at the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia creating and teaching innovation methods in Second Language Acquisition.
Nov 2000-Jan 2018 Started from Staff Anthropologist to Assistant Professor and Head of Department Development Studies, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
EDUCATION
2006-2012 PhD Culture & Performance University of California at Los Angeles
Advisors: Chairs David Gere & Janet O’ Shea, Susan Foster, Nile Green, Peter Sellars
Thesis “Choreographing [in] Pakistan: Indu Mitha, Dancing Occluded histories in “The Land of the Pure”
2004-2006 Msc. Social/Cultural Anthropology University of Hawaii at Manoa
Advisor: Geoffrey White Plan B Papers 1. Lessons of History from Hula and Bharata Natyam: Dance and Resistance in India, Pakistan and Hawaii.
1997-1999 MA Social/Cultural Anthropology, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Advisor: Tariq Mehmood
Thesis: “The Rubabis of Chunna Mandi: A Study in the Anthropology of Music”
RECENT GRADUATE TEACHING EXPERIENCE (Post PhD July 2012)
Fall 2024 Art and Environment- Collaborative and Community Based Art, UNPAR Integrated Arts Prog.
Spring 2024 Body as Medium of Expression (Tubuh Sebagai Medium), UNPAR Integrated Arts Prog.
Fall 2023 Art and Environment- Collaborative and Community Based Art, UNPAR Integrated Arts Prog.
Dec 2022 Art and Environment - Collaborative and Community Based Art, Series of workshop style lectures for UNPAR Integrated Arts Prog.
Second Semester 2019 Urdu-Hindi and South Asian Dance, developing and teaching innovative creative performing arts methods in learning spoken Urdu-Hindi and Urdu Script, Institut Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia.
Fall 2015 Gender and Development for M. Phil Development Studies program at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
Spring 2014 Gender and Development for M. Phil Development Studies program at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
Spring 2014 Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance co-taught with University of Hawaii for M. Phil Development Studies program at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
Fall 2013 Anthropology and Development for M. Phil Development Studies program at PIDE.
Spring 2013 Gender and Development for M. Phil Development Studies program at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
Spring 2013 Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance co-taught with University of Hawaii for M.Phil. Development Studies program at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING EXPERIENCE AT UCLA
2007-2012 Progressed from Teaching Assistant (2007) to Teaching Fellow (2012) in Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (ALC) and in Department of World Arts & Cultures/Dance (WAC) teaching following courses:
WAC Art as Social Action, Art as Moral Action, World Dance Histories
ALC Urdu TA for Urdu-Hindi program throughout from 2007-2012 Hollywood, Bollywood and Westwood
RECENT GRANTS WON
Alumni Small Grants (AGR) Pakistan US Alumni Network (PUAN), supported maestro Indu Mitha’s final presentation (2017), and fund Film makers Anya and Aisha film “How She Moves” on her https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLxRqdkoXWw
Higher Education Commission HEC small grants for international conference as head of department Development Studies, PIDE for two consecutive years (2015, 2016).
HONORS & AWARDS
Conference Fellow 2022, DSA (Dance Studies Association), USA.
Fulbright featured scholar 2015 Humphrey-Fulbright conference.
Fulbright and East West Centre Alumni (Fulbright Doctoral Award 2006-2008, Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Scholarship 2004-6 and East-West Centre Affiliate 2005-6, Offered EWC Degree Fellowship 2006-2010 but declined).
UCLA Graduate Fellowship (Non-Resident tuition, Regents Registration fees and Stipend 2006-7), Alpha-Beta Gama Fellowship recipient UCLA, UCLA Graduate Travel Grant Summer 2007.
Gold medalist for “All Round Student” in O.P.F Girls College, Islamabad.
HONORS & AWARDS
Conference Fellow 2022, DSA (Dance Studies Association), USA.
Fulbright featured scholar 2015 Humphrey-Fulbright conference.
Fulbright and East West Centre Alumni (Fulbright Doctoral Award 2006-2008, Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Scholarship 2004-6 and East-West Centre Affiliate 2005-6, Offered EWC Degree Fellowship 2006-2010 but declined).
UCLA Graduate Fellowship (Non-Resident tuition, Regents Registration fees and Stipend 2006-7), Alpha-Beta Gama Fellowship recipient UCLA, UCLA Graduate Travel Grant Summer 2007.
Gold medalist for “All Round Student” in O.P.F Girls College, Islamabad.
PUBLICATIONS
Journal article, The Tale of a Choreographer, her Student, a River, and an Endangered Heritage: Indu Mitha’s Qaseeda-i-Ilm of Jamal/An Ode to Wisdom and Beauty. South Asian Dance International (SADI), 2024. https://journals.charlotte.edu/sadi/issue/view/143
Commissioned Book Chapter “Globalization, Islam and Culture: Lessons from Pakistan’s Occluded Histories” co-author Ayesha Kanwal Dar. Commissioned Book Chapter in book volume “Global Pakistan-Pakistan’s Role in the International System” FES-SDPI, June 2022.
Review of Siren Song: Understanding Pakistan Through Its Women Singers, by Fawzia Afzal-Khan. TDR: The Drama Review, vol. 66 no. 1, 2022, p. 177-179. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/849184.
Pakistan’s top newspaper Dawn article “Tehreema Mitha: Dancing Amid the Dharna” http://herald.dawn.com/news/1153938, 2017.
Book Chapter (accepted) “A Creative Approach to a People’s History of South Asia”, by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS).
“Vision 2025: Cultural Heritage Preservation and Disaster Mitigation Studies in Pakistan”, Dec 2014 11th Fulbright Alumni Conference, Dec 5-6 2014, FC College Lahore. Conference Proceedings Annual Humphrey-Fulbright Conference 2015 Vision 2025.
Book Review “Colonization and its Discontents: Emancipation, Emigration, and Antislavery in Antebellum Pennsylvania by Beverly C. Tomek, Published in The Middle Ground Journal, Number 7, Fall, 2013.
Dance Review, “Dancing Queen”, 2002. Friday Times
KEYNOTE & INVITED LECTURES
Featured speaker in Arts and humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project “South Asian Dance equity: The Arts British South Asian Dance Ignores”, Project’s first Provocation “Decentering Indiacentricim and Hinducentrism in British South Asian Dance”, Jan 19, 2024.
Invited speaker artist for Yayasan Teman Berbagai, 2024.
“The Art of Loving our Life”, Bhima English Club, SMP Madiun, August 6, 2021.
Seni Mencintai Kehidupan (The journey of loving what you do and doing what you love), Invited speaker for Yayasan Teman Berbagai, Feb 27, 2021.
Creative Feminist Ethnography in M.Phil. Gender Studies course, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Dec 2019.
Key note speech HSF-QAU Annual Conference “Choreographing Inclusivity in Pakistan: The Tree, the Dancer, and the city”, April 2018.
Invited featured Lecture for the Asian Study Group (ASG), “A Journey: Dances of Asia and the Pacific Choreographing Peace through Dance”, Lok Virsa, Feb 2nd, 2018, Islamabad, Pakistan.
The Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC)’s 346th Seminar “Choreographing Peace: Rethinking Peace and Gender in South Asia through Arts”, Hiroshima University, Japan, ”, 27th December, 2016,
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, WORKSHOPS & LECTURES
Dance Studies Association (DSA) 2024, forthcoming
Dance Studies Association (DSA) 2023, Eko Supriyanto’s Cry Jailolo: Deep Dive in Indonesian Culture (s), Symposium New Mobilities 'on the Turn’? Sep 8, 2023, London.
Dance Studies Association (DSA) 2022, Dancing Resilience : Mitha’s Ratt Jagga (Vigil), Local & Global ruminations, Oct 13-16, 2022, Simon fraser University , (Vancouver, Canada) Dance Studies Association.
Dance Studies Association (DSA) 2021, “Choreographing (in) Pakistan: Indu Mitha, The Women’s movement and occluded Histories”, at DSA October 14-17, 2021 Rutgers University/Hyatt Regency, New Brunswick New Jersey (virtual presentation).
Peace through the Arts workshop for youth August 4, 2017 titled “The Artist Way: From Inner to World Peace” at Pakistan US alumni network (PUAN)International Peace building Conference: Together for Peace August 3-7, 2017 Marriot Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Seminar on “The Body in Arts and Contemporary Culture” 28th January, 2017 English Studies Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia.
Conducted three-day workshop to Indonesian dancers and scholars on “Pakistani Folk and Classical Dance Forms” at the NuArt Sculpture Park part of their Dance Camp initiative, May 20-23, 2016. (See sample work in artistic production list)
Created “Peace through the Arts” workshop for “International Peace and Conflict Resolution Conference” organized by PUAN in Islamabad Nov. 27-29, 2015.
Paper selected for Feminist Pre-Conference at Annual South Asian Studies Conference at Wisconsin Madison “Hum Gunahgar Aurtaey “Us Sinful Women” of Pakistan: Indu Mitha, Kishwar Naheed and the Dancing girl of Mohenjodaro”.
Selected and discussed my forthcoming book project in “AIIS Turn your dissertation into Book workshop” at same time at the Annual Conference on South Asia), Wisconsin, Madison, USA, October 21st, 2015.
Invited by RABTA, initiative of United States Education Foundation for Pakistan’s Alumni department (Sep 16th 2015), to share U.S. exchange experiences, and professional and community work and success stories with thirty district leaders from all across Pakistan, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK.
Radio Show FM 101 to talk on her lessons learned during Fulbright Graduate Studies in the US, May 19, 2015.
“Rethinking the “Women Question”: Controversial & Contested Histories (A Case Study)”, March 9th 2015, International Women’s Day 2015 Seminar “Postmodernism & Gender Discourses”, AIOU, Islamabad.
“Vision 2025: Cultural Heritage Preservation and Disaster Mitigation Studies in Pakistan”, Dec 2014 11th Fulbright Alumni Conference, Dec 5-6 2014, FC College Lahore.
“Choreographing Peace through dance”, Dec 2013, 10th Fulbright Alumni Conference, 23 Nov 2013, LUMS, Lahore.
“Crossing Borders and Choreographing Peace in South Asia: Indu Mitha’s Pakistani Bharata Natyam Dance”, at Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference (AAS), San Diego, USA March 20-23, 2013.
“Choreographing Inclusivity: The Tree, the Dancer, and the Nation”, at Yale University’s Modern South Asia Workshop 2013, Mar 29-31, 2013, at Yale University, New Haven.
“Choreographing Inclusivity: A Dancer, A Tree and a City”, Chew on This (COT) colloquium series at WAC/D, UCLA, May 29, 2012.
“A Creative Approach to a People’s History of South Asia”, at Asia Research Institute (ARI), How to write contested Histories Conference, National University of Singapore December 2011.
“Choreographing Peace in South Asia” at department of international relations UNPAR, Bandung, Indonesia, September 2011.
Lecture on “Syncretism” for Class “Hollywood, Bollywood and Westwood”, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA, July 2010.
“Negotiating Citizenships, blurring Boundaries in Between Storms: Language Politics and Cultural production in East Pakistan (1947-71) Post-Partition”, Dance Under Construction (DUC) graduate student conference, Irvine, April 2010.
“In the Garden: Choreographing a historical voyage from Pakistan to Colonial India”, 9th International Graduate Student Conference, East-West Center, Honolulu, Feb 2010.
“Choreographing (in) Pakistan beyond Partition: Nation, Gender and Bharata Natyam” at “Chew on This” (COT) colloquium series at WAC/D, Dec 2009.
“Dancing Partition in the Land of the Pure: Bharata Natyam in Pakistan”, Annual Meeting of the Congress of Research on Dance (CORD), Columbia University, Nov 2007.
DANCE COLLABORATIONS, PERFORMANCES & CHOREOGRAPHIES
October 25th 2020 Online collaboration: Performance of a Tillana with Jakarta based Indian Bharata Natyam dancer and Choreographer Sindhu Raj.
Podda Performance Women’s Day 2018, Lok Virsa, National Folk Heritage Institute.
Hazaroen Khawahishaen, PNCA August 11th, 2017 and at LokVirsa August 10, 2017, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Presented Pakistan at East West Centre Alumni Conference and performed Indu Mitha’s choreography “Hum Gunahgar Aurtaen”, Jan 2016, Manilla, Philappines.
Trained Indonesian dancers and showcased Indu Mitha’s choreographies presented by my Indonesian dance students at NuArt, May 20th, 2016, Bandung, Indonesia. (Link attached)
Mausiqar Welfare Trust evening of classical dance and music Marriot, Dec 27th 2015, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Arz-e-Faqir evening of dance and music with Dr. Feriyal Aslam and Arieb Azhar in Annual Fundraiser of Local NGO Rozan Dec 5th, 2015, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Featured Fulbright scholar/artist 2015 12th Annual Humphrey Fulbright Alumni Conference to showcase an evening of dance at the inaugural. Dec 4th 2015, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Dance Day Manao organized by IPA, May 2015, Lahore, Pakistan.
Featured artist at Inaugural of Islamabad Literature Festival organized by Oxford University Press of Pakistan, April 2015, Pakistan.
RECENT RESEARCH & PROJECTS
Ethnographic Documentary on Indu Mitha’s life based on footage 2003-date (applying for grants to transfer and edit over 2 decades interviews with the subject.)
Introducing and Developing New Courses:
2024 Integrated Arts “Body as Medium of Expression”
2019 ITB: Urdu-Hindi Dancing/ Urdu-Hindi and South Asian Dance course
2015-2018 PIDE: Tourism and Development, Disaster Management and preparedness (DMHA). During tenure as Head of Department (2013-15), helped initiate “Qualitative Methods”.
CONSULTANCIES & INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION
Gender Consultant for project Women on Wheels with Kota Kita 2017-2018
Monitoring & Evaluation expert for World Bank Poverty Alleviation project for PIDE 2004.
Qualitative Research Consultant for UNDP 2003
Vision 2020 Planning Commission Pakistan, working group “Inter-faith Harmony”
Government Consultation: Invited to join and give consultation to Minister of Planning, Reform and Development (via Skype) in Meeting of US alumni on HEC’s future PhD project Sep, 2016. Islamabad (Skype meeting).
Pakistan Delegate headed by Minister Marvi Memon at Prep3 UN Habitat, July 2016, Surabaya, Indonesia.
INVITED AS CHAIR
Chaired session on Gender and Violence around the Globe at Universitas Katolik Parahyangan (UNPAR), Bandung, Indonesia, April 2016.
Chaired session on Climate Change and its Consequences at the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Sciences (PIPS), November 2015.
Chaired session Titled “Home grown solutions and Localizations in Context of SDG’s” in Second Annual Workshop of Department of Development Studies at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) on Moving from MDG’s to SDG’s, June 10th, 2015.
TRAININGS
Dance Journey Facilitator (Module 1 & 2 Batch 2021-2022).
Leadership and Change Management, Training organized by the Higher Education Commission, Mar 2015 (Nominated by PIDE)
Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (certificate course and trainings from Columbia University and consortium of Asia-Pacific Universities. 2014).
Peace Ambassador Certificate from Shift Network USA, 2011.
“Gender Sensitization Training for Government Servants”, Islamabad.
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
Urdu/Hindi (Urdu/Hindi Teaching Fellow at Asian Languages & Cultures Department UCLA 2006-08, Winter 09), Visiting Lecturer Urdu ITB (2019)
Spoken Punjabi, and Intermediate level Bahasa Indonesia, Beginner Arabic.
REFERENCES
Dr. Geoffrey White
Professor Emeritus Department of Anthropology,
University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH)
Saunders Hall 316,
University of Hawaii at Manoa,
Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Email: white@hawaii.edu, Phone: +1(808) 389-2378
Dr. Nile Green
Professor & Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
7256 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, USA
Email: green@history.ucla.edu, Phone: 310-825-949
Indu Mitha
Pakistani Senior most Dance Maestro & Choreographer
(Email correspondence via daughter Tehreema Mitha managing her email)
8509 Pelham Rd Bethesda, MD 20817-3817, USA
Email: tehreema@tmdancecompany.org, Phone: +1(240)481-952
Dr. Shabbir Cheema
Former Director of Democratic Governance Division of UNDP and Senior Fellow of East-West Center and Harvard Kennedy School
Email: shabbir.cheema15@gmail.com, Tel: 1- 808-292-8584
Dr. Asad Zaman
Professor, Akhuwat University, Ex-VC Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE)
Deny Tri Basuki
Counsellor / Head of Chancery of Indonesian Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia
Email: deny.basuki@kemlu.go.id, Mobile: +421 910 521 737