We are organizing Kashmir Week, a week-long series of events from February 13-17, that is meant to give a voice to a community that has been silenced. The story of Kashmir is not a new one; people all over the world have mourned Kashmir and its people, who are subject to violence, censorship, and repression. The Kashmiri people have been stripped of their right to speak, celebrate, and grieve. Kashmiri's lived experience has been silenced. Kashmir Week is meant to amplify and uplift Kashmiri voices—to highlight our stories of pain and suffering but also our stories of joy and happiness. Our programming is meant to share Kashmir with the Penn community and the world. Kashmir Week is a moment of resistance, of resilience, of healing, of peace, of love, and of solidarity. We resist the impulse to forget Kashmir.

Our programming focuses on dispossession as it relates to Kashmir and Palestine. Our goal is to be a community space of celebration, inquiry, learning, and healing. Through art and media as well as our speakers' shared knowledge, we will explore what it means for different communities with different life experiences to come together to share in solidarity and belonging. Our goal is to create a space for dialogue between communities and to learn from one another. Kashmir Week lifts up a true balance and mix of scholarly and people-centered interpretation with different modes of learning, i.e., film, lecture, art, student-led teach-ins, open dialogue, poetry, painting, communing, which opens the space to interact with healing in many different ways. One of the primary ways that we accomplish this value of healing, resistance, and resiliency for this community, and others, is through these open, interactive workshops. We hope to reach people in their heart spaces, and all the events and programming will be open to all.

M, 2.13 / 4:00-6:00 – ARCH 108

Honoring Kashmir / on the Poetics of Dispossession

We will explore thousands of years-long traditions of literature from the Kashmir Valley. Doctoral Candidate in Religious

Studies Abdul Manan Bhat will share a poetry recitation and reading, alongside Kashmiri students. Audience interaction

is encouraged. Kashmiri poetry and literature will be shared. Discussion on selections. Broadside making community art

project to close. Refreshments will be served.

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Tu, 2.14 / 5:00-7:30 – ARCH 108

Kashmir & Palestine Through our Eyes: Community Film Screening

We will curate and screen a series of films on Kashmir and Palestine. Each film will close with a guided community

conversation and debrief. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

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W, 2.15 / 4:30-8:00 – ARCH 208 / ARCH 108

Scholars on Kashmir through an academic lens.

A Conversation with Kashmiri Scholar, Dr. Ather Zia:

The Myth of Normalcy: Kashmir in the Aftermath of 2019 / 4:30-5:15; ARCH 208

Panel-Talk with Dr. Bhan, Dr. Kanjwal, Dr. Misri, Dr. Zia, and Doctoral Candidate in Religious Studies, Abdul

Manan Bhat on Prisms of Resistance in Kashmir. / 5:30-6:30; ARCH 208

Panelists: Dr. Mona Bhan from Syracuse University, Dr. Hafsa Kanjwal from Lafayette College, Dr. Deepti Misri from

the University of Colorado Boulder, Dr. Zia from University of Northern Colorado, and Doctoral Candidate in Religious

Studies Abdul Manan Bhat will discuss prisms of resistance in Kashmir.

Dinner to Follow / 6:45-8:00; ARCH 108

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Th, 2.16 / 4:00-6:00 – ARCH 108

Multimedia, Propaganda, & The Kashmir Files: Community Film Screening

Oftentimes, we do not consume multi-media critically. We will screen Kashmir Files and unpack the ways in which film

can shape our imagination. When we look at this film, we are left with an imperfect view of the story of Kashmir; it is

not descriptive of how things are. We lose/confuse the origin of harm. The screening will close with a guided discussion

of the film. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served. Moderated by Viraj Patel and Rema Bhat.

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F, 2.17 / 3:00-5:00 – ARCH 108 / *Vigil to Follow

Shared Destinies & Solidarity

Hostile Homelands: Book Talk by Journalist Azad Essa / 3:00-5:00

A journalist for Middle East Eye, Azad Essa will speak on his upcoming book, Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance

Between India and Israel. Open conversation followed by questions to discuss his experience as a journalist and reporter.

*Vigil at Love Statue for Lives Lost / 7:00

KASHMIR WEEK, 2023 PROGRAM