Many Pakistani colonial institutions such has the bureaucracy, the judiciary and especially the army have evolved into self-perpetuating elite institutions that resist change and seek to maintain the status quo. And over the years they have co-opted politicians, religious leaders, the landed gentry and also large industrial conglomerates and together they have neither pursued inclusive economic growth nor a liberal, tolerant society. Resultantly Pakistan is falling behind all its peer nations in South Asia in income and human development.

Andreas Wimmer is Lieber Professor of Sociology and Political Philosophy at the Department of Sociology, Columbia University which he joined in 2015. He is currently a fellow of the Boundaries, Membership & Belonging Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. For Princeton University Press, he edits the book series Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology. He also serves as one of the deputy editors of Sociological Science.

Please join either in person or online. For in-person attendees, the talk will be preceded by a light lunch at 12.15pm.

Please email comms@sociology.ox.ac.uk with any questions or to receive the Microsoft Teams link.

In his new book Why Politics Fails, award-winning Oxford professor Ben Ansell shows that it's not the politicians that are the problem, it's that our collective goals result in five political 'traps'.

Democracy: we all want a say in how we're governed, but it's impossible to have any true 'will of the people'.
Equality: we want to be treated equally, but equal rights and equal outcomes undermine each other.
Solidarity: we want a safety net when times are tough, but often we care about solidarity only when we need it ourselves.

In contrast to the ever-growing scholarship dedicated to sectarianism in the Middle East, relations between Sunni and Shi‘a Muslims in European contexts remain understudied. In Britain, the past decade has witnessed manifestations of Sunni-Shi‘a tensions which have also been matched by initiatives aimed at easing them. Such initiatives on the British Shi‘a scene are instructive to explore how Shi‘a Muslims conceive “Muslim unity” but also their own place within Islam’s diversity.

In recent decades Russia has played an increasingly active role in the Middle East as states within the region continue to diversify their relations with major external powers. Yet the role of specific Russian regions, especially those that share an 'Islamic identity' with the GCC has been overlooked.

Obstacles to peace between Israel and Palestine lack symmetry. Simple trade-offs (“You give me this piece of land and I’ll give you that other piece”. Or, “you refrain from this particular activity and I’ll refrain from that activity.”) will not clear these hurdles. Rather, the principal obstacles appear to be territorial on Israeli side, but attitudinal on the Palestinian.

This presentation presents a new history of the Lahore Museum in Pakistan, an institution whose collections of art and archaeological were dramatically divided between India and Pakistan in response to the partition of 1947. This history upholds the material archive, as an essential vantage point from which to understand the partition’s empirical, epistemological, and emotional ramifications for art and society in South Asia.

Dr. Guneeta Singh Bhalla is founder of The 1947 Partition Archive, an organization that documents oral histories from survivors of India and Pakistan's 1947 Partition, also known as the world's largest mass refugee crisis. After a 2008 visit to the oral testimony archives at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial she was inspired and began interviewing Partition witnesses in 2009. It was a deeply enriching experience and she wanted to make the art of oral history accessible to everyone.

The pre-eminent tabla virtuoso of our time and chief architect of the contemporary world music movement Zakir Hussain (2022 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy) will be live in Oxford for a live lecture and performance as part of the Kyoto Prize at Oxford.

Zakir Hussain has transcended the framework of traditional Indian music and opened up a new world of music by collaborating with musicians of various genres from around the world. With his superb technique, engaging performances, and rich creativity, he has made a tremendous impact on musicians and music worldwide.