[INDOLOGY] extended deadline, 2nd Biennial University of Toronto Graduate Student Conference on South Asian Religions

[christoph.emmrich at utoronto.ca]

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the organizers Arun Brahmbhatt and Eric Steinschneider, I  
would like to draw your attention to the extended deadline of  
September 15, 2013 for paper proposals to participate in the 2nd  
Biennial University of Toronto Graduate Student Conference on South  
Asian Religions.

Please distribute this call widely. Apologies for cross-posting.

Warm regards,
Christoph Emmrich

_____

2nd Biennial University of Toronto Graduate Student

Conference on South Asian Religions:

The Methods of Memory

November 1-2, 2013



We extend a cordial call to graduate students for papers exploring the  
nature, scope, and practice of memory in South Asian religious  
traditions.


While memory is often popularly conceived as the act of recollection  
or as a mental storage space, recent theorizations encourage a much  
more diverse and dynamic understanding of memory and its role in  
cultural phenomena. Scholars of South Asia in particular, including  
Christian Lee Novetzke, Prachi Deshpande and Ramya Sreenivasan, have  
highlighted memory?s role in the formation of public spheres, the  
emergence of regional identities, and the authorizing of particular  
discourses about the past. This conference seeks to continue and  
expand this ongoing conversation on memory with respect to a wide  
range of South Asian religious phenomena including, but not limited  
to, the engagement with sacred texts, the creation and veneration of  
sacred figures and places, the design and performance of rituals, and  
the projection and transmission of visualized and embodied aesthetic  
forms.


In doing so, we hope to raise questions such as the following:

What is memory, or rather, when is memory, and how and at which  
temporal junctures is it evoked in South Asian religious traditions?

How are memories transmitted and enacted, performed and deployed,  
encouraged and suppressed? How reliable are these archives?

What role does remembering ? or forgetting ? play in the construction  
of identities and in the negotiation of sacred time and space?

How is the past imagined and realized through memory, and what part  
does memory play in the envisioning of competing futures?

What is the role of memory in historiography and what are the  
opportunities memory offers for an alternative understanding of history?

How useful is memory as an analytic category in the study of South  
Asian religious traditions?


Proposals broadly addressing themes such as these are welcomed from  
graduate students engaged in original research in any field related to  
the study of South Asian religious traditions (e.g. Religion,  
Philosophy, Anthropology, History, Art History, Sociology, South Asian  
Studies, Diaspora and Transnational Studies, Women and Gender Studies,  
Linguistics, etc.). This conference will offer a congenial platform  
for graduate students to present, discuss, and receive feedback on  
their work from both their peers and faculty in related disciplines.


It gives us great pleasure to announce that Vasudha Dalmia, Chandrika  
and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Hindu Studies at Yale University, will  
be delivering the conference?s keynote address.


Proposals of no more than 300 words, a list of five keywords, and a CV  
should be sent to TorontoCSAR at gmail.com by September 15, 2013. For  
further enquiries, please contact arun.brahmbhatt at mail.utoronto.ca or  
eric.steinschneider at mail.utoronto.ca.


----

Christoph Emmrich
Associate Professor, Buddhist Studies
Chair, Numata Program UofT/McMaster
University of Toronto, UTM

http://www.religion.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/christoph-emmrich/

Department of Historical Studies
University of Toronto, Mississauga
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Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
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Department for the Study of Religion
University of Toronto, 170 St. George Street
Jackman Humanities Building, Room 303
Toronto, Ontario M5R 2M8, Canada
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Private:
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Toronto, Ontario, M6C 1L8 Canada
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christoph.emmrich at utoronto.ca