OCHS Research Programme
The OCHS research programme seeks to support well-defined research in all areas in the study of Hindu culture.
It encourages both collaborative and individual scholarship that leads to significant advances in the understanding of cultures associated with Hinduism, disseminating their findings through clearly defined outputs.
It further aims to encourage a fruitful interaction with the public from grass-roots to policy-making and media sectors, with the goal of enhancing the culture and application of knowledge on the broadest scale.
The OCHS welcomes proposals for projects in all these areas. Guidelines for researchers can be found here.
Types of project
- Academic research projects with a thematic focus.
- Textual resource projects including translation, preservation, and archive projects.
OCHS research streams for 2008–9
Research projects at OCHS fall under four general headings, Hinduism and modernity, Classical Hinduism, Religious dialogue and interface, and Historical perspectives on Hindu cultures. Under each of these broad umbrellas OCHS seeks to promote collaborative research on specific projects.
1. Hinduism and modernity
This general category seeks to examine Hinduism in relation to modernity, particularly with respect to questions about the place of religion in the public sphere, questions of social hierarchy and equality, and Hinduism in relation to globalisation, localisation, and glocalisation. Within this broad category research projects could deal with Hinduism and the plastic arts, Hinduism and politics, Hinduism and society, and Hinduism and literature.
Projects
Community archive projects
2. Classical Hinduism
This is a general category for research projects that may be of a textual or historical nature, and may include the preservation and critical editing and translating of material relating to particular traditions. It also might include thematic studies of topics within Hinduism.
Projects
3. Comparative philosophy and religion
Having developed out from the Theology Faculty, one of the concerns of OCHS has been comparative Theology. This research field intends to include comparative religion within its remit and seeks to examine the ways in which Hindu thought can interact with non-Hindu philosophies and theologies. This research area partly grows out of the successful comparative seminars and conferences held at OCHS between Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism and builds on the work of Prof F. X. Clooney who has written extensively on comparative theology.
Projects
4. Historical perspectives on Hindu cultures
The history of religion in South Asia is highly contested and has become a battleground for ideological conflict. But history is crucial for any understanding of religion, not only in the past but in the contemporary context. History might be seen both as a discourse about the past and the object of that discourse. This research trajectory seeks to raise questions about the nature of history in South Asia, questions about colonial vs non- colonial versions of history, and questions about how history relates to contemporary social, religious and cultural identities.