[INDOLOGY] MBh and Classical Hinduism Paper Proposals Due March 1!

[Collins, Brian]

Dear Indologists,
Since this is the last weekend before the deadline, I wanted to send this reminder.
The American Academy of Religion's Mahābhārata and Classical Hinduism Seminar requests proposals for papers for the next Annual Meeting.  The American Academy of Religion will hold its Annual Meeting November 19-22, in Denver, Colorado.
Statement of Purpose
The Mahābhārata and Classical Hinduism Seminar seeks to facilitate the academic exchange so necessary to progress through a format similar to a workshop, with pre-circulated papers. This seminar will bring together philologists, Indologists, ethnographers, scholars of performance theory and practices, and generalists taking on the daunting task of incorporating India’s great epic into their coursework on Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, or Yoga. Over the course of the five-year seminar, we hope that these varied approaches will prove mutually illuminating and raise new questions. The seminar’s scope includes not only the Sanskrit text, but also dramatic and fictional retellings, regional and vernacular versions, etc. We will select papers by asking the following four questions, which will change somewhat according to each year’s topic: Does the paper shine a new light on some previously underappreciated aspect, episode, character, or form of the epic? Does the paper either represent or respond to the most current trends and arguments in Mahābhāratastudies? Does the paper help to demystify the Mahābhārata, helping non-specialists who are intimidated by its length and complexity to incorporate it into their teaching or scholarship? Does the paper provide a model for interdisciplinary practice (e.g., Does it bridge the gap between philology and new forms of critical textual analysis or between ethnography and history of religions?).

Call for Proposals
The Seminar’s call for papers for its second year addresses new methodologies and interpretive strategies, including approaches emphasizing gender studies, critical race theory, linguistic analysis, ethics, and comparison with the field of Biblical criticism, as well as new tools and resources for the study of the Mahābhārata. We also encourage proposals in response to the AAR’s 2022 Presidential Theme: Religion and Catastrophe, including climate change. In an effort to encourage diversity in seminar participants, those who presented papers in our 2021 meeting are unlikely to have proposals accepted for the 2022 meeting. We seek to include the best proposals we receive.

The deadline for the Call for Proposals is Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.  Proposals can only be made by logging into the AAR website and uploading the proposal in the PAPERS system.  Details on making a proposal can be found here:  https://papers.aarweb.org/content/general-call-proposals-instructions<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpapers.aarweb.org%2Fcontent%2Fgeneral-call-proposals-instructions&data=04%7C01%7Ccollinb1%40ohio.edu%7Cec47324b7d6f460cab4808d9dc374497%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C637782952924813978%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=4ep5QvO42y74r5Sj%2BEPmL4zF6pppkLIJOBlzsMO%2FXwc%3D&reserved=0>

Please note that we function as a Seminar:  fully articulated papers are to be presented to be read by Seminar participants before the meeting occurs.  Each paper will be discussed during the meeting.  If a paper proposal is accepted, the completed paper will be due by October 1, 2022.

Thank you for your attention to this Call for Proposals.  Please circulate it to others who may be interested.





Assoc. Prof. Brian Collins
(He/Him/His)
Department Chair and Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy
Department of Classics and Religious Studies
234 Ellis Hall
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio
740-597-2103 (office)


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