Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak arrives in Dhaka for Lalon commemoration

Celebrated literary theorist and postcolonial scholar Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday at the invitation of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to participate in events marking the 135th death anniversary of the revered mystic saint Lalon Shah.

Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki confirmed Spivak’s arrival in a Facebook post, expressing enthusiasm over her presence at the upcoming commemoration.

Spivak is scheduled to serve as the main discussant at the Lalon Akhra ceremony in Chheuria, Kushtia, on October 17. The event will be attended by Adviser Farooki as chief guest, while Cultural Affairs Secretary Md Mofidur Rahman will deliver the welcome address.

Also set to speak at the gathering are poet, writer, and public intellectual Farhad Mazhar and Professor A Al Mamun of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Rajshahi University, among other distinguished guests.

A professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Spivak is globally acclaimed for her pioneering contributions to postcolonial theory, feminist critique, and comparative literature. Her seminal 1988 essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” remains a cornerstone of critical theory, and her translation of Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology introduced deconstruction to English-speaking audiences.

Her extensive body of work—spanning dozens of books, edited volumes, and translations—has been rendered into numerous languages, influencing generations of scholars worldwide.

Her visit underscores Bangladesh’s enduring cultural reverence for Lalon Shah, whose philosophy of humanism, spiritual unity, and resistance to orthodoxy continues to resonate across borders—and now, through the voice of one of the world’s most influential thinkers.