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Reading Tamil Publics: Questions of AudienceThe 9th Annual Conference on Tamil Studies at UC BerkeleyFriday, May 3 ~ Sunday, May 5, 2013As the authoritative 13th c. linguistic treatise Nannul knew well, research in Tamil demands engagement with a dynamic variety of expressive modes. Difference is everywhere marked—historical period, geographic extension, social footing, linguistic register, performative context—and Tamil authors of written and spoken texts attended to these differences as they sought the consideration of audiences. Who, across the dramatic range of public expressions of Tamil in its two millennia of textual expression, is eligible to listen and to participate? Such questions are particularly acute in the study of emerging Tamil modernities, of which colonial modernity is but one. In this rewarding array of papers, the ninth annual Berkeley Tamil Conference explores the role of audience in the articulation of Tamil language and culture. How is a listening public conceived, when shifting bonds of thinkers, creators, and addressees create new possibilities for expression, as well as new limits? From the pragmatics of acculturation, as infants learn to be social participants and youths become educated subjects, to new possibilities for vernacular expression in specialized cultural idioms, conference panelists will engage with processes of authorial intent and textual reception, understanding their critical place in the expression of community.Keynote Lecture: The Birth of the Tamil Authorby A. R. VenkatachalapathyMadras Institute of Development StudiesFriday, May 34:30PMVenue: 10 Stephens, (CSAS Conference Room)ConferenceSaturday, May 4 ~Sunday, May 5, 2013Venue: 370 Dwinelle Hall, UC BerkeleyParticipants:Bios and paper abstractsProf Bernard Bate, Yale-NUS College, SingaporeProf Rudhramoorthy Cheran, University of WindsorProf Sascha Ebeling, University of ChicagoProf Kaori Hatsumi, Kalamazoo CollegeProf Bharati Jagannathan, Delhi UniversityTasha Manoranjan, People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (pearlaction.org)Prof Dennis McGilvray, University of Colorado at BoulderShakthi Nataraj, University of California, BerkeleyProf. Gita V. Pai, University of California, BerkeleyProf Kalpana Ram, Macquarie University, AustraliaPreeti M. Talwai, University of California, BerkeleyProf Margaret Trawick, Massey University, New ZealandBharat Venkat, University of California, BerkeleyKristin Bergman Waha, University of California, DavisConvener: Prof. Blake Wentworth, University of California, Berkeley************************Center for South Asia StudiesUniversity of California, Berkeley10 Stephens Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2310southasia.berkeley.eduTel: 510-642-3608Fax: 510-643-5793source: AISLS