Professor Willem van Schendel
(University of Amsterdam)

New Narratives of Bangladesh

How has the study of Bangladesh developed since the country’s independence four decades ago? Can we actually speak of a ‘field’ of Bangladesh studies? If so, how is it constituted? What are its strengths and weaknesses? And how can we overcome its biases and blind spots? I look at various forms of framing – regional, national, religious, ethnic and by period – to push beyond current preoccupations and explore dimensions of social change that have not yet received much attention in the study of Bangladesh.