Dear All,

(Apologies for cross posting)

We are delighted to announce the dates and call for papers for the Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions 2026.

After the successful 50th anniversary Spalding Symposium at the University of Oxford in 2025 on the theme of ‘Festivals and Celebration’, curated by Professor Jim Mallinson with support from Dr. Pranav Prakash, Dr. Avni Chag, Dr. Karen O-Brien-Kop & Kush Depala, we are moving on to the University of Cambridge where Dr Ankur Barua will be the local convenor for the 51st Spalding Symposium on the topic of ‘Questioning Boundaries’.

Please see the Call for Papers below and hold the dates – more information to follow soon.

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Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, 2025

Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

Friday 27th to Saturday 28th March, 2026

Call for Papers – Proposal submission deadline: October 07th 2025

Theme: Questioning Boundaries

As the Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions moves into its fifty-first rendition, and turns a new corner, we would like to take this opportunity to examine the state of the field of Indian Religions, to see where boundaries are, and where the field might go next.

Questioning a boundary makes one aware of what that boundary is, what purpose it serves, and what it seeks to keep in, and to keep out. Ancient texts, such as the Upaniṣads and the Tripiṭaka, have explored the lines between the perishable and imperishable, the material and immaterial, dhārmika and adhārmika, right and wrong, true and false. Limits are negotiated, policed, contested, and crossed, not only in philosophical, ritual and legal texts, but also in literature, art, performance and even architecture. Boundaries become fluid, and status-quos are challenged as ideas, methods and thoughts are applied and re-applied in new contexts.

The scholarly field of Indian Religions has examined the role of boundaries and limits. More recently, scholarship has focused on boundaries of the global north and south, the human and the ecological, and boundaries of religious traditions. We have also seen work that challenges disciplinary boundaries and methodological approaches, and also involves interlocutors, artists, filmmakers and the public.

Where can the field go next? How can and do scholars interact with the digital, the material, and the global? What new approaches may they use? What should the 2025 scholar of Indology and/or Indian Religions be aware of, and what other places can the modern scholar learn from? How can the field become more equitable and open to new approaches and methods? How can the study of Indian Religions maintain its relevancy in a time and place where the Humanities are increasingly under threat? And how can the study of Indian Religions help us deal with the problems of today such as isolation, extremism, post-truthism, intolerance and climate change?

We welcome papers on the theme of “Questioning Boundaries” from the humanities, social sciences and other disciplines, from a variety of methodological approaches (such as, but not limited to, textual, visual, sonic and ethnographic approaches), focusing on past as well as present contexts. Paper proposals might include but are not limited to the following topics:

• Shifting disciplinary boundaries

• New methodological approaches and opportunities

• Temporal limits (modernity, medieval, ancient)

• Geographic boundaries (north/south, diaspora and migration)

• Religious/secular lines

• Ritual frames

• Human/ecological interactions

• Linguistic divisions and overlaps

• Textual/material/oral spheres

• Boundary makers and boundary breakers

• Comparison and contrast

• Scholar/practitioner approaches

• Emic/etic approaches