Richard H. Meadow, a longstanding member of the AIPS community and Trustee for Harvard University passed away, on July 10, 2026. Richard Meadow began his archaeological and zooarchaeological field research in Pakistan in the 1970s. He worked at the site of Balakot, Baluchistan with Dr. George F. Dales from the University of California, Berkeley and also at the site of Mehrgarh, Baluchistan with Dr. J.-F. Jarrige and the French Archaeological Mission to Pakistan. He was an outstanding archaeologist, with excavation experience at the site of Tepe Yahya in Iran and other sites in Oman and Syria. But his main specialty was the analysis of faunal remains, the bones of domestic and wild animals, including birds, fish and even rodents. In order to better study the ancient bones he also collected bones of modern fauna for comparison with the ancient faunal remains. Because of his rigorous studies he was able to provide new models for understanding the domestication of cattle, sheep and goats in the borderlands of the Indus River Valley during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, >5000 BCE.

In 1986 he joined the Harappa Archaeological Research Project that was directed by Dr. Dales and me.  At Harappa he continued with the studies of Indus fauna, both domestic and wild. He and his many students both from the US and Pakistan undertook a wide range of studies related to the faunal remains at Harappa. These studies provided new models for understanding the role of cattle and water buffalo in the economy of early farming communities like Mehrgarh and later urban centers such as Harappa. After the untimely passing of Dr. Dales in 1992, Richard Meadow joined me as co-director of the Harappa Project and continued in this capacity until his own passing in July.

Dr. Meadow was an active member of the AIPS community and participated in numerous conferences and workshops that were sponsored by AIPS in Islamabad, Harappa and Madison. Richard was always supportive of colleagues and students and made a special effort to help train Pakistani students in the many different aspects of archaeological and zooarchaeological research. Richard will be remembered for his generosity and support as well as his commitment to rigorous scientific research.

Written by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer (September 13, 2026)

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Breaking Ghalib, Saving Urdu

Are you an AIPS member who is presenting at an upcoming conference? Check out AIPS’s Travel Grants! The next deadline to apply is September 15. AIPS Travel Grants fund travel to scholarly conferences for the presentation of papers or organization of panels on topics relevant to Pakistan Studies.

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City of Lyrics: Ordinary Poets and Islamicate Popular Culture in Early Modern Delhi (The University of North Carolina Press)

“Nathan Tabor’s impressive study of the emerging culture of poetic gatherings (mushāʿirahs) in eighteenth- century Delhi demonstrates how sprawling networks of “ordinary poets” shaped Urdu as a rising literary language. By setting his examination of minor poets from many different regions, Nathan demonstrates how the urban history of one city can still speak to the wider trans-regional, multilingual, entangled histories of Urdu and Persian literary cultures. He offers compelling evidence for the ways in which poetic exchanges helped to anchor friendships and also fueled rivalries, spurring poets to constantly innovate and create new poetic forms. Drawing from a vast, multi-lingual cannon, poets reframed established tropes, affective registers, and literary convention to shape new aesthetic forms, meaning, and even ethical ideas. The competitive space of the mushāʿirah also shaped new forms of belonging and exclusion and both reflected and remade social hierarchies.  This is a rich compelling social history of a literary culture written in an extremely engaging and accessible manner. Tabor’s makes a persuasive case for how Urdu emerges as a global language, by drawing attention to the rich agency of non-elite participants in mushāʿirah culture both in the eighteenth century, and in our own time.”

Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan, 1971-1974 (Cambridge University Press)

“In a path-breaking contribution, Ilyas Chattha recovers the silenced history of elite and ordinary residents of Pakistan who were transformed by the 1971 Bangladesh war from rights-bearing citizens to ethnically marked ‘others’, now suspected traitors, able to be stripped of political and human rights and subjected to indefinite internment. Drawing upon period journalism, neglected official and personal correspondence and records, oral histories, and visits to former internment facilities Chattha reconstructs and contextualizes the suppressed narratives of Bengali officials, students, and workers living in West Pakistan who often lost everything during the 1971-74 Bangladesh war and post-war years. Their often complex transregional identities, livelihoods, and prospects were transformed by new nationalist ‘imagined community’ dynamics that too easily denaturalized, held hostage, and finally erased inconvenient individuals and communities.”

AIPS Pakistan collaborated with the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad to host an event titled “Pakistan’s Heritage and Cultural Conservation: Challenges, Strategies, and the Way Forward” on May 4, 2026. The event significantly enriched Pakistan Studies by expanding its focus beyond political narratives to include culture as a core analytical lens, while fostering interdisciplinary dialogue with fields such as Literature, Anthropology, History, Cultural Studies, and Fine Arts. It generated new research agendas by identifying gaps in areas like intangible heritage, and political threats to historical sites, while also amplifying regional and marginalized voices to make the field more inclusive and representative. At the same time, the event bridged academia and policy by engaging stakeholders involved in conservation, legislation, and tourism, strengthened Pakistan Studies’ global relevance by connecting it with international heritage debates, and enhanced public engagement by producing knowledge that informs curricula, public discourse, and a more culturally grounded understanding of national identity.

Presenters and graduate students showcased locally developed apps and projects that addressed and came up with solutions for multiple matters in the fields of education at different levels. By strengthening digital and media literacy and ethical AI awareness within social sciences, this event positioned Pakistan Studies within the broader global discourse on technology.

Photo of Badshahi Mosque Complex by Robert Nichols