Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions

Call for papers: 2018 Symposium 

We invite proposals for papers for the 43rd Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, which will be held at Durham University, on 13th-15th April 2018.

There is no theme this year, and so we welcome papers that address any aspect of the religions of South Asia, based upon any research methods, including textual, historical, ethnographic, sociological and philosophical.

Presenters are allocated forty minutes for their paper and twenty minutes for discussion, and will normally be expected to pay their own conference registration and expenses. The Symposium fee, including food and accommodation, is predicted to be £185, with a non-residential rate of £90. Registration details will be released in the new year. Limited financial assistance may be available for early career scholars or scholars from South Asia. If your participation depends upon such support please indicate this when you submit your abstract.

We also welcome proposals from doctoral students, who will be allocated twenty minutes for their paper and ten minutes for discussion, and offered free registration at the Symposium (including accommodation).

We are delighted to announce our keynote speakers: Kunal Chakrabarti, Professor of Ancient Indian History at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, and Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick. Professor Chakrabarti will offer us a paper entitled ‘Laksmi's Other: Brahmanical Construction of a Negative Goddess’, while Professor Nesbitt will speak on ‘Sikhs through the eyes of western women 1809 to 2012’. 

If you would like to give a paper, please send a title and abstract (maximum 500 words) to Dr Naomi Appleton, naomi.appleton@ed.ac.uk, by Friday 10^th November 2017.

Further information about the Symposium can be found on our website, spaldingsymposium.org, where you can also sign up to receive details of the programme and booking information when available.