Booking is now open for the 2018 Symposium, which will take place at Hatfield College, University of Durham, on 13th-15th April. We are delighted to announce our keynote speakers:
– Kunal Chakrabarti, Professor of Ancient Indian History at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNR), Delhi, and
– Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick.
A provisional programme is below.
Bookings can be made via the following link: https://www.dur.ac.uk/conference.booking/details/?id=877
There are, as usual, two booking rates: £95 unresidential (conference attendance and refreshments only) and £185 residential (including two nights B&B)
Provisional programme:
Friday 13th April
1.30pm Introduction and welcome
1.45-3.00pm Opening keynote: Professor Kunal Chakrabarti (JNU)- ‘Laksmi’s Other: Brahmanical Construction of a Negative Goddess’
3.00-3.30pm Tea and coffee
3.30-4.30pm Elizabeth M. Rohlman (University of Calgary) – ‘Regions and Regionality in the Mahāpurāṇas: The Literary Cultures and Religious Communities of Western India in the Markāṇdeya Purāṇa’
4.30-5.30pm Dr Marzenna Jakubczak (Krakow) – ‘Non-theistic devotion in the classical and neo-classical Sāṃkhya and Yoga’
5.30-7.00pm Dinner at Lebeneat Restaurant
7.00-8.00pm After dinner paper or entertainment tbc
Saturday 14th April
9.00-10.00am Dr Christopher V. Jones (University of Oxford) – ‘Mystery and Secrecy in the Mahāyāna: A Shared Theme in the ‘Lotus’ and ‘Nirvāṇa’ Sūtras’
10.00-11.00am Prof. Natalie Gummer (Beloit College, Wisconsin) – ‘Reassessing Rasa: Sūtras, Sovereignty, and the Ritual Substance of Speech’
11.00-11.30am Tea and coffee
11.30am-1.00pm Postgraduate papers
Sophie Barker (Lancaster University) – ‘“Why Would I Want to Get Married?” Negotiating Permission for Renunciation in the Therīgāthā’
Sayori Ghoshal (Columbia University NY) – ‘Locating Race in the Question of Religion in modern India’
Güzin A. Yener (University of Oxford) – ‘Practices of Kurukullā: Feminine Wisdom of Love, Power and Magic in Tibetan Buddhism’
1.00-3.00pm Lunch and then free time to explore the city
3.00-4.00 Postgraduate papers
Durga Kale (University of Calgary) – ‘Whole Cosmos in Her Bosom: The Making of a Multifarious Deity in Coastal Maharashtra’
Zuzana Špicová (Charles University, Prague) – ‘“He Never Touched the Ground”: Bhīṣma’s Two Falls’
4.00-4.30pm Tea and coffee
4.30-5.30pm Dr Elizabeth Cecil (Leiden University) and Dr Laxshmi Greaves (Independent Researcher, Cardiff) – ‘Adorning the Lord with Garlands: Liṅga Worship as Lived Religion in the Images of Early North India’
5.30-6.30pm Showcase of Durham speakers
7.00pm Dinner at Claypath deli then evening of socialising
Sunday 15th April
9.00-10.00am Dr Mikel Burley (University of Leeds) – ‘Dance of the Deodhās: Divine Possession, Blood Sacrifice and the Grotesque Body in Assamese Goddess Worship’
10.00-11.00am Garima Kaushik (Nalanda University) – still to confirm due to funding investigations underway, but positive/confident – ‘Socio–economic imperatives in the emergence of the Sapta Matrikas Iconography’
11.00-11.30am Tea and coffee
11.30am-12.45pm Closing keynote: Professor (Emerita) Eleanor Nesbitt (University of Warwick) – ‘Sikhs through the eyes of western women 1809 to 2012’
12.45-1.00pm Closing remarks
1.00-2.00pm Lunch and then departure