2025 Annual Solanki Lecture:

The Conch-Shell occupies a special place in Hindu and Buddhist religious systems, from creation myths to everyday religious rituals. Global warming, however, has significantly affected the supply of these shells. This talk addresses the question of how one might bring together into the same analytic frame the biological-evolutionary history and the human-religious history of this creature of the sea.

Dipesh Chakrabarty is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History and South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is a founding member of the editorial collective of Subaltern Studies and a founding editor of Postcolonial Studies. His books include Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton, 2000/2008), The Calling of History: Sir Jadunath Sarkar and His Empire of Truth (Chicago, 2015), The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (Chicago, 2021), and One Planet, Many Worlds: The Climate Parallax (Brandeis, 2023). Dr. Chakrabarty has received honorary doctorates from the University of London (2010), the University of Antwerp (2011) and the École Normale Supérieure (2021). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

The Solanki Lecture will be held in person in the College of Professional and Continuing Education (CPaCE) building on Friday, April 25th

Reception with a free Indian meal 6:00PM 
Lecture 7:00PM
You can RVSP by scanning the QR code on the poster below or clicking here.