Discussion Panel: Youth Uprisings in Asia

The Contemporary Asian Studies Student Union invites you to its first Academic Seminar of the year, Youth Uprisings in Asia.  This event will examine the connections between youth cultures and protest movements in Asia, with a particular focus on recent events in Bangladesh and Nepal. It will be led by Dr. Mustahid Husain and Department for the Study of Religion PhD candidate Gaurav Shrestha, two scholars with a profound intellectual interest in South Asian youth cultures and uprisings. In addition, Dr. Dylan Clark, a Contemporary Asian Studies professor with a long-term scholarly and political interest in Asian youth cultures, will participate as a discussant. 

About the participants

Dr. Mustahid Husain is a postdoctoral fellow in the Anthropology department, whose recent research examines the 2024 student-led uprising in Bangladesh, and its implications for the Bangladeshi-Canadian diaspora in the GTA. Before coming to U of T, Dr. Husain completed his doctoral and postdoctoral research at the University of British Coloumbia.

Gaurav Shrestha is a PhD student in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. He holds a BA in History from the University of Delhi, India and an MA in Historical Studies from Nalanda University, India. His research examines youth engagement in jātrā (chariots with deities) festivals in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal and their broader connections across South Asia. Through ethnographic, textual, and historical approaches, his work explores how young people reinterpret tradition, memory, and identity within Nepal’s shifting social and political landscape.

Dr. Dylan Clark teaches Contemporary Asian Studies and Anthropology at U of T. Teaching is his passion, and he's also writing a book about ideology.