Rishad Choudhury, a historian and Assistant Professor of History at Oberlin College, has been awarded the 2026 Bernard S. Cohn Prize by the Association for Asian Studies for his book Hajj Across Empires: Pilgrimage and Political Cultures After the Mughals, 1739-1857 (Cambridge, University Press, 2004).

Arundhati Roy, celebrated Indian writer, essayist, and activist, has recently been at the centre of a controversy surrounding the Berlin International Film Festival regarding comments on the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

Notable works include Jinnatun Jannat’s “Canvas 1947: DADA”, a mixed-media compilation that traces her family’s displacement during Partition through digitally printed photographs, watercolours, and ink drawings.

The memoir situates Roy’s personal story alongside her public life as an outspoken critic of state power, globalisation, and inequality.