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.
Śāktism and Ethnography: Some Major Styles of Worship and Belief among Practitioners
Śākta Traditions Online Lecture Series: Contributions to a growing field of Śākta Studies
This week in the Śākta Traditions Online Lecture Series we welcomed Professor June McDaniel. Professor Emerita in History of Religions in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston she did her PhD from University of Chicago and her MTS from Emory University. Her research areas include Mysticism, Religions of India, Psychology of Religion, Women and Religion, and Ritual Studies. She did several years of field research in West Bengal, funded by Fulbright and the American Institute of Indian Studies. In her lecture this week, she talked about the study of Shaktism being a relatively new field with the development of new methodologies to befit the perceptions of practitioners and devotees. The regional focus was on West Bengal, India. There was additionally a brief note on how traditional Shakta ideas have been incorporated into nationalism by politicians, and into hedonism by modern entrepreneurs.
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.
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.
Please join us for the launch of the Handbook of Hinduism in Europe (Brill) edited by Knut A. Jacobsen and Ferdinando Sardella.
The event will take place online on Zoom. During the event, there will be talks from: Prof. Gavin Flood Prof. Knut A. Jacobsen Prof. Ferdinando Sardella Shaunaka Rishi Das Ross Andrew and others
Date and Time: Monday 22 November 2021 4.00 – 5.30 pm (GMT)
The Phenomenology of Religion as Philosophical Anthropology - A Virtual Conference -
The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Campion Hall, Oxford University welcome you to join the Phenomenology of Religion as Philosophical Anthropology conference, a three-day online event where we will discuss and rethink the Phenomenology of Religion as an intellectual discipline.
The conference is directed by Professor Gavin Flood, FBA.
From 4 October to 6 October, 2021
It is free to participate and everyone is welcome.
You can read more about the conference and download the abstracts on our website: newphenomenology.org