During 2019-2020, the IHRC partnered with multiple UBC and non-UBC entities and individuals to engage with the past in its multiple forms in the present.
Partners outside UBC included a number of theatrical companies, including The United Players and the Ensemble Theatre Company; Centre A (which focuses on Asian and Asian Canadian art); Zine Coop (a Hong Kong Zine collective); Pants Theatre Production (a Hong Kong-based theatre group); Vancouver Hong Kong Forum Society (alower mainland community organization); the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation (a BC-based supporter of research and the Arts); SANSAD, the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (a local community organization); The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford; the Vancouver Art Gallery; the South Asian Canadian Histories Association (disbanded in 2020; Dr. Murphy was a co-Founder); the South Asian Film Education Society; the City of Vancouver (with Professor Henry Yu's SSHRC Partnership Development Grant on the Chinatown Heritage Project); Rungh Magazine Vancouver (which has partnered with the Centre for India and South Asia Research for several small projects funded by the Community Engagement office, and whose lead took part in an August 2019 workshop with the Cluster); The Reach Gallery Museum was community partner for a SSHRC Partnership Engage grant-funded Public Humanities project exploring the shared histories across the India/Pakistan border in the Punjab region, also with the South Asian Canadian Histories Association (exhibition planned for summer 2021).
We co-sponsored public events with diverse entities at UBC, to extend the reach of the Cluster and bring in new audiences. At times the Cluster was a main funder and organizer; at others, the Cluster dedicated a small sum to a larger event to support activities. Partners within UBC include the Museum of Anthropology, the Faculty of Arts Departments of History (including its the Early Modern Research Cluster), Geography, Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Theatre and Film, English; the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice, and the Interdisciplinary Programs in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program and Science and Technology Studies; Green College; the Hongkong Studies Initiative; St. John's College; the Centre for India and South Asia Research; the Centre for European Studies; the Centre for Chinese Research; the Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program; the School for Public Policy and Global Affairs; and the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics; and the office of the Dean of Arts (through a Workshop grant to support one of our Keynote addresses/workshops). In the future, we look forward to partnering with the new Public Humanities Hub at UBC, which supports and highlights public-facing humanities scholarship and public engagement.
Artists working with the Cluster represented the visual arts, film, and performance as colleagues and co-creators in workshops and as presenters/performers. Artists we worked with included: Tammy Flynn Seybold (Canada; visual art); Helen Eastman (UK; theatre); Paul Wong (Canada; visual art); Raghavendra Rao KV (India/Canada; visual art, film); Nicolás Grandi (Argentina; visual art, film); Jason Baerg (Canada/Métis; visual art, film); Chaar Yaar (India; performance); Vivek Mahbubani (Cantonese/English speaking South Asian heritage comedian from Hong Kong); and Ruby Singh (Canada; performance).