Talks

Technical Talks

  • “Characters for a Community: Script Invention Trends in South Asia in the Age of Unicode”. Unicode & The Humanities, University of Pittsburgh, February 2, 2024.

  • “Securing the Digital Frontier: Process and challenges of adapting new and minority scripts for digital devices”. With Deborah Anderson. World Endangered Writing Day, virtual, January 23, 2024.

  • “The Seven Steps of Character Encoding”. Face Interface, Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, December 1, 2023.

  • “Unique and Unruly: Meeting the Demand for Encoding Newly Invented Scripts in Unicode”. Panel: Unique Unified Universal Excavating Unicode’s Role in the Multilingual Digital Sphere [Abstract]. Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University, April 13, 2022.

  • “Bringing Newly Invented Scripts of South Asia into the Digital World”. Translation Commons’ UNESCO Language Community For the “International Decade of Indigenous Languages”, October 28, 2021.

  • “Negotiating Neographies: Approaches for Encoding Newly-Invented Scripts”. With Deborah Anderson. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (45th), October 14, 2021.

  • “Historical Scripts and Innovations to Unicode Encoding Models”. With Deborah Anderson. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (45th), October 14, 2021.

  • “Unicode and the Vitality of Global Text in the Digital Sphere”. Invited talk for the course “Multilingual Technologies and Language Diversity”, Columbia University, virtual, February 12, 2021

  • “Script Encoding and Beyond in 2020: Challenges and Successes”. With Deborah Anderson and Charles Riley. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (44th), virtual, October 16, 2020.

  • “Unencoded Scripts in the Unicode Standard: The 2019 Update”. With Deborah Anderson. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (43rd), Santa Clara, October 17, 2019.

  • “Unicode and the Expansion of Global Language Justice in the Digital Sphere”. Invited talk at the seminar “Global Language Justice and the Digital Sphere: Theory and Practice”, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University, New York, March 5, 2019.

  • “Developing a Successful Proposal for Encoding a Script in Unicode”. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (42nd), Santa Clara, September 11, 2018.

  • “Undeciphered Scripts in the Unicode Age: Challenges for Encoding Early Writing Systems of the Near East”. With Deborah Anderson. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (42nd), Santa Clara, September 11, 2018.

  • “Tensions of Standardization and Variation in the Encoding of Ancient Scripts in Unicode”. Digital Classicist London Seminar. Institute of Classical Studies, London, England, July 20, 2018.

  • “Linguistic Vitality through Digital Technologies”. Invited talk at the seminar “Global Language Justice and the Digital Sphere: Theory and Practice”, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University, New York, April 12, 2018.

  • “Scripts vs. Emoji: Anatomy of a Non-troversy”. Lightning talk. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (40th), Santa Clara, November 2, 2016

  • “Introduction to Indic Scripts in Unicode”. Tutorial. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (40th), Santa Clara, November 1, 2016 [Abstract]

  • “Demystifying Unicode: The Fundamentals of Encoding a Script”. International Multilingual User Group (IMUG), San Jose, March 17, 2016 [Abstract]

  • “Encoding Kulitan: Crowdsourcing a script encoding?”. Lightning talk. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (39th), Santa Clara, October 27, 2015

  • “Introduction to Indic Scripts in Unicode”. Tutorial. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (39th), Santa Clara, October 26, 2015 [Abstract]

  • “Making Gondi Googlable”. Google Internationalization Team, Mountain View, August 4, 2015

  • “From Local Script to Global Standard: The Lifecycle of a Script in Unicode”. SF Globalization Meetup, San Francisco, August 3, 2015 [Abstract] [Presentation]

  • “Current Projects for Encoding Scripts of Asia in Unicode”. Berkeley Unicode Working Group, University of California, Berkeley, March 4, 2015

  • “Expanding the Unicode Repertoire: Unencoded Scripts of Africa and Asia”. With Deborah Anderson. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (38th), Santa Clara, November 5, 2014 [Abstract] [Presentation]

  • “Global Computing Standards and Linguistic Equality: Opportunities and Challenges in India”. Symposium on Language and Equality, Study Group on Language at the United Nations, New York, April 29, 2014

  • “Challenges for Encoding Siddham in Unicode”. ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2/WG 2/Ideographic Rapporteur, Meeting #41, Siddham Ad-hoc, Tokyo, Japan, November 22, 2013

  • “The Script Encoding Initiative: The Successes and Tribulations of Encoding Scripts”. With Deborah Anderson. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (37th), Santa Clara, October 23, 2013 [Abstract]

  • “Invention of Writing Systems in Modern North-Eastern India”. All-India Conference of Linguists (34th Annual), Shillong, India, November 2, 2012

  • “A Pre-script-ion for the Future: The Role of Unicode in the Development of Minority Languages in South Asia”. Sessional presentation. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (35th), Santa Clara, October 19, 2011 [Abstract]

  • “Script Encoding Initiative 2010: Progress and Endgame”. With Deborah Anderson. Panel: Unicode Outside of Industry: News from Academic and Non-Profit Projects. Internationalization and Unicode Conference (34th), Santa Clara, October 20, 2010 [Abstract]

  • “Technology and the Politics of Language in South Asia”, invited by Professor William Baxter, Languages of Asia (Ling 367 & Asian 367), University of Michigan, April 20, 2010

  • “Digital Technology and the Politics of Language and Script in South Asia”, invited by Professor Matthew Hull, Language, Culture, and Society in South Asia (Anthrcul 464), University of Michigan, October 15, 2008

Academic Talks

  • “Kinship, Kingship, and the ‘Conundrum’ of the Brahmin Self in North Bihar”. South Asia Graduate Student Conference (11th Annual), University of Chicago, April 18, 2014

  • “Revisiting the Early History of Banaras Hindu University: Normative Histories and New Discoveries”, with Tejakar Jha. Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, September 11, 2013

  • “Raj Darbhanga and the History of Banaras Hindu University: The Untold Story”, with Tejakar Jha. Malaviya Moolya Anushilan Kendra, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, September 10, 2013

  • “Political Anxieties about ‘Language’ and ‘Dialect’: The Case of Hindi and the Scheduled Status of Maithili”. All-India Conference of Linguists (32nd), Lucknow, India, December 21, 2010

  • “Turks and Mughals: The Expansion of Islam in South Asia”, invited by Professor Thomas Trautmann, Indian Civilization (History 206), University of Michigan, October 28, 2009

  • “Fashioning a Transnational Bihari Identity through Bhojpuri Film Songs”. Conference on South Asia (38th Annual), University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 23, 2009

  • “Embedding Myth, Imagining Mithila: The Use of Myth in the Construction of Nationalist Histories of North Bihar”. South Asia Colloquium of the Pacific Northwest, Graduate Student Conference, Seattle, March 6, 2009

  • “The Political Taxonomy of the Hindi ‘Language’ and its ‘Dialects’: The Case of Maithili”. Conference on South Asia (37th Annual), University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 18, 2008

  • “Mithila Rising: Resurgence of the Mithila Statehood Movement in North Bihar”. South Asia Colloquium of the Pacific Northwest, Graduate Student Conference, Vancouver, Canada, February 29, 2008

  • “Greased Cartridges and Slippery Slopes: Origins of the Sepoy Rebellion in Nationalist Imaginations”. South Asia Colloquium of the Pacific Northwest, Graduate Student Conference, Seattle, March 2, 2007

  • “Avenging Maithili: Language and Electoral Politics in Bihar, 2004”. New Frontiers in Graduate History Conference (11th Annual), York University, Toronto, Canada, February 17, 2007