The Story of Bangladesh and Bangladeshi People, at home and in the Diaspora

The Story of Bangladesh and Bangladeshi People, at home and in the Diaspora


Brick Lane Circle's second annual conference - 28/29 April 2012, in association with and at the Idea Store Chrisp Street,East India Dock Road, E14 6BT

Saturday 28 April 2012, 1.00-5.00pm

Culture and Identity

1.00pm- Refreshment and networking

1.30pm- I am Bangladeshi by Dr. Shams N Zaman

She graduated in M.B.B.S. from Dhaka University. Later completed M.Sc. from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A. She worked in medical research at Johns Hopkins University and at Kings College, Institute of Liver Studies, London for many years. Her medical papers were published in some prestigious international journals like Lancet, BMJ, Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Cancer etc. Many of them are relevant to Bangladeshi population. Dr Zaman later developed an interest in history and undertook studies and research at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her historical research and other works which have been published include: Ekusher Shandhayne (Bengali) 1994; Mirza Shaikh Itesamuddin and his Travelogue / Shigurfnama i Velayet : Wonders of Britain 1765-1769 AD. 2003; Forty Short Years : Bangladesh. 2003; The First Bengali Muslim Woman's version of Hajj (Bengali). 2004; Identity through Science, Philosophy and Artistic concepts in the Quran. 2009 and Stories from a British Bangladeshi Grandmother (working title-publication 2012 pending).

3.00pm- Impact of International Events on London Bangladeshis (1971-2011) - an interactive workshop on a new project proposal by Dr Muhammad Ahmedullah (Secretary of Brick Lane Circle)

3.30pm - The Poetics of Nationalism: Poetry and Film in East Pakistan 1952-1971 by Dr Nazneen Ahmed

He is currently Research Assistant on the Leverhume funded Oxford Diasporas Programme project “Religious faith, space and Diasporic Communities in East London, 1880-present.” Prior to this she held a postdoctoral research position in the School of English at the University of Kent on the interdisciplinary project “Radical Distrust: A Cultural Analysis of the Emotional, Psychological and Linguistic Formations of Religious and Political Extremism.” Her D. Phil. in English Literature from Wadham College, Oxford, examined the cultural development of Bangladeshi secular nationalism through literature and cultural production from 1947-1971. Her work examines the intersections between faith, secularism, national identity and gender in the Bangladeshi community and its diasporas as represented in literature, cultural production and archival records. She is currently adapting her thesis into a monograph and writing papers on the religious lives of lascar seafarers in Victorian London and gender and Bangladeshi secular nationalism.


Sunday 29 April 2012, 2.00-4.00pm

Politics and Economy

2.00pm- Refreshment and networking

2.15pm - Title and speaker details TBC

Brick Lane Circle is organising its annual conference in association with the Idea Store Chrisp Street.

Our aim is to bring researchers and scholars on Bangladesh and Bangladeshi people together with the wider community to facilitate improved exchange of knowledge and help promote greater, deeper and wider levels of networking.

For further details or to book a place kindly email mailto:bricklanecircle@yahoo.co.uk