Events

Archiving the History of Modern Bengali Song

November 4, 2022

Zoom and Regenstein Library Room 122A (East), 1100 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL 60637

The musical genre called “adhunik Bangla gaan” or the “modern Bengali song” is a critical part of the history of modernity in Bengal. Yet this history remains largely undocumented and dispersed in public and private collections. Please join us for a presentation on the Library’s recent acquisition of the archival collections and private papers of musical icons Salil Chowdhury, Manna Dey, and Sudhin Dasgupta.   

This acquisitions project was funded the University’s Center in Delhi and represents a collaborative effort by the University of Chicago and the Victoria Memorial Museum and Library in Kolkata to identify, collect, and digitize sources – mostly ephemeral – relevant for the study of this history.   

Ronit Ghosh (SALC/Music), Jayanta Sengupta (Curator, Victoria Memorial, Kolkata), Laura Ring (Regenstein) , and Dipesh Chakrabarty (History/SALC) will speak on the significance of these sources.   

Refreshments will be served.   

This event will be held in hybrid format, allowing some of us to gather in-person in Room 122 of Regenstein Library, and others to attend virtually via Zoom.  

REGISTER HERE

This event is hosted by the Center in Delhi and cosponsored by COSAS.