This year conference brings together 60 local and global scholars, along with 10 disciplinary and interdisciplinary panels, a Keynote Address, Afghanistan Studies Book Lecture, Conference Concluding Remarks, ACKU’s Afghanistan Centennial Independence’s Archival and Photography Exhibition, and Afghanistan’s Local Book Exhibition.

The conference organizing committee consists of Rashmi Dangol (ACKU Program Manager), Abdul Wahid Wafa (ACKU Director), Mohammad Omar Sharifi (Director of American Institute of Afghanistan Studies-Kabul), and Jawan Shir Rasikh (ACKU Visiting Scholar).

DAY 1, AUGUST 17, 2019

8:00-8:15 am                          Registration  

8:15-8:30                                Opening Remarks: Wahid Wafa, Omar Sharifi, and Jawan Shir Rasikh

Conference Chair: Barry Salaam (Independent Scholar, Afghanistan)

Session One—‘Text, Perspective, and Culture: The Problem of Agency in Afghanistan’s Scholarship’

8:30-9:30        Peoples’ Knowledge, Peoples’ Culture, Panel 1:

Panel Chair:                            Shahrzad Akbar (Civil Society Activist, and Writer, Kabul-Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Ali Abdi (PhD Candidate., Anthropology, Yale University)

Title:                                       Dancing Bachas, Shakhs, and Gay Men: The Culture of Same Sex Desire in Kabul

Disciplinary Discussant:         Sayed Askar Musavi (PhD., Anthropologist of Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Jalal Atai (Lecturer, Breda University of Applied Sciences)

Title:                                       The Destruction of Buddhas: Dissonant Heritage, Islamic or Political Iconoclasm

Disciplinary Discussant:         Omar Sharifi (PhD., Anthropology, Boston University)

9:30-10:00                               Tea Break

10:00-11:00     Afghans’ Minds and Afghans’ Bodies, Panel 2:

Panel Chair:                            Omar Sadr (PhD., Political Science, American University of Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Farid Tookhy (PhD., Political Science, Georgetown University)

Title:                                       From State-Building, Secularism and Contestation: Afghanistan Under Amanullah and Beyond

Disciplinary Discussant:        Faiz Ahmed (PhD., History, Brown University)

Presenter:                                Marya Hannun (PhD Candidate., Islamic Studies, Georgetown University)

Title:                                       Tracing the Role of Afghan Women in the Wake of Independence

Disciplinary Discussant:         Faiz Ahmed

11:00-12:00     Provincial Knowledge, Provincial Perspective, Panel 3:

Panel Chair:                            Ali Amiri (Independent Scholar, Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Nabi Saqee (Lecturer, Ghur Educational University)

Title:                                       اهمیت پژوهش های محلی و بومی: دانشنامه ولایت غور

Disciplinary Discussant:         Mohayuddin Mehdi (PhD., Literary Critic, Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Maryam Jami, (Administration and Diplomacy, Herat University)

Title:                                       Independent Afghanistan in the Path of History: Rethinking Afghanistan’s Independence in Post-1919 Context

Disciplinary Discussant:         Jawan Shir Rasikh (PhD., South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania)

12:00-1:00                               Lunch Break, ACKU Courtyard

1:00-2:00         Keynote Address

Margaret Mills, Professor Emerita (The Ohio State University)

The Traditional and the National: Some Documentary History and Problematics

2:00-2:30                                 Tea Break

Session Two—‘Enduring Economics, Culture, and Relations: Afghanistan Inside-Out’

2:30-4:00        (Un)-Producing in Afghanistan’s Economy, and Politics, Panel 4:  

Panel Chair:                            Gran Hewad (MOFA, Kabul-Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Kambaiz Rafi (PhD. Candidate., University College London)

Title:                                        Production During Times of Instability

Disciplinary Discussant:         Ahmad Idrees Rahmani (PhD., Policy Analysis, Pardee Graduate School)

Presenter:                                Vibhav Pradhan (MPhil., South Asian University)

Title:                                       War and Economy Nexus: Afghanistan’s Perpetual Opium Trade 

Disciplinary Discussant:         Kambaiz Rafi

Presenter:                                Nazif M. Shahrani (PhD., Anthropology, Indiana University-Bloomington)            

Title:                                        Afghanistan’s Century of Independence Marred by Dependence, More Dependence and Self-Deceptions

Disciplinary Discussant:         Dipali Mukhopadhyay (PhD., Political Science, Columbia University)

4:00-5:30        Afghanistan in South Asia’s Political Imagination, Panel 5:

Panel Chair:                            Amir Ramin (Regional Cooperation Department Director, MOFA, Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Raghav Sharma (PhD., Political Science, O.P Jindal Global University)

Title:                                       Afghanistan in the Shadow of Subcontinental Geo-politics

Disciplinary Discussant:         Ellinor Zeino (PhD., Political Science, University of Hamburg)

Presenter:                                Dr Alka (PhD., Center for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University) 

Title:                                        India’s Soft Power: Case of Indo-Afghan Development Partnership

Disciplinary Discussant:         Sharif Hozoori (PhD. Candidate., Center for International Politics, Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Presenter:                               Bao Deleng (PhD. Candidate, School of Foreign Languages, Department of Asian and African Languages and Literatures, Peking University)

Title:                                        Translation, Memoirs and Collecting in and out of Afghanistan Since 1963: A Study on Writings of a Chinese Diplomat

Disciplinary Discussant:         Omar Sharifi

7:00-10:00                              ACKU Dinner Reception (Sufi Restaurant, Qala-e Fatahullah)

DAY 2, AUGUST 18, 2019

8:00-8:30                                 Breakfast, ACKU Courtyard

Session Three— ‘Sovereignty, Peace Process, and Afghanistan’s Foreign Relations’

8:30-9:30         Governing New Afghanistan, Panel 6:

Panel Chair:                            Raghav Sharma

Presenter:                                Dipali Mukhopadhyay (PhD., Political Science, Columbia University)

Title:                                        State-Building in the Shadow of Counterterrorism: The Palace Politics of ‘Precarious Sovereignty

Disciplinary Discussant:         Arian Sharifi (PhD., Political Science, Tufts University)

Presenter:                                William Maley (PhD., Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National University)

Title:                                       Shared Sovereignty: Some Lessons from and for Afghanistan

Disciplinary Discussant:         Nazif M. Shahrani

9:30-10:00                               Tea Break

10:00-11:30     Locating War and Peace in Afghanistan, Panel 7:

Panel Chair:                            Hamid Saboory (Civil Society Activist, Kabul-Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Arian Sharifi (PhD., Political Science, Tufts University)

Title:                                        Explaining the Strategic Choice of Violence in Islamist Groups: A Social Movement Theory Approach

Disciplinary Discussant:         Omar Sadr

Presenter:                                Farkhondeh Akbari (PhD. Candidate., Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National University)

Title:                                        Peace Settlements: Lessons from Cambodia for Afghanistan 

Disciplinary Discussant:         Sayed Parto (PhD., Human Geography, University of Waterloo)

Presenter:                                Wahid Watanyar (PhD. Candidate., Political Science, University of Heidelberg)

Title:                                        افغانستان: دیموکراتیزشن او د تاوتریخوالی لری

Disciplinary Discussant:         Nasrullah Istanikzai (Senior Lecturer, Law and Political Science Department, Kabul University)

11:30-12:30     Afghanistan’s Developing Foreign Relations, Panel 8:

Panel Chair:                            Victoria Fontan (PhD., Political Science, AUAF)

Presenter:                                Wahidullah Qaderi (Law and Political Science, Takhar University)

Title:                                        بررسی سیاست خارجی دولت امانی از استقلال تا اضمحلال

Disciplinary Discussant:         Amir Ramin

Presenter:                                Nasir Ahmad Taraki (MPhil, Defence & Strategic Studies, University of Pune)                                   

Title:                                       Afghanistan in transformation decade 2014-2024 and its role in the Asian Century: A post American Scenario

Disciplinary Discussant:         Wahid Watanyar

12:30:1:30                              Lunch, ACKU Courtyard

1:30-2:30         Afghanistan Studies Book Lecture

                                                Farrukh Hussain (Independent Researcher, London, UK)

Afghan Struggle Against British Imperialism from Timur Shah to Mohammad Akbar Khan

2:30-3:00                                 Tea Break

Session Four—Afghanistan-India Cultural Relations, and Beyond

3:00-4:30         Reading India-Afghanistan in the Past and Present, Panel 9:

Panel Chair:                            Janan Mosazai (Vice President, Heart of Asia Society, Kabul-Afghanistan)

Presenter:                                Mohammad Reyaz (PhD., International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia)

Title:                                        Afghans in Indian Films: From Kabuliwala to Kesari

Disciplinary Discussant:         Sahraa Karimi (PhD., Film and Television Faculty, Fine Arts University, Bratislava, Slovakia)

Presenter:                                Gowhar Farooq (PhD. Candidate., Mass Communication, Jamia Millia Islamia)

Title:                                       Connecting with Homeland: Media Consumption of Afghan Diaspora in India

Disciplinary Discussant:         Victoria Fontan

Presenter:                                Furquan Ameen (Independent Scholar, Special Correspondent, The Telegraph-India)

Title:                                        Afghanistan in Indian Press: A Case Study of a Leading English Daily

Disciplinary Discussant:         Abdullah Azada Khenjani (Editor-in-Chief, 1 Television Network, Afghanistan)

4:30-5:30         Local Afghan Ethnographies, Policy Scholarship, Panel 10:

Panel Chair:                            Tamim Asey (PhD. Candidate., International Relations and National Security Studies, University of Leicester)

Presenters:                               Marzia Azizi & Pashtana Dorani (Political Science and Public Administration, American University of Afghanistan)

Title:                                        Afghan Women Coalitions in the Parliament: A Case Study

Disciplinary Discussant:         Marya Hannun (PhD. Candidate., Islamic Studies, Georgetown University)

Presenter:                                Sayed Baqir Hussaini (Lecturer, Journalism, Kabul University)

Title:                                        از مردانگی تا فرار: مطالعه عوامل فرار از منزل به نیت ازدواج-مطالعه موردی ولایت دایکندی

Disciplinary Discussant:         Humaira Qadery (PhD., Persian Literature, Jawaharlal Nehru University)

5:30-6:00                                Concluding Remarks (Dipali Mukhopadhyay)

7:00-10:00                               AIAS Dinner Reception (ACKU Courtyard, Kabul University)