Reading Outside the Lines: A Workshop on the Intersection of Buddhist Art and Texts held at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, München sponsored by the Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies

The Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, München is pleased to announce a call for papers for ‘Reading Outside the Lines: A Workshop on the Intersection of Buddhists Art and Texts,’ to be held at LMU, München on September 13-14, 2013 in the beautiful city of Munich, Germany with a keynote address by Christian Luczanits, curator at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York.

Throughout the history of Buddhist Studies, philological and text critical approaches on the one hand and art historical approaches on the other, while sometimes serving to inform one another, have often been pursued independently. However, often in the context of an increased interest in visual studies and material culture, research integrating both perspectives has been increasing. With the Reading Outside the Lines workshop it is our hope to provide a fertile environment for scholars to bridge the ever-shrinking gap between the study of Buddhist art and texts.  

The intended scope of the workshop spans the breadth of the Buddhist world, embracing research centered on all of its temporal and physical manifestations.  We encourage submission of abstracts from all scholars, both those who hold their PhDs and graduate students, who are working on issues surrounding the study of Buddhist art and texts.  Scholars whose work focuses primarily on either textual studies or art history alone but are interested in the intersection of the two fields are also encouraged to attend.  The final number of participants will depend on the number of abstracts we receive but we are hoping for a large turnout with a fruitful and lively discussion.

Selected contributors will present their research in a workshop environment and all papers will have discussant responses followed by discussion.  The workshop will be conducted in English.  While it is of course preferred that expenses for attendees are funded by their home institutions, travel funding is available for some attendees and will be awarded based on need and merit.

Please submit an abstract no longer than three to five hundred words to: buddhist-studies-workshop@lrz.uni-muenchen.de by February 15, 2013 to be considered for selection to attend.  Expect to be notified in mid-April 2013.  Those selected will be required to submit a finished draft of their paper by July 15, 2013 to ensure discussants and all participants have time to prepare responses.