[INDOLOGY] WSC Kathmandu

Sun Jun 22 06:20:06 UTC 2025

Dear all,

I am just writing to let those of you who are participating know that the schedule (which was supposed to be emailed to participants but has not been) is available on the WSC website. You may also notice that the venue has been quietly changed from a college to a primary school!

I have just written a long email to them regarding the absolute lack of professionalism in the organization of this conference. I had a special panel accepted in April of 2024. I registered in February of 2025. Since then my co-panelists have dropped out because of the lack of communication by the organizers.

I myself wrote to the organizers at least a half dozen times to find out how much time my panel would be allotted and received zero response. A draft schedule leaked last week and I alerted members to the fact that my panel was not included. Again, this issue was not addressed by organizers.

The conference begins in a few days and the schedule online still claims to be preliminary: This is a preliminary program schedule and is still under review. If you notice any discrepancies or if anything has been missed,
please inform Mr. Prashant Kashyap (Local Scientific Coordinator) at prashant.k at chime.travel

I hope those of you who do attend have a wonderful time. Despite preparing for a full presentation, I will be using my valuable time in Kathmandu to do other things but do hope to see some of you anyway.

Best,
Patricia
________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of Patricia SAUTHOFF <sauthoff at hkbu.edu.hk>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2025 2:29 PM
To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>; Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com>
Subject: [IMPERSONATED EMAIL] Re: [INDOLOGY] WSC Kathmandu

** This email has been identified by ITO as Impersonated/Fake email – the sender address [Patricia SAUTHOFF <sauthoff at hkbu.edu.hk><mailto:xxx at hkbu.edu.hk>] of this email is NOT authorised by the HKBU email system. **

Dear Dominik,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us all. Yours seems like a simple request and an easily solved problem.

I had a special panel accepted for this conference in April 2024.

>From the outset there were rumours that the conference would be delayed or cancelled, and of course a delay did occur. Now it seems that nearly half my panel will be unable to attend the conference due to registration, timing, expense, and lack of communication issues.

I myself have written the organizers several times over the last year and have received almost no response. The most recent circular on the website refers to the extended submission deadline of August 2024.

If my panel does indeed fall apart, I too will be out several hundred dollars.

Best of luck to everyone!

Patricia
________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2025 9:46 PM
To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] WSC Kathmandu

CAUTION! EXTERNAL EMAIL (not being sent from @hkbu email system): Do not click links, open attachments, or respond to it unless you trust the email source/verify the identity of the sender by other means.

I wish to share my experience about registering for the Kathmandu WSC.

Because of the early registration deadline, I paid the fee of about C$400 last year out of my own pocket.  Subsequently, my university said they would not pay me back until after the conference, but that I could transfer the payment to a university credit card.  I wrote to the WSC organizers asking them to let me switch the payment to a different card and eventually got an answer.  They said no, they would not help and that if I wanted to cancel I would get only 25% of the fee back.

This is a startlingly greedy policy.

I have written to the organizers to cancel my attendance and I have asked for a refund.  This experience has been unpleasant and expensive for me.

Best wishes to everyone, and I hope that for those who are able to attend that it will be an exciting and enriching experience.

Best,
Dominik

--
Dominik Wujastyk, Professor Emeritus,
University of Alberta

"The University of Alberta is committed to the pursuit of truth,
the advancement of learning, and the dissemination of knowledge
through teaching, research and other scholarly and creative activities and service."
-- Collective Agreement<https://www.ualberta.ca/human-resources-health-safety-environment/media-library/my-employment/agreements/2020-2024-collective-agreement---working-version.pdf> 3.01

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