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Conversations on South Asia: An Encroaching Sea

Join us for a discussion of Devika Shankar’s An Encroaching Sea, exploring how crisis and sovereignty shaped port development in colonial Cochin.

11/6/2025
12:15 pm – 1:30 pm
Virtual Webinar
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories:
Registration required.

Announcing the second book event of 25-26 on South Asia-related topics held by Dartmouth College. 

Conversations on South Asia Series  


Devika Shankar, “An Encroaching Sea: Nature, Sovereignty and Development at the Edge of British India 1860 - 1950”, Nov. 6th, 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM (EST). 
 
You are invited to an engaging Zoom book event featuring author Devika Shankar. In her new book, An Encroaching Sea: Nature, Sovereignty and Development at the Edge of British India 1860 - 1950, Shankar explores how ecological crisis and political uncertainty converged on the southwest coast of India to shape one of the most ambitious port development projects of the colonial era. Focusing on Cochin Harbour, she examines how rising fears of coastal erosion collided with disputes over sovereignty between the British and neighboring princely states, producing new forms of environmental, legal, and political governance. Moving across histories of ecology, empire, and infrastructure, Shankar offers a groundbreaking account of how development emerged through crisis, reshaping both landscapes and sovereignties in modern South Asia.


📚Book Spotlight: An Encroaching Sea: Nature, Sovereignty and Development at the Edge of British India 1860 - 1950
📅Date: November 6th, 2025
⏰Time: 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM EST
📍Virtual Zoom 
💻Register Here: https://dartmouth.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pV1HumIKTyaG37N2iF4ifg

 

🎙️Speaker
Devika Shankar, Assistant Professor, Department of History, The University of Hong Kong


🎙️Commentators
David Ludden, Professor of History, New York University

Vidhya Raveendranathan, PhD Candidate, Center for Modern India Studies, University of Göttingen

 

🎙️Moderator
Tara Suri, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Dartmouth College


Sponsored by the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures and Languages (ASCL) and the Bodas Family Endowment for South Asian Studies at Dartmouth College. 
 
QR code (leads to registration form) on the poster.  

For more information, contact:
South Asian Studies
south.asian.studies@dartmouth.edu
Permanent URL to this event: https://anthropology.dartmouth.edu/events/event?event=78869

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.