Geraldine Forbes, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of SUNY Oswego, and Susan Wadley, Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asia at Syracuse University share a passion for the history, art and culture if India. Together they have amassed an impressive collection of hand painted story scrolls from Bengal and paintings from the Mithila region of the northern state of Bihar.

Once used exclusively to tell tales of Gods and Goddesses, both the scrolls and paintings have taken on new importance as they document current events and political turmoil. Scrolls were traditionally painted by men and in Mithila, considered women’s work. Both art forms are now painted by both women and men.

Please join us as these two remarkable women share their insights into the history and stories from the country and people they love at a Gallery Talk at ArtRage.

Geraldine Forbes is a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita in the Department of History at the State University of New York Oswego, began her research in India over four decades ago. A pioneer in researching and writing women’s history in Colonial India, her publications include: Shudha Mazumdar, Memoirs of an Indian Woman, Manmohini Zutshi Sahgal, An Indian Freedom Fighter Recalls Her Life,Women in Modern India, Women in Colonial India: Essays on Politics, Medicine, “Because I am a Woman”: Child Widow: A Memoir from Colonial India, and several articles. Her work in visual history has focused on Bengali scrolls from Medinipur in West Bengal and the representation of women in family photograph collections from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century.

 Susan S. Wadley is a Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies at Syracuse University. She first went to India as an undergraduate and has lived there for almost five years, with many trips in between. Her focus has primarily been rural India, gender, ritual and social change. For the past twenty years, she has delved more deeply into folk arts, but especially Mithila painting driven in part by a large collection of Indian folk arts located at Syracuse University.  Her many publications include Shakti: Power in the Conceptual Structure of Karimpur Religion, Struggling with Destiny: Karimpur 1925 -1984, and Raja Nal and the Goddess: The North India Epic Dhola in Performance.

Free and Open to the Public