Close-ups

What do you teach at Ca’ Foscari? What are your main research interests? 
I have been teaching Hindi and Urdu language and literature in this department since 2009, returning to Ca' Foscari - where I graduated in 1994 - after a long stay in the UK, where I first obtained my PhD in Religious Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and then worked as a researcher at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OXCIS) in Oxford. I focus on pre-colonial Urdu literature and the relations between Islam and South Asia, especially in the field of Sufism. 

What led you to pursue a research career? What are you most passionate about in your field of study?
I have always had a great passion for the East in general and especially for South Asia; I am fascinated by the diversity and colours of that part of the world, just as I have always been interested in the depth of its speculation and the ability to integrate and assimilate that distinguishes its thousand-year-old Indian civilisation. 

What does teaching at the university mean to you?
For me, teaching at university means finding the opportunity to share my experiences of research, travel and encounters with other people with students and colleagues. Being able to pass on the knowledge and experience I have acquired during my life and studies means giving meaning to my experience and receiving stimuli to keep walking along the fascinating road of university teaching in search of true knowledge generated by the extraordinary ability of human beings to generate and perpetuate culture, in the most diverse aspects and wherever they are. Universities are an ideal place to convey, receive and mediate precisely this!

You work in a department dealing with non-European worlds: what does working on cultural diversity mean to you in an increasingly interconnected world?
For me, dealing with non-European worlds and cultures means questioning yourself, interacting with others, wanting to understand what is different to better understand yourself and your own culture and civilisation. Becoming aware of the fact that you are not the centre of a world made up of many fascinating parts, recognising that your own mindset is not the absolute standard for understanding the world and what lies beyond, then being able to question yourself and enrich others, providing curious and interested students with some keys to understand the other - this means taking responsibility for talking and exchanging with those who come to study with us.