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BOOK LAUNCH: Literature and Emergency Law in Kashmir and Northern Ireland

Date
Wed November 11th 2026, 5:30 - 6:30pm
Event Sponsor
African & African American Studies
Department of English
Center for South Asia
Location
Building 80
450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 80, Stanford, CA 94305
Auditorium

The Department of African and African American Studies (DAAAS) in collaboration with the Center for South Asia (CSA) cordially invite the Stanford Community for a special book launch!

We are excited to celebrate the publication of a new book by our visiting postdoctoral scholar, Danny Shanhan titled, Literature and Emergency Law in Kashmir and Northern Ireland.

This book is the first substantial study of emergency law's relationship to literature in either the Northern Irish or the Kashmiri conflict and develops an original legal history that links these laws to a shared British colonial root. Engaging a wide range of fiction, poetry and film, from canonical poets Seamus Heaney and Agha Shahid Ali to contemporary works by Anna Burns, Mirza Waheed, and Bollywood filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, the book examines the literary response to the suspension of normative legal rights such as habeas corpus, the right to silence and even, in Kashmir, the right to life. By bringing these literary cultures together for the first time, it develops a literary and legal history that reveals common roots in colonial-era jurisprudence. The book re-situates these corpora, often isolated in scholarly work, as important parts of the global, material legacies of colonialism.

Join us for an evening of conversation, community and celebration and Danny shares his work.

Refreshments will be provided.

Please RSVP here.