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Impossible Subjects of Drone Warfare (Rupal Oza and Madiha Tahir)

Impossible Subjects of Drone Warfare (Rupal Oza and Madiha Tahir)

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Impossible Subjects of Drone Warfare (Rupal Oza and Madiha Tahir)
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<strong>CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE Jawaharlal Nehru University</strong> <strong>SEMINAR SERIES</strong> <strong>RUPAL OZA</strong> Associate Professor HUNTER COLLEGE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK on <strong>Impossible Subjects of Drone Warfare (Rupal Oza and Madiha Tahir)</strong> <strong>Abstract : </strong>On October 11th 2013, Michael Toscano – then president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVSI), the largest drone lobby group in the United States – delivered a lecture at a conference held at New York University. Roughly two weeks later on October 29th, the family of Momina Bibi, a grandmother who was killed in a U.S. drone attack the year prior, testified before Congress. If for Toscano, the drone essentially represented a neutral technology, Momina Bibi's family spoke of a terrifying technology that had killed a beloved family member. The distance between the one event and the other exposes the fraught space behind the deceptively simple question: what is a drone? This paper takes up that question by way of a comparison of the worlds that each of these events construct. Operated from tens of thousands of miles away, drones have elicited public fascination, legal criticisms and justifications, and intense academic engagement. And yet, in the din of discourses, it is the voice of victims that have been attenuated. <strong>16 October 2015</strong> <strong>ABOUT THE SPEAKER:</strong> Rupal Oza is Associate Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Hunter College, CUNY. Her first book, The Making of Neoliberal India: Nationalism, Gender, and the Paradoxes of Globalization was published in 2006 by Routledge, New York and by Women Unlimited, India. She is currently doing researching in Haryana examining the relationship between sexual assault, caste and land. <strong>ABOUT THE CO-AUTHOR:</strong> Madiha Tahir is a freelance journalist and doctoral student at Columbia University's School of Journalism. She has written extensively on conflict and politics in Pakistan. She is co-editor, along with Mahvish Ahmad, of Tanqeed – a magazine of politics and culture.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.