Title: Kazi Khaleed Ashraf | The Great Padma: The Epic River that Made the Bengal Delta
The Chowdhury Center Distinguished Lecture for 2026 by Kazi Khaleed Ashraf—architect, urbanist, architectural historian, critic, and director-general of the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements in Dhaka—on his new book The Great Padma: The Epic River that Made the Bengal Delta (2023), the first comprehensive study of the Padma River’s life and ecology, featuring a rich collection of new photographs and maps.
Sudipta Sen, Professor of History and Middle East/South Asia Studies at UC Davis and Zachary Lamb, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, will serve as discussants.
Event moderated by Elora Shehabuddin, Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and Global Studies; Director, Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, UC Berkeley.
This event will be live streamed on the Chowdhury Center’s FB page: ChowdhuryCenter@UCBerkeley
ABOUT THE BOOK
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SPEAKER BIO
Working at the intersection of architecture, landscape and the city, Kazi Khaleed Ashraf has authored books and essays on architecture in Bangladesh and India, the work of Louis Kahn, and the city of Dhaka. His various writings on the architecture of Bangladesh have provided a theoretical ground for understanding both the historical and contemporary forms of architecture, while his written and design work on Dhaka advances that city as a “theorem” for understanding urbanism in a deltaic geography. Ashraf has taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Pratt Institute in the USA, and lectured widely internationally. He is the author of numerous publications. His essays and articles have appeared in the Architectural Review, Architectural Design, Topos, Economic and Political Weekly, and other periodicals. Ashraf and contributing team received the Pierre Vago Journalism Award from the International Committee of Architectural Critics for the Architectural Design publication “Made in India”.
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Established in 2013 with a generous gift from the Subir & Malini Chowdhury Foundation, The Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies at UC Berkeley champions the study of Bangladesh’s cultures, peoples and history. The first of its kind in the US, the Center’s mission is to create an innovative model combining research, scholarships, the promotion of art and culture, and the building of ties between institutions in Bangladesh and the University of California.
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PARKING INFORMATION
Please note that parking is not always easily available in Berkeley. Take public transportation if possible or arrive early to secure your spot.
Event is FREE and OPEN to the public.
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If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Puneeta Kala at pkala@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.