Julien Levesque
PhD Student and Adjunct Associate Professor
Institutional affiliation(s): EHESS
Professional contact information
jullevesque[at]gmail.com
Dissertation director: Jean-Luc Racine
PhD program: EHESS - Political Science
Initial registration: 2010
Nationalism and Identity Construction in Sindh (Pakistan), 1947-2013
Sindh, the southeastern province of Pakistan, remains largely unstudied as a region. While the idea of Pakistan has been hotly contested since the foundation of the State in 1947, the case of Sindh only draws the attention of scholars and journalists if the stability of the State seems to be under threat, as it was in 1983 during the era of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, or when the opposition between ethnic groups becomes violent, as it did at the end of the 1980s and in the 1990s. And yet, since the 1950s, there has been a nationalist movement in Sindh, which, bolstered by a certain number of complaints—immigration, linguistic and cultural marginalization, conflicts over the use and allocation of resources and water from the Indus—calls the idea of Pakistan into question and gives rise to a true reinvention of identity. My dissertation in political science therefore proposes, on the basis of a variety of sources (interviews, observation, archives, cultural products), a study of this nationalist process, which creates a national imaginary for Sindhis and reshapes the boundaries of political communities by proposing its own vision of vivre-ensemble.
Teaching
2015-16 – EHESS – Adjunct Associate (South and East Asia Emphasis)
“Asies,” core graduate course of the South and East Asia Emphasis, 48 hours
2014-15 – INALCO, South Asia Department – Adjunct
“Sociology of Pakistan,” Undergraduate 2nd & 3rd year level, 19.5 hours
“Islam in South Asia,” Undergraduate 1st year level, 12 hours (as part of the core requirement “Initiation to the societies and religions of South Asia,” coordinated by Marie-Caroline Saglio-Yatzimirsky)
Research group
Co-coordinator, with Michel Boivin of the group “Vernacular Cultures and New Muslim Elites in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia”
Publications
Scholarly articles and book chapters
2014 “Umar Marvi and the Representation of Sindh: Cinema and Modernity in the Margins” (co-authored with Camille Bui), Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, vol. 5, No. 2, July 2014, pp. 119-128
2010 “Border State and Look East Policy: Opportunities and Challenges in Mizoram” (co-authored with Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman), in Gogoi, Dilip (ed.), Beyond Borders: Look-East Policy and Northeast India, Guwahati: DVS Publishers, 2010, pp. 189-209
Book reviews
2015 “A History of Violence,” review of Laurent Gayer’s book, Karachi. Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City (Hurst, 2014), Books & Ideas, 12 March 2015
2015 Review of Alix Philippon’s book, Soufisme et politique au Pakistan: le mouvement barelwi à l'heure de la “guerre contre le terrorisme” (Karthala, 2010), South Asia Research, vol. 35, No. 1, February 2015, pp. 140-142
2013 “Managing Diversity in Pakistan: Nationalism, Ethnic Politics and Cultural Resistance,” South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, Book Reviews, 11 June 2013, http://samaj.revues.org/3551
Presentations
2014 “G. M. Sayed's Personae: Politician, Sayed, Dynast and Founding Father,” international conference entitled Pakistan. Parallel Narratives of the Nation-State, organized by Jürgen Schaflechner and Christina Österheld, South Asia Institute, Universität Heidelberg, 1-3 December 2014
2014 “‘Sindhis are Sufi by Nature’: Sufism as a Marker of Identity in Sindh,” workshop on Sufi Islam and the Politics of Belonging in South Asia, organized by Deepra Dandekar, as part of the ‘Sufi Shrines as Transcultural Communicative Interfaces in Western India’ project, Universität Heidelberg, 6 November 2014
2014 “Ethnicized Sufism in Sindh : Whose Identity Marker?,” international conference on Islam and Regional Cultures in Pakistan, organized by Michel Boivin and Julien Levesque, 19thJournée du CEIAS, EHESS, Paris, 6 June 2014
2013 “La force du modèle dynastique au Pakistan : étude de trois partis politiques du Sindh,” as part of the panel on Hérédité et compétition politique : le paradoxe de la transmission familiale du pouvoir politique dans les systèmes politiques concurrentiels, 2013 Congress of the ‘Association française de science politique (AFSP),’ Paris, 11 July 2013
2013 “Claiming Sufism as a Marker of Ethnicity: Identity Politics and Religion in Sindh,” workshop entitled Pilgrims and Politics in Pakistan: Sufism in an Age of Transition, organized by Farzana Shaikh, Institute of Advanced Study, Paris, 21 May 2013
2013 “Nationalisme sindhi au Pakistan : échec d’une mobilisation, succès d’une identité,” as part of the Études gujarati et sindhi : sociétés, langues et cultures work group, French School of Asian Studies, Paris, 9 January 2013
2012 “Restaurer la dignité d’une « race non-martiale » : masculinité et féminité dans le nationalisme sindhi, des symboles aux trajectoires individuelles,” Junior Scholars seminar of the Association Jeunes Études Indiennes on the topic of Genre, mobilisations et dynamiques sociales en Asie du sud, Paris, 8 November 2012
2012 “Being Sindhi in Pakistan: Competing Identity Discourses, Folklorization and Political Culture,” Sixth European PhD workshop on South Asian Studies, organized by SASNET (Swedish South Asian Studies Network), Lund University, Sweden, 17-19 September 2012
2011 “Marui et Sassui dans la poésie de Shah Abdul Latif : héroïnes populaires, figures mystiques ou patriotes dévouées ?,” workshops on Soufisme et musique en Asie du Sud : Exprimer la diversité de Karachi à Delhi, organized by Michel Boivin, Paris, 7 June 2011
2011 “La mystique politique de G. M. Syed : étude d'un texte du leader nationaliste sindhi et de sa portée contemporaine,” CEIAS doctoral workshop, Paris, 31 May 2011
2008 “India’s Look East Policy in Mizoram: Opportunities, Shortcomings and Challenges,” co-presented with Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, during the conference entitled Understanding the Northeast – Cotton Conclave, Guwahati, India, 20-21 February 2008
Last update: 20 January, 2016
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Actualités
Devenir juifs : conversions et assertions identitaires en Inde et au Pakistan
Débat - Mardi 9 mai 2023 - 14:00Présentation« L’an prochain à Jérusalem ! », scande un homme portant une kippa dans une synagogue de Karachi au Pakistan. Ses paroles sont répétées en chœur par les membres de sa communauté, un groupe comptant près de trois cents personnes qui s’autodésignent par (...)(...)
Le Centre d'études sud-asiatiques et himalayennes (Cesah), nouveau laboratoire de recherche (EHESS/CNRS) sur le Campus Condorcet
Échos de la recherche -Depuis le 1er janvier 2023, l'EHESS, en tant que co-tutelle, compte un nouveau centre de recherche né de la fusion du Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (CEIAS - EHESS/CNRS) et du Centre d’études himalayennes (CEH - CNRS) : le Centre d'études sud-asiatiques et h (...)(...)
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