We are excited to announce the return of the annual Penn Hindi–Urdu workshop for Fall 2026! This year, the workshop will be held on Saturday, November 14th, in the Cherpack Lounge at Williams Hall.
As always, participants in the workshop collectively read a set of texts available across the Nastaliq and Devanagari scripts, with the aim of creating community across specialists in both Hindi and Urdu. This year the workshop will be co-organized with Mustafa Menai, SAST's lecturer in Urdu and Hindi.
This year's theme, "Ghazal Unbound," explores one of the most popular genres of poetry in the Hindi–Urdu literary sphere as a form that moves across and complicates divides of language, genre, style, and religious and national(ist) identity. We will read poets and critics who use the ghazal both as an object and as an instrument of critique to push against such divides (with critique taking on intertwined forms such as satire, social commentary, and poetic correction). In the process, we will question the common perception of the ghazal as an exclusively Urdu, Muslim, and classical form. Readings will draw on historical figures from diverse backgrounds, including Bhāratendu Hariścandra (1850–85), Svāmī Achhūtānand "Harihar" (1879–1933), Muḥammad Rafīʿ Saudā (1706/7–81), Alṭāf Ḥusain Ḥālī (1837–1914) and Ṣafdar Mirzāpūrī (1870–1930), among others.
As always, no special expertise is required, and all are welcome. The workshop takes place over four sessions, with lunch provided in between and refreshments available throughout. Readings will be sent to participants ahead of the workshop and printouts are available upon request.
We welcome the participation of Dr. Nathan Tabor (Associate Professor of History, Western Michigan University), whose work on Indo-Persian poetic culture includes the recent monograph City of Lyrics: Ordinary Poets and Islamicate Popular Culture in Early Modern Delhi (UNC Press, 2025).
If you are interested in joining the workshop, we ask that you fill out this google form, and we will follow up with further information. You can also learn more at this web site. We hope you will be able to join us!