Humanities Decanted: Bhaskar Sarkar, “No Man’s (Is)land: Ecology of a Border”

Join us for a dialogue between Bhaskar Sarkar (Film and Media Studies) and Lisa Sun-Hee Park (Asian American Studies) about Sarkar’s new article, “No Man’s (Is)land: Ecology of a Border.” Refreshments will be served.

Focusing on a stretch of the international border between Bangladesh and India that coincides with the river Ganges, Sarkar’s new article examines the ambiguous productivities of proliferating borders in the era of globalization. In this overpopulated region of South Asia, the Farakka barrage has compounded problems of riverbank erosion, causing the loss of arable lands and homes. When displaced communities move to the silt islands—chars— that emerge in the middle of the river, they pose a problem for both states: are they citizens or foreigners? Analyzing a documentary film about the char people, Sarkar explores contemporary documentary’s engagement with border ecologies and migrant communities, state policies and environmental depredation, and the politics of representation (both cinematic and electoral).

Bhaskar Sarkar is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies. His primary research interests include risk and speculative media; post-colonial media theory; political economy of global media; and history and memory.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Harry Girvetz Memorial Endowment