[INDOLOGY] 2nd Toronto South Asian Religion Graduate Student Conference

[christoph.emmrich at utoronto.ca]

Dear Colleagues,

Please take note of the following call for papers and forward it as  
you deem appropriate. And please accept my apologies for cross-posting.

With warm regards,
Christoph Emmrich

----

From: Eric Steinschneider
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 12:26 PM
To: Eric Steinschneider
Subject: CFP - The Methods of Memory (UofT Grad Student Conference)

We are pleased to announce a call for papers for the 2nd Biennial  
University of Toronto Graduate Student Conference on South Asian  
Religions - The Methods of Memory, to be held on November 1-2, 2013.

To view a poster of the call, see the attached file or visit  
http://www.sareligionuoft.ca/events/upcoming/.

Please distribute this call to any graduate student who may be  
interested in participating.

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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 1, 2013. For  
further enquiries, please contact arun.brahmbhatt at mail.utoronto.ca or  
eric.steinschneider at mail.utoronto.ca.

----

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

currently:
MiCasa Hotel Apartments
Apartment no. 325
17, Kaba Aye Pagoda Rd., Yankin Township
Yangon, Myanmar
+95.1.650.933

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

Department of Historical Studies
University of Toronto, Mississauga
Room NE117, North Building, 3359 Mississauga Road North
Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
+905.569.4493 (o), +905.569.4412 (f)

Department for the Study of Religion
University of Toronto, 170 St. George Street
Jackman Humanities Building, Room 303
Toronto, Ontario M5R 2M8, Canada
+416.978.6463 (o), +416.978.1610 (f)

Private:
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Toronto, Ontario, M6C 1L8 Canada
+416.546.3407 (h), +416.317.2662 (c)

christoph.emmrich at utoronto.ca