SANA HAROON
Sana Haroon is an historian with a particular interest in government and society in modern South Asia. She has written on the formation of the northwest frontier non-administered region in colonial South Asia, and her second book, The Mosques of Colonial South Asia, looks again at everyday Islam under colonial law and governance. Her current work looks at government in Pakistan. She is co-director of the Women in Public Service Oral History Archive in Lahore, Pakistan and teaches courses on oral history as well as on colonial South Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the Indian Ocean at UMass Boston.
SESSION: The Historian and the Historical Novel: How to Research Your Novel With (or Like) a Historian
If you’re aiming to create a nuanced, thoroughly researched historical novel, you would likely benefit from consulting a historian. In this session, a historian and a novelist will team up to offer concrete ideas on how to effectively and affectively research historical novels, using the examples of South Asian historical archives. Among the issues we will discuss: how to find data, including reading surveys and maps; how to do archival research, including locating and parsing historical records; how to participate ethically in oral history projects to write fiction that is based in people’s history; and what inspiration we can draw from documented historical events. Q&A to follow.
CO-PRESENTER: Shilpi Suneja