A lecture and panel discussion in the upcoming weeks explore "the lovesick lady and the wandering 'kuravanji' fortune-teller," from the Tamil culture, and revolution in the Arab world.

Both events are free and open to the public.

The Religious Studies Program announced that Indira Viswanathan Peterson, the David Truman Professor of Asian Studies at Mount Holyoke College, will deliver the Indian Studies Lecture: “The Lovesick Lady and the Wandering Kuravanji Fortune-Teller: Representing Women in an Indian Dance-Drama Genre.”

The date is Thursday, May 5, and the venue is the Putah Creek Lodge. A reception is set to begin at 5 p.m., and the lecture program at 5:30.

Peterson’s talk is drawn from a paper in which she examined representations of women in “kuravanji,” an operalike, literary-musical dance-drama genre distinctive to the Tamil ethnic group. “Kuravanji” arose under the patronage of the rulers of provincial south Indian kingdoms in the 18th century.

Said Peterson: “Focusing on the two central female characters of the ‘kuravanji’ drama — the lady in love and the ‘kuratti,’ an itinerant fortune-teller of the hill Kuravar tribe, after whom the genre is named — I show that the portrayal of the two women, while drawing on older and contemporary female literary personae, at the same time suggests avenues for new readings of the discourses of gender and the erotic in 18th-century Tamil literature and culture.”

The program includes a response from Davesh Soneji, associate professor of south Asian religions at McGill University, Montreal, and co-editor, with Peterson, of Performing Pasts: Reinventing the Arts in Modern South.

More information

The Middle East/South Asia Studies Program announced the launch of Arab Studies with the Faris Saeed Lecture Series in Arab Studies, a panel featuring Susan Miller, associate professor of history, speaking on the topic: "Libya: Failed Revolution?"

The program, scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, May 11, also includes a performance by the ASWAT Bay

The other panelists and their topics:

• Paul Amar, associate professor of global and international studies, UC Santa Barbara — "The Radical Parahuman Subjects of Egypt's Revolution: New Perspectives on the Youth Movements, Police-Military Contentions and Sexualized Labor Behind the Arab Spring."
• Beshara Doumani, professor of history, UC Berkeley — "'The People Want': Historical Reflection on the Slogan of the Arab Revolutions."

The panel is set to begin at 5 p.m., with refreshments to follow at 7 and the entertainment at 7:30, all in the Technocultural Studies Building (formerly the Art Annex).

Questions? (530) 754-4926 or mesastaff@ucdavis.edu.