Incoming UT freshmen can apply for Fall 2009 admission | June 16 2009
Incoming UT freshmen interested in joining the Hindi Urdu Flagship for Fall 2009 should apply for admission as soon as possible before the start of the school year (August 26 2009). Applications should be submitted online.
Questions related to eligibility, admissions, financial aid, and degree plans can be addressed to HUF's Student Advisor, Martha Berry (marthaj@austin.utexas.edu).
2007 Cohort preparing for year in India | June 1 2009
The Hindi Urdu Flagship's 2007 Cohort are preparing for their third year in the Flagship Program, most of which will be spent in north India. During the preceding spring semester, the students have participated in a series of orientations aimed at preparing them for the practical, cultural and academic components of their year in India. The students arrive in Delhi in July 2009. They will subsequently spend periods of study in Jaipur and Lucknow with cultural excursions to Varanasi and Hyderabad. For the final stage of the program, students will participate in professional Hindi Urdu medium internships related to their particular major and career track.
For more information on HUF's overseas component visit our Year in India page.
HUF hosts End-of-Year Picnic for Flagship students, faculty and staff | May 3 2009
HUF students, teaching assistants, faculty and staff enjoyed an end of year picnic on Sunday, May 3rd at 3pm. The picnic was held at the Eastwoods Park located just north of the UT campus. The HUF faithful enjoyed veggie burgers, hamburgers, potato salad, fruit salad, lassi and cupcakes.
HUF hosts Kabir film screening & musical performance | April 13-14 2009
April 13th and 14th, the Hindi Urdu Flagship hosted a festival of film and music focused on the contemporary folk traditions dedicated to the poetry of the 15-century sant poet Kabir. The festival kicked off with a screening of Shabnam Virmani's documentary Had-Anhad (followed by a lively discussion with the filmmaker herself) and concluded with a recital by the hugely popular Dalit folk singer Prahlad Singh Tipanya. Tipanya was accompanied by an ensemble of musicians from his home region of Malwa in central India. Virmani provided on-stage translation and commentary for each pad sung by Tipanya, she also joined in the performance, playing the tambura and kartal while leading the singing on a pad entitled Shabd ki Coṭ (the wound of the word).
More info on the film, filmmaker, and performers is available at The Kabir Project website.
HUF hosts Urdu poet, S.M. Zaki | April 28 2009
HUF continued its Hindu Urdu Speaker Series with a poetry workshop with S.M. Zaki and Ishrat Afreen on April 28, 2009. Afreen and Zaki, both accomplished Urdu poets and academics, led special class sessions with first- and second-year Flagship students
April 1 is priority application deadline | Mar 09 2009
The priority deadline for new student applications to the Hindi Urdu Flagship is fast approaching. Applications received on or before April 1, 2009 will be given priority in admissions and financial aid decisions. A rolling admissions process will be in place after April 1. Applications will be continuously considered, but will depend on admissions slots and financial aid resources available after commitments to pre-April 1 applicants. Read more about the HUF admissions process...
Flagship launches new website | Feb 14 2009
The Hindi Urdu Flagship has just renovated and relaunched its website. We hope you are enjoying the changes! Some new sections to look out for include: Flagship student profiles, an introduction to Hindi Urdu and an explanation of its increasing importance, a new indepth resources section, videos and powerpoints from teacher training workshops, a look at past media coverage of HUF, and suggestion for preparing for the Flagship experience. Feel free to send us comments and suggestions!
HUF welcomes new staff | Jan 20 2009
At the start of the new semester, the Flagship is pleased to welcome to new staff members. Martha Berry joins HUF as our new Program Assistant. She holds a Master's Degree in Asian Cultures and Languages with a Hindi concentration from the University of Texas at Ausin. Elise Abernethy joins HUF as our new Administrative Assistant/Accountant. She comes to the University of Texas at Austin from the Detroit, Michigan area where she spent her working career in the automotive industry. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Business and undergraduate degrees from Hope College in Holland, Michigan in the areas of Political Science and Communication.
Translator Arvind Mehrotra speaks on Kabir | Nov 5 2008
The Flagship's Hindi-Urdu seminar series concluded its Fall 2008 program Nov 4. Arvind Mehrotra, Hindi essayist, translator, editor, and Professor of English at the University of Allahabad, gave a talk entitled "Translating Kabir". Visit our HU Speaker Series>seminar series page for more information, videos of past seminars and details on upcoming speakers.
Mujtaba Hussain seminar featured in Siasat daily | Oct 11 2008
Renowned Urdu humorist, Mujtaba Hussain, continued the Flagship Speaker Series on Oct. 8, 2008 with readings from his catalog of Urdu satire. Videos of the talk and subsequent discussion are available online. The event was featured in the leading Urdu daily newspaper, Siasat. Click here to view the article. Visit our seminar series page for more information, videos of past seminars and details on upcoming speakers.
Prominent Urdu writer to read excerpts from new novel | Sep 25 2008
The eminent Urdu critic, poet and theorist, Shamshur Rahman Faruqi, will read and discuss excerpts from his recent novel Kai chand thay sar-e asman in the Meyerson Conference Room, WCH 4.118.
Faruqi is regarded as perhaps the greatest living writer in the Urdu language. He is the founder of the new movement in Urdu literature and is well known for his rare combination of Arabic, Persian, Western and Urdu literary aesthetics. An expert in classical prosody and 'ilm-e bayan (the science of poetic discourse), he has contributed to modern literary discourse with a profundity rarely seen in contemporary Urdu critics. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Most recently he was awarded the prestigious Saraswathi Samman for his pioneering work She`r-e Shor-Angez. In this four-volume study of the great eighteenth-century poet Mir Taqi Mir, Faruqi uses a refreshingly eclectic approach and a variety of insightful critical tools to interpret Mir's art.
Eminent Urdu writer and critic to give talk on poetry of Jafar Zatalli | Sep 24 2008
The eminent Urdu critic, poet and theorist, Shamshur Rahman Faruqi, will launch the fall Hindi Urdu Flagship Speaker Series with a talk entitled "Burning Anger and Icy Scorn: the Poetry of Jaf'ar Zatalli."
Faruqi is regarded as perhaps the greatest living writer in the Urdu language. He is the founder of the new movement in Urdu literature and is well known for his rare combination of Arabic, Persian, Western and Urdu literary aesthetics. An expert in classical prosody and 'ilm-e bayan (the science of poetic discourse), he has contributed to modern literary discourse with a profundity rarely seen in contemporary Urdu critics. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Most recently he was awarded the prestigious Saraswathi Samman for his pioneering work She`r-e Shor-Angez. In this four-volume study of the great eighteenth-century poet Mir Taqi Mir, Faruqi uses a refreshingly eclectic approach and a variety of insightful critical tools to interpret Mir's art.
UT Flagship student featured in Discourse magazine | Jul 1 2008
Hindi Urdu Flagship student Chelsea Aldridge is featured in the current edition of Discourse, the quartely magazine of the national Language Flagship. To read Chelsea's reflections on her first year in the Hindi Urdu Flagship program you can download the electronic version of the newsletter.
Hindi poet and fiction writer to speak on identity and immigration | Apr 17 2008
Susham Bedi, a renowned Hindi poet and fiction writer, concludes the Hindi Urdu Speaker Series with a talk entitled "What Does Home Mean to Me? Journeys of an Indian Immigrant."
A reception at 5 p.m. in WCH 4.118 will precede the talk. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community at large are welcome.
Susham Bedi writes predominantly about the experiences of Indians in the South Asian diaspora, focusing on psychological and interior cultural conflicts. Unlike other prominent Indian American novelists she writes mainly in Hindi rather than English. She has been widely translated into English, French, Dutch and other languages by artists, academics, and students. She was an actress in India in the 1960s and early 1970s. More recently in the United States she has appeared on such shows as "True Crime: The Zach Warner Chronicles", "Third Watch", and "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit", and in movies such as "The Guru" (2002) and "ABCD" (1999). She is the mother of the actress Purva Bedi. In January, 2006 she was honored by Sahitya Academy in Delhi for her contributions to Hindi literature.
Hindi Urdu Flagship hosts seminar on the development of Urdu | Apr 1 2008
The Hindi Urdu Speaker Series hosts Mehr Farooqi, a renowned scholar of Urdu literature and culture. Farooqi will present a talk entitled "Quranic Exegesis and the Development of Urdu in the 18th Century."
A reception at 5 p.m. in WCH 4.118 will precede the talk. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community at large are welcome.
Farooqi is assistant professor of Urdu at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. "The Secret of Letters: Chronograms in Urdu Literary Culture," which appeared in Edebiyat: The Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures, is her most recent publication. She is currently translating a voluminous selection of women's writings in Urdu, spanning the last several centuries, for Oxford University Press. Prior to joining the University of Virginia, Dr. Farooqi taught Hindi, Urdu, and Persian language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Allahabad University in India and has numerous publication translations to her credit. She is currently working on an analytical introduction, edition and translation of the Candayan of Maulana Daud in Awadhi. This research is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Institute of Indian Studies.
Hamaarii Bolii: a new Hindi-Urdu video database | Mar 20 2008
The Flagship has just launched Hamaarii Bolii, a new web-based database of self-produced, video interviews with Hindi-Urdu speakers. The site features clusters of short video responses to questions covering a wide variety of topics from conversational strategies to social issues. The database continues to grow with new material recorded regularly in India, Pakistan, and the United States. Hindi-Urdu students and teachers everywhere are free to use the site to enhance their own classroom experience.
Hindi Urdu Speaker Series hosts scholar of classical Urdu poetry | Mar 18 2008
The Hindi Urdu Speaker Series hosts Frances Pritchett, a renowned scholar of classical Urdu poetry. Pritchett will present a talk entitled "How to Read Ghalib."
A reception at 5 p.m. in WCH 4.118 will precede the talk. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community at large are welcome.
Pritchett is Professor of Modern Indic Languages in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. She teaches courses on Indian civilization, Urdu literature and Islam in South Asia. Pritchett's publications include Nets of Awareness: Urdu Poetry and Its Critics, The Romance Tradition in Urdu: The Dastan of Amir Hamzah, Urdu Meter: A Practical Handbook, and Urdu Literature: A Bibliography of English Language Sources.
Bollywood lyricist to speak on language and politics in Indian cinema | Mar 4 2008
The Hindi Urdu Speaker Series hosts Ali Husain Mir, a Bollywood lyricist and script writer and a professor of management at William Paterson University. Mir will present a talk entitled "Romance and Revolution in Bollywood Songs: Politics, Language, and Religion in Hindi Urdu Cinema."
A reception at 5 p.m. in WCH 4.118 will precede the talk. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community at large are welcome.
Mir is the author of "Anthems of Resistance," the definitive book on the All India Progressive Writers' Movement; he is also an acclaimed lyricist and script-writer for Hindi and Urdu films (Iqbal, Dor....). Mir's oeuvre engages issues of religious minorities and secularism in South Asia.
Hindi Urdu Flagship hosts national workshop | Nov 2-3 2007
The university's Hindi-Urdu Flagship is hosting a national workshop on Hindi-Urdu instruction.
The agenda for the workshop includes keynote lectures by Professors Surendra and Vijay Gambhir from the Hindi Program at the University of Pennsylvania, husband and wife, both with more than 30 years of experience in teaching Hindi and Urdu. The workshop will also feature multiple presentations by instructors of Hindi and Urdu from the two premier U.S. government language training institutions: the Foreign Service Institute, School of Language Studies and the Defense Department's Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.
Friday's presentations will be in the Hindi Urdu Resource Center in Homer Rainey Hall (HRH 3.102). Saturday's events will be held at the Austin Radisson North (6000 Middle Fiskville Road).
