Conference announcement

[Martin Gansten]

The following is posted on behalf of a colleague not on this list. Please
direct any inquiries to <chakra at teol.lu.se>. For full details, see:
http://www.teol.lu.se/chakra/conference04/index.html

Martin Gansten

* * * * * * * * * *

Ritual practices in Indian religions and contexts
December 9 - 11, 2004
History and Anthropology of Religion, Lund University

Welcome to a Nordic conference which explores ritual practices in Indian
religions and contexts. The conference is arranged by the seminars of
Indian Religions and Ritual Studies at the Department of History and
Anthropology of Religion, Lund University, in cooperation with the academic
journal Chakra -  Tidskrift för indiska religioner. We invite scholars and
Ph D students who are engaged in research concerning Indian religions and
rituals to take part in the conference.  Presented papers will be
considered for publication in the journal Chakra. The conference will take
place in the medieval city of Lund, in southern Sweden, December 9-11, 2004.

Conference outline

The conference aims at initiating an interdisciplinary conversation on
various aspects of Indian religions and ritual practices. Indian religions
are mostly associated with the major world religions originating from India
- Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. The conference also aims to
include religions practiced in India today and Indian religions in other
contexts, such as diaspora communities outside Asia. The conference wants
to emphasize different perspectives of ritual practices in various research
studies of Indian religions, and encourage new theoretical and
methodological approaches in the field. Therefore, we are now inviting
scholars and Ph D students from various disciplines to contribute to a new
dialogue concerning Indian religions and rituals.

The conference will include keynote speakers and five panels, where
scholars and Ph.D. students will present papers covering the following themes:

1. Ritual Theories and Methods
2. Rituals and History
3. Rituals and Modernity
4. Rituals and Texts
5. Rituals and Daily life
Participants presenting papers should plan to give a short introduction of
maximum 15 minutes each, followed by panel discussions. A chairperson will
supervise each panel discussion.

In order to create constructive scholarly discussions, registered
participants will receive all papers in advance. To reach out to a broader
audience, the conference proceedings will be in English.