History and Material Culture in Asian Religions - Update

Sat Mar 13 19:29:43 UTC 2010

Dear List Members,

Please see below, the updated and finalized schedule for the History and Material Culture in Asian Religions conference being held at the Penn Museum on March 21st - March 22nd in Philadelphia.

The new link to the conference website is:

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~bfleming/material_culture/

Best Wishes,

Benjamin Fleming

__________________________________________ 

HISTORY AND MATERIAL CULTURE IN ASIAN RELIGIONS  

March 21-22, 2010, University of Pennsylvania

Penn Museum, Classroom 2 (Please use Kress entrance.)

* Sponsored by the Dept. of Religious Studies, Center for Ancient Studies, South Asia Center, Center for East Asian Studies, Penn Museum, Mellon Cross-Cultural Diversity Fund, University Research Foundation, and the Oriental Club of Philadelphia.

* All events are free and open to the public.

SUNDAY MARCH 20th 

9:00-9:20am – Welcome & Introductory Comments

9:20am–12:00noon - Session I: The Materiality of Writing: Text as Artifact / Chair: Paul Goldin (University of Pennsylvania) 

Dirk Meyer (Oxford University), “Bamboo and the Production of Philosophy: A Hypothesis about a Shift in Writing and Thought in Early China”

Jinah Kim (Vanderbilt University/Institute for Advanced Study), “Animating the Dharma: 3D World of Medieval Buddhist books in South Asia”

Travis Zadeh (Haverford College), “An Ingestible Scripture: Early Debates on Touching, Dissolving, and Eating the Qur’an”

Benjamin J. Fleming (University of Pennsylvania), “Buddhists and Brahmins under the Reign of Śricandra: New Evidence from Copperplate Inscriptions”

1:00–3:00 pm - Session II: Rethinking Religious Histories / Chair: Deven Patel (University of Pennsylvania)

Shayne Clarke (McMaster University), “Motherhood amidst the Sisterhood: Reading Inscriptional Evidence in Light of Buddhist Monastic Law Codes”

Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa (University of Alabama), “Stūpa Renovation as a Trope of Authority in Asian Societies: Three Case Studies from the Kathmandu Valley”

Kevin Bond (University of Regina), “Marketing Miracles: Buddhism, Commercialism, and Entertainment in Early Modern Japan”

3:00–4:00pm - Coffee Break / Gallery Tour, Steve Lang (Asian Keeper, Penn Museum)

4:00–6:00pm - Session III: Between Image and Text / Chair: Michael Meister (University of Pennsylvania)

Shaman Hatley (Concordia University), “Goddesses in Text and Stone: Temples of the Yoginīs in Light of the Purāṇas and Tantric Śaiva Literature”

Jamal Elias (University of Pennsylvania), “Icons and Idols in the Islamic Past: Seeing the Religious Image in Historical Account”

Justin McDaniel (University of Pennsylvania), “Beyond Narrative: Murals and Material Culture in Thailand”

MONDAY, MARCH 22nd 

9:00–11:40 am - Session IV: Relic, Text, and Icon / Chair: Frank Chance (University of Pennsylvania)

James Robson (Harvard University), “Things Inside of Things: On the Materials Found Inside of Chinese Icons”

Tamara Sears (Yale University), “Sculpting the Ascetic Body: Corporeality and Ephemerality in Early Medieval Śaivism”

Hank Glassman (Haverford College), “Ninshô, Ryôhen, and the 25 Bodhisattvas of Hakone”

Gudrun Bühnemann (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “On the Iconography and Date of the Golden Window in Patan” 

1:00–3:00 pm - Session V: Material Cultures in Contact: Trade and Religious Exchange / Chair: Victor Mair (University of Pennsylvania)

Richard Mann (Carleton University), “The Rise of Mahasena: Skanda, Vishakha and Mahasena on the Gold Coinage of Huvishka”

Jason Neelis (University of Florida/Ruhr-Universität Bochum), “Gandharan Materials and Manuscripts from Contact Zones between South Asia and Central Asia: Crucial Evidence for Patterns of Buddhist Transmission”

Annette Yoshiko Reed (University of Pennsylvania), “Eurasian Trade and the Connections between “West” and “East”: Reconsidering Early Christian References to Asian Religions”

3:15–4:00pm – Concluding Discussion and Reception in Mosaic Gallery

For further information: 

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~bfleming/material_culture/   

http://www.penn.museum/  

-- 

Dr. Benjamin Fleming Visiting Scholar, 
Dept. of Religious Studies, 
University of Pennsylvania 249 S. 36th Street, 
Claudia Cohen Hall, #234 
Philadelphia, PA 19104 U.S.A. 
Telephone - 215-746-7792
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~bfleming 

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