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The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society Virtual Conference

The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society Virtual Conference

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Virtual Conference:
The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society

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Recordings

June 2-3 2022

Hindus, their communities, and their traditions face a wide variety of sociological challenges in assimilating into or avoiding modern secular societies. An underpinning of these tensions is that Hindus live and work in the world while simultaneously maintaining a separation from it. Sociological issues that they may encounter include those of identity, value, affiliation, and ethnicity. This conference aims to provide an opportunity for scholars to dialogue and share research related to the experiences of contemporary Hindu communities and adherents as they navigate life within, without, and on the fringes of their religious institutions and host communities. All are welcome to participate.

Hit “Download programme” link above for abstracts.

Please register here.

Conference Programme

DAY 1: THURSDAY 2nd JUNE 2022

(All times in UTC)

Welcome
12pm

SESSION 1
12:10pm – 1:30pm     

Angela Burt
The Changing Relationship of the Hare Krishna Movement with Mainstream Society: An Alignment Perspective

Gustavo H. P. Moura
World Kirtan: Music and Spirituality in a Transcultural Whirlpool

Ace Simpson and Alan Herbert
Rapture and Rupture: Experiences of Former Ashram Residents

SESSION 2
1:30pm – 2:50pm

Tuhina Ganguly
The Wonder of Darshan: Going Beyond the Local and the Visual

Hrvoje Čargonja
Dialectics of Narrative Identity in the Hare Krishna Stories of Religious Experience

Cecilia Bastos
Mind, Body and Subjectivity: The Performance of Yoga and Meditation Practitioners

DAY 2: FRIDAY 3rd JUNE 2022

Welcome
12pm

SESSION 1
12:10pm – 1:30pm

Richa Shukla
Contemporary Hindu Woman: Strangled Soul or an Emancipated One?

Sraddha Shivani Rajkomar
Hinduism and Creole Cultural Memory in Present-day Mauritius

Priyesh Patel
Finding the One: Marriage and Love among Hindus in the UK

SESSION 2
1:30pm – 3:10pm

Gowda Gomathi & Babu Lenin G
Memorial Stones as Social Identity in the Past

Paolo E. Rosati
Cultural Identity and Cultural Memory at Kāmākhyā: A Preliminary Study

Michael Sheludko
Russo-Ukrainian War and Problems of Violence Justification Among Russian and Ukrainian Vaishnavas

Rasa Pranskevičiūtė-Amoson
Acting in the Underground: Life as a Hare Krishna Devotee in the Republic of Lithuania (1979–1989)

Organizing Committee

Cecilia G. Bastos
T +55 71993661399
E ceciliagbastos@gmail.com
National Museum / Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Angela R. Burt       
T +61 412 439 734
E aburt@ochs.org.uk
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Alan C. Herbert
T +44 7463 138252
E alan@ochs.org.uk
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 

Ace V. Simpson
T +44 1895 265899
E ace.simpson@brunel.ac.uk
Brunel University London

Vaiṣṇavism Online Weekend School

Vaiṣṇavism Online Weekend School

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Vaiṣṇavism Online Weekend School

                                                                                             11–12th  June

Our Continuing Education Department has put together an excellent programme on Vaiṣṇavism for the upcoming Weekend School.

The sessions will include:

Untangling the Traditions: The Vaishnava Family Tree
with Professor Gavin Flood

The Vaishnava Life: Rite, Ritual, Practice
with Professor Måns Broo

The Poetry of the Alvars
with Professor Archana Venkatesan

Vaishnava Bhakti Traditions in Gujarat
with Dr Arun Brahmbhatt

The Omnipresent Lord: Vaishnava Conceptions of the Divine
with Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

The Vaishnava Revolution in Modern India
with Professor Amiya P. Sen

How Vaishnavas and Muslims Worked Together in Early Modern Bengal
with Professor Tony K. Stewart

Read more and sign up for the course here!

Tantrāloka readings with Professor Alexis Sanderson

Tantrāloka readings with Professor Alexis Sanderson

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Readings in the Tantrāloka
Trinity Term 2022

This term we welcome back Professor Alexis Sanderson as an OCHS Visiting Fellow. Professor Sanderson will be giving four readings on the Tantrāloka. 

The lectures will take place in the OCHS Library on the following Wednesdays 4 May, 18 May, 1 June, and 15 June, from 4.00 to 5.30.

Join us in the OCHS library tomorrow at 4pm for the first talk of the term.

Watch or rewatch last term’s talks on the Tantrāloka here: https://ochs.org.uk/tantraloka-readings/
Summer Course in Kathmandu

Summer Course in Kathmandu

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Study in Kathmandu this Summer

This year we are launching an extraordinary new summer university programme. A two-week course that takes place in Kathmandu, Nepal, where students will be engaging in cultural fieldwork, local excursions, yoga classes, paired with academic lectures and workshops.

This is a great opportunity for students to connect their formal educational knowledge to real-world experiences. The summer program will include attendance at a myriad of rituals and cultural practices, group excursions throughout the city’s many cultural sites, and other enriching local activities.

The programme will also offer ECTS accreditation for undergraduate students in attendance.

Go to course website!

If students have any questions, they can contact

Gitte Poulsen,
Manager and Tutor
gitte@ochs.org.uk

Laura Anderson,
Manager
laura@ochs.org.uk

Readings by Prof. Alexis Sanderson

Readings by Prof. Alexis Sanderson

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Readings in the Tantrāloka

Yesterday we had the pleasure of welcoming our J.P. and Beena Khaitan Visiting Fellow Professor Alexis Sanderson for his first reading on the Tantrāloka. The next talk will be on 10 February at 2.00 pm.

Forthcoming talks
Week 4, 6, 8, Thursday, 2.00-3.30

In these lectures Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts.

Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.

Watch the first talk here: 

News Letter Hilary Term 2022

News Letter Hilary Term 2022

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OCHS Newsletter

Welcome back to a new term. I hope everyone has enjoyed the closeness of friends and family during the holidays and I wish for a productive and peaceful 2022.

This coming term we welcome two visiting fellows to the OCHS. Professor Alexis Sanderson will be here as our J.P. and Beena Khaitan Fellow and Professor Knut Jacobsen will visit as our Shivdasani Fellow. Both of them will give lectures during the term which can be found on our Hilary term lecture list here.

We will have an online conference on Rethinking Hinduism in Colonial India from 4th to 6th of February. 

The Śākta Traditions, and the Rethinking Gender online lecture series will continue this term together with a new series on New Directions in the Study of Modern Hinduism. These will all be online and everyone is welcome. For more information and how to attend see our lecture list.

Wednesday Lunches are cancelled for the first four weeks of the term, but hopefully, if the Covid situation allows for it, lunches will be back for the second part of Hilary term.

This year we have some exciting announcements from our Continuing Education team. A new online term will begin on January 16 and we are pleased to present two new courses on Hinduism and popular religious art tutored by Dr Layne Little and Hinduism, Yoga, and Ecology tutored by Professor Christopher Key Chapple, a course developed in collaboration with our environmental outreach project Hindu Climate Action.

If you haven’t already signed up for this term, you can do so at ochsonline.org.

Warm regards,
Tanja

13.01.2022

New CED Term begins 16 Jan 2022

New CED Term begins 16 Jan 2022

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Learn something new this year

Join us for the upcoming term at our Continuing Education Department starting on 16 January 2022.
This term we are pleased to present two new courses: Hinduism and popular religious art tutored by Dr Layne Little and Hinduism, Yoga, and Ecology tutored by Prof. Christopher Key Chapple, a course developed in collaboration with our environmental outreach project Hindu Climate Action.  

You can find all our courses here, or browse a small selection below. 

Exploring the Yoga Sutras

Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras is one of the best known, yet least understood texts on Yoga. Yoga Sūtras are accepted as the authoritative text on Yoga doctrine and practice and in this course you can comprehensively – chapter by chapter, sūtra by sūtra – understand what Patañjali intended and what it means to modern spiritual practice.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Daniel Simpson
Course creator: Dr Nick Sutton 
Course duration: Eight weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Bhagavad Gita

Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Indian text that is vital to Hindu tradition, literature, and philosophy. This Bhagavad Gita course is an engaging and informative learning experience, brought to you remotely by OCHS online. Within this course, you will study the main themes of Krishna’s teachings and the principles, ideas, and theories within the 18 chapters, or 700 verses, of Bhagavad Gita.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Dr Layne Little
Course creator: Dr Nick Sutton 
Course duration: Seven weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Hinduism, Yoga, and Ecology

What do Hinduism and Yoga Philosophy have to say about ecology and the environment? Hinduism is full of big ideas. How do these big ideas relate to modern life?

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Prof. Christopher Key Chapple
Course creator: Prof. Christopher Key Chapple
Course duration: Eight weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Hinduism and popular Religious Art

Join us on this visually striking course exploring Hinduism and popular religious art over the past two centuries and more. With more than 25 hours of richly illustrated video we learn the story of India’s use of modern technologies to reimagine the sacred in vibrant and unexpected new ways.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Dr Layne Little
Course creator: Dr Layne Little
Course duration: Eight weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Tantra: a New Understanding

In this Tantra course, we reflect on what the Tantric traditions are, their origin, formation, core texts and practices, and what they mean for us today. As with all of our online courses, you’ll be supported on this Tantra course by an expert in the field. For more information on the course outline, continue reading below for a full breakdown.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Prof. Gavin Flood
Course Creator: Prof. Gavin Flood
Course duration: Seven weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

See you on January 16!

Annual Report 2021

Annual Report 2021

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Annual Report
2021

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Dear Friends, 

A full year of pandemic restrictions in education has been hard but I must congratulate our scholars and students for their focus and adaptability. All have done very well, mastering the mysteries of all things Hindu, and what were once the mysteries of Teams, Canvas, and Zoom. Our students have also done well academically – which is the great achievement.

I’m very happy to announce that we will start the next academic year with a new relationship with the Faculty of Theology & Religion and the University of Oxford. Beginning in October, two of our scholars, Dr Jessica Frazier and Dr Rembert Lutjeharms, will become Research Lecturers in the Faculty, positions funded by the OCHS. Both will share their time with the University and the Centre. It represents the strongest institutional tie that both our Centre and the Faculty will have with any other external body.

In spite of the difficulties of the year, education and publication went very well, as this report notes. Research also progressed, the only areas of our operation hindered being Library access and coming together for meals and discussion. Even with all the promise of technology there is nothing to replace the wealth of personal interaction.

As an unexpected benefit of shutdown around the world, we had an understandable rise in student numbers for our online courses – 2300 in total. While so many of us were bound to our homes in the pandemic we roamed the universe of the internet looking for education, news, and distraction. Our online experts adapted quickly and launched very successful virtual weekend schools and Zoom tutorials, making our subject widely available.

I would like to thank our scholars, students, and staff who rose to the occasion; to our patrons and friends who retained their commitment and maintained our efforts; and to the army of volunteers who have worked in Leicester, Birmingham, and London, and far afield in New York, Denver, and Gainesville, USA, and Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai, India. We are your servants.

Warm regards,
Shaunaka Rishi Das