{"id":24301,"date":"2025-11-28T10:18:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/?p=24301"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:34:06","slug":"busuttil-prize-winner-lecture-event-recordings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/busuttil-prize-winner-lecture-event-recordings\/","title":{"rendered":"Busuttil Prize Winner Lecture &#038; Event Recordings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As November draws to a close and we welcome the final month of 2025, the Society is gently winding down its event programme ahead of the holiday break. But before we pause for the season, we\u2019re delighted to announce a special highlight: a prize winner lecture on Thursday, 4 December, delivered by Dr Sandhya Fuchs, co-winner of the inaugural James J. Busuttil Medal and Prize for Human Rights.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Fuchs\u2019s book, <em>Fragile Hope: Seeking Justice for Hate Crimes in India<\/em>, explores a critical chapter in modern human rights history in India. Drawing on long-term fieldwork with Dalit survivors of caste atrocities and other sections of Indian society, Dr Fuchs unveils the interaction between the Dalit communities and India\u2019s only hate crime law. Her book is a poignant reflection on the ways legal processes intersect with politics and society \u2013 creating new controversies, exposing inequalities, and nurturing fragile yet vital hopes for oppressed communities.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/81qr3Na3EYL._SY466_.jpg\" width=\"234\" height=\"353\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Busuttil prize awarded by the Society, the book has been honoured with the 2025 APLA Book Prize in Critical Anthropology, sponsored by the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology. You can find out more information about the book and read an excerpt here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sup.org\/books\/anthropology\/fragile-hope\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.sup.org\/books\/anthropology\/fragile-hope<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We hope to see many of you to join us in celebrating Dr Fuchs\u2019s achievements and engaging in this important conversation about human right. If you would like to join online, please email mb@royalasiaticsociety.org to reserve a place.<\/p>\n<p>In other news, we\u2019re pleased to share that recordings of several Society events since October are now available on our YouTube channel. If you weren\u2019t able to join us live, this is a great opportunity to catch up and enjoy the talks at your own pace.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll find the links to the recordings below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QDi9QdcZBCo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prof Tirthankar Roy \u2013 Building a state in late-18th century India<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Tmfr4VfHS2s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr Elizabeth Driver \u2013 Elphinstone, Malcolm and the Wellesleys<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xxcU_7W9bLI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr Jochen Sokoly \u2013 Textiles of the Early Islamic Caliphates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LTKQ2ycSDGE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prof Peter Clift \u2013 Societal Development in Asia and its links to Evolving Climate and Rivers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=19ZB3anIaOk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr Vayu Naidu \u2013 The Living Legend: Ramayana Tales from Far and Near<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Among these events, we had a particularly enthusiastic online attendance for Dr Vayu Naidu\u2019s lecture last week, which explored fresh retellings of the Indian epic Ramayana, the legend of Prince Rama. For more than three decades, Dr Naidu has been pioneering innovative ways of engaging listeners and theatre audiences with oral traditions.<\/p>\n<p>Her most recent publication <em>The Living Legend \u2013 Ramayana tales from far and near<\/em> sheds light on a largely unexplored aspect of this widely told Hindu tale \u2013 the forest. Dr Naidu\u2019s honed storytelling underscores the contemporary relevance of Ramayana, and reveals the profound relationship between humans and nature woven into the tale.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24305\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24305\" style=\"width: 393px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-24305\" src=\"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dr-Vayu-Naidu-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"393\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dr-Vayu-Naidu-1.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dr-Vayu-Naidu-1-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dr-Vayu-Naidu-1-1116x837.jpeg 1116w, https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dr-Vayu-Naidu-1-806x605.jpeg 806w, https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dr-Vayu-Naidu-1-558x419.jpeg 558w, https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dr-Vayu-Naidu-1-655x491.jpeg 655w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 393px) 100vw, 393px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24305\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr Vayu Naidu giving her lecture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We hope you\u2019d enjoy revisiting these events. Speak soon!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>James Liu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As November draws to a close and we welcome the final month of 2025, the Society is gently winding down its event programme ahead of the holiday break. But before we pause for the season, we\u2019re delighted to announce a special highlight: a prize winner lecture on Thursday, 4 December, delivered by Dr Sandhya Fuchs,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7635,"featured_media":24302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2960,186],"tags":[2657,459],"class_list":["post-24301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-prizes","category-lectures-events","tag-human-rights","tag-india"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7635"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24301"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24308,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24301\/revisions\/24308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}