Rupture, Resistance, and Community: The Crisis of Violence Against Women

In partnership with the Syracuse University Art Museum, the South Asia Center presents an exhibition reception and film screening to explore how painting and folktales can help form community in the Mithila region, located on the India-Nepali border.

Welcome Reception

4 to 5:30 pm in the Galleria, Shaffer Art Building

Celebrate the Syracuse University Art Museum exhibition, Mithila Women Paint Gender-Based Violence in the 21st Century, which features paintings made by artists who draw on their own lived experiences. These women painters depicted the violence enacted against them, including dowry deaths, female feticide, and male kin’s general control. In doing so, this exhibition draws attention to the patriarchal structures of this rural Indian community and broader structures of gender-based violence worldwide. Mithila Women Paint Gender-Based Violence in the 21st Century will be on view through December 10, 2024.

Sama in the Forest Film Screening

6 to 7:30 pm in the Life Sciences Auditorium (LSB001)

All are invited to a free screening of the film Sama in the Forest, following the art exhibition reception. Described as a “hybrid documentary,” the film — directed by Carlos G. Goméz and produced by Coralynn Davis (Bucknell University) — considers how folk tales and oral traditions are used to form community. Includes Q&A with Davis.

Film length: 77 min
Language: Maithili and English with English subtitles
CART will be provided for Q&A

This event is part of the Humanities Center’s 2024-2025 Syracuse Symposium series on “Community” with additional support from the Ray Smith Symposium in the College of Arts & Sciences.

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