British Association of South Asian Studies Annual conference

British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) Annual Conference 2022

WELCOME NOTE: BASAS CHAIR 2022


I am very pleased to welcome you all to the 2022 BASAS Annual Conference, which is being hosted this year by the University of Southampton. It continues to be challenging for BASAS to organise these conferences online, although on the positive side we have more attendees because of it.

BASAS has done well this year. We have a brand new website that has made life so much easier for us to post new items and hope it has been a positive experience for you all. Our Book Prize makes a debut this year with its first ever winner being announced at the conference. We have had two very successful workshops with our members on (1) Violence and (2) How to Publish. The BASAS Annual Lecture has been relaunched, with the 2022 lecture being co-hosted by Kings India Institute on the 6th of June. We have a new South Asia Studies editor and two new GEC reps who you will be able to interact with on our Facebook page.

With your continued participation I hope to take BASAS from strength to strength during my tenure. We are looking to extend our GEC activities and also hope that we can be back to an in-person conference next year, pandemic permitting, both of which will re-invigorate our networks. Do continue to follow our website announcements, twitter and newsletters for more information and exciting events. If you have any suggestions, do please let us know.

Finally, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks as BASAS Chair, on behalf of Council and the membership of BASAS, to the organising team and all the colleagues in Southampton who put in so many hours of hard work into organising this conference. Without your hard work, this conference would not have been possible.

Anindita Ghosh, BASAS Chair

Professor of Modern Indian History

University of Manchester