D. Venkat Rao | Critical Humanities Elsewhere: Towards Pathways of a Responsive Reception

This talk on Critical Humanities explores the hypothesis that cultural difference can be configured on the basis of differential articulations of memory. The hypothesis can be extended further to unravel the singular and distinctive departures that the Greek-Abrahamic and Sanskrit heritages have taken from the (supposedly) common source of the "Indo-European" background. Such an inquiry, however, may emerge from cultures that are "outside in" the European fold. Working from this double bind, this talk draws on "Indian"-Sanskrit-(symbolizing and biocultural) resources to reflect on the question of cultural difference between "India" and Europe in the praxial context of teaching and research today.
About the Speaker
D. Venkat Rao teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India. His areas of interest include literary and cultural studies, image studies, epic traditions, visual cultures, comparative thought, translation, and mnemocultures.
About the Series
All This Rising: The Humanities in the Next Ten Years features ideas and methods that will mark new paths for the humanities in the next decade. Visitors consider the motives and conventions of their work in progress, how it converses with its discipline, and what it portends for the humanities.