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2005-2006 Calendar of Events

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Fall 2005 events

Dr. Ram Karan Sharma: "Poetry of Mahabharata and Kalidasa"

Tues., Sept. 6, 2005, 4 pm
Callaway Center S319
Professor Ram Karan Sharma,visiting professor of Sanskrit at University of California, Berkeley, will give a talk based in part on his book Elements Of Poetry In The Mahabharata (Motilal Banarsidass, 1988).

     From the Jacket: This book represents the first attempt of its kind to present a detailed, systematic analysis of the upamana dharmas (Tertia comparationis) of the various objects of comparison found in the Mahabharata. It also critically examines the position of the Great Epic as a fascinating specimen of Oral poetic composition abounding, as it does, in the repetitions of the poetic formulae of the various categories. A study of some of the major figures of speech also provides an authoritative material useful for further research of the evolution of Tertia comparationis in the successive stages of Indian literary tradition.

About the Guest Speaker
   Dr. Ram Karan Sharma, Sanskrit poet and scholar was born in 1927 at Shivapur in Saran District in Bihar. He received an M.A. in Sanskrit and Hindi from Patna University as well as Sahityacharya, Vyakarana Shastri and Vedanta Shastri degrees. He earned a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from the University of California.
     Over the years, he has held many positions in government and academic institutions. From 1961-1970, he was Special Officer (Sanskrit), Govt. of India. Subsequently, he was Director of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan from 1970-1974 and 1980-1983. From 1983-1984, he was Joint Educational Advisor, Govt. of India. He was Vice-Chancellor of Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga University, Darbhanga from 1974-1980 and Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Varanasi from 1984-1985.  Dr. Sharma has also held visiting professorships at Columbia and Chicago.
     In India, he has also received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1989, the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award in 1989, the Delhi Sanskrit Academy Award, and India’s Presidential Award.

Co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Program and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies. For more information, call 404-727-7596.

Brian Hatcher: "Modern Hinduism in Search of Experience: Strategies of Persuasion in Colonial Bengal "

Sun., Sept. 18, 2005, 4 pm
White Hall 103
This lecture is part of the Department of Religion's lecture series "Persuasion: Rhetoric and Practice." Co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Program and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies. For more information, call 404-727-7596. Click here for event flyer in pdf format. It will open in a new window.

Carrie Wickham: "The Causes and Dynamics of Islamist Auto-Reform" (Recent Research in Religion Series)

Wed., Nov. 9, 2005, 3 pm
Callaway S221
Why are some Islamist leaders in the Arab world calling for a reform of the Islamic movement itself? And to what extent do such calls for reform signal a change in Islamist positions on such key issues as democracy, pluralism and citizenship rights?  Dr. Wickham will address these questions in her talk, drawing upon fieldwork she conducted in Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait. Carrie Wickham is Associate Professor, Political Science, Emory University. Click here for event flyer in pdf format. It will open in a new window.

Luis M. Girón Negrón: "Fray Luis Against the Inquisition: Persuasion and Religion in 16th Century Spain"

Wed., Dec. 7, 2005, 3 pm
Callaway S221
Luis M. Girón Negrón is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Romance Language and Literatures, Harvard University. This lecture is part of the Department of Religion's lecture series "Persuasion: Rhetoric and Practice." For more information, call 404-727-7596. Click here for series flyer in pdf format. It will open in a new window.

Don Seeman: "A Death in Addis Ababa: On Ethnography, the Question of Religious Experience and the Politics of Suffering"

Wed., Dec. 14, 2005, 3:00 p.m.
Callaway S221
Don Seeman is Assistant Professor of Religion, Emory University. Sara McClintock, Lecturer in Religion will respond. This lecture is part of the Department of Religion's lecture series "Persuasion: Rhetoric and Practice." For more information, call 404-727-7596. Click here for series flyer in pdf format. It will open in a new window.

Spring 2006 events

Ruth Wisse: “Yiddish at the Center; English at the Margins"
Tenenbaum Lecture

Tues., Feb. 7, 2006, 4 pm
Reception Hall of the Michael C. Carlos Museum, 7:30 pm
Ruth R. Wisse is Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. The Tenenbaum Lecture is presented by the Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by the Religion Department (among others).

John Dunne: "Mixing Concepts, Mixing Minds: Two Strands of Buddhist Mysticism."

Wed., Feb. 15, 2006, 3 pm
Callaway N116
John Dunne is Assistant Professor of Religion, Emory University. Prof. Vernon Robbins will respond. This lecture is part of the Department of Religion's lecture series "Persuasion: Rhetoric and Practice," co-sponsored by the Hightower Lecture Fund of Emory University. For more information, call 404-727-7596. Click here for flyer in pdf format. It will open in a new window.

Rohit Chopra:“Global Primordialities: Curious Convergences in Online Indian Identities”
South Asia Seminar Series

Tues., Feb 28, 2006, 4 pm
Kemp Malone Library, Callaway Center
Rohit Chopra is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University. His research project analyzes the relationship between technology and nationalism in India from 1750 till the present, with a focus on expressions of nationalism among Indian communities on the internet. South Asia Seminar Series event (co-sponsored by Religion Dept.). For more information contact Melissa Rubins, 404-727-2108.

 

"The woman who pretended to be who she was: Identity and Masquerade in Literature, Myth and Film"
Department of Religion Hosted Seminar with Wendy Doniger

March 5, 2006, two seminar sessions for invited, pre-registered participants with Wendy Doniger (Univ. of Chicago). For more information, call 404-727-7596. [Related event of interest is Emory's Classics Department conference "Ancient Song: Comparative Perspectives."]

Antoine Lutz: “Potential Influences of Meditation and Other Contemplative Practices on Mind, Brain Function, and Health”

Wed., March 22, 2006, 7 pm
White Hall 206
Dr. Lutz is the main researcher on studies of advanced Tibetan meditators conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work focuses on the relationship between brain integrative mechanisms and high-order cognitive and emotional activities, including consciousness. Co-Sponsors: Emory Tibet Partnership, Department of Religion, Science & Society Program. For more information, call 404-727-6280.

 

Brent Plate: “The Footprints of Film: After Images of Film in US Sacred Spaces”

Mon., March 27, 2006, 4 pm
Callaway S105
Dr. Plate is assistant professor of religion and the visual arts at Texas Christian University. He has published a half-dozen books and over 50 articles, essays, and reviews on topics relating to religion and visual culture. This talk is sponsored by the Religion Department and co-sponsored by ILA and Film Studies. For more information, call 404-727-7596 or click here for flyer in pdf format.

Kathryn McClymond: "Ritual Gone Wrong: Learning from Ritual Mistakes"

Wed., March 29, 2006, 3 pm
Callaway S105
Elaborate ritual systems often include extensive material on how to correct mistakes that occur during the performance of a ritual. Yet this corrective or expiatory material is largely overlooked in ritual theorizing. McClymond will examine one example of corrective material in the Baudhayana Srauta Sutra as a first step towards determining what we can learn about the nature of ritual when we pay attention to “rituals gone wrong.” Kathryn McClymond is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, Georgia State University. This lecture is part of the Department of Religion's lecture series "Persuasion: Rhetoric and Practice." For more information, call 404-727-7596. Click here for flyer in pdf format. It will open in a new window.

“Mind-Body Connections and the Search for Health: Past, Present and Future ”

Wed., March 29, 2006, 7:30 pm (public reception at 7 pm)
Woodruff Health Sciences Admin Building, 1440 Clifton Road
Panel Discussion with Dr. Pema Dorjee, Dr. Anne Harrington, and Dr. Charles Raison. Sponsored by Emory's Program for Science & Society and the Emory-Tibet Partnership. For more information, contact Jim Wynn at 404-727-6722.

 

Peter Williams: "The Gospel of Wealth and the Gospel of Art: Episcopalians and Cultural Philanthropy from the Gilded Age to the Depression"

Fri., March 31, 2006, 11:45 a.m.
Callaway S319
Peter Williams is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and American Studies, Department of Comparative Religion, Miami University. He is the author of America’s Religions: From the Origins to the Twenty-First Century. This lunchtime talk is sponsored by the Religion Department and the Center for Teaching and Curriculum. Click here for event flyer. Lunch is provided; rsvp required, please: 404-727-7596 by March 27.

 

Sharon Strocchia: “Savonarolan Witnesses: The Nuns of San Jacopo and the Savonarolan Reform Movement in Sixteenth-Century Florence” (Recent Research in Religion Series)

Wed., April 5, 2006, 3 pm
Callaway S105
Sharon Strocchia is an associate professor in the Department of History, Emory University. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research interests include social and cultural history of Renaissance Italy, with a focus on women and religion in fifteenth-century Florence; gender and sexuality in early modern Europe; and the social history of medicine in premodern Europe. Dr. Strocchia is the author of Death and Ritual in Renaissance Florence (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992). Click here for flyer in pdf format.

 

Arthur Kleinman: "What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life Amidst Uncertainty and Danger"

Brownbag Lunch Talk
Please bring your lunch. Cookies and drinks provided.
Friday, April 7, 2006, 12 noon
Callaway Center S319
Arthur Kleinman has worked for three decades as a medical anthropologist, both in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard and in the Department of Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. A physician-anthropologist, from 1991 to 2000 he chaired Harvard’s Department of Social Medicine. He is presently the chair of Harvard's Department of Anthropology. His current research interests include the experience of chronic illness, social suffering, depression, emerging infectious diseases, substance abuse, suicide, political violence, trauma, aging, ethnicity, and disabilities. The author of 5 books, co-editor of 20 volumes, and with more than 180 research and review articles and chapters, he will talk about his new book on moral experience and global social change. This talk is co-sponsored by Emory’s Center for Health, Culture, and Society. For more information, contact the Religion Department at 404-727-7596 or click here for flyer in pdf format.

Religion Majors/Minors Luncheon

Mon., April 24, 2006, 12-2 pm
Harris Hall Parlour (click here for a map with Harris Hall circled in red)
Religion Majors and Minors Gathering and TAK induction with guest lecturer Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur; this event for Religion majors/minors only; rsvp to 404-727-7596, please.

Brad Warner: "Punk Rock, Monster Movies & The Truth About Reality"

Wednesday, April 26, 2006, 6 pm
White Hall 110 - click here for directions to Goodrich C. White Hall

Publisher's Weekly said: "Warner, an early-'80s hardcore punk musician, discovered Zen in college, moved to Japan to make B-grade monster movies, and eventually became a bona fide Zen master by formally receiving 'dharma transmission.' Yet true to his punk spirit, he relentlessly demands that all teaching, all beliefs, all authority--including his own--must be questioned. By turns wickedly funny, profane, challenging and iconoclastic..."

Talk by Brad Warner, author of Hardcore Zen. Sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Atlanta Soto Zen Center. Free and open to the public. For more information, call the Department at 404-727-7596. Click here for flyer in pdf format.

 

Undergraduate Religion Research Symposium

Thurs., April 27, 2006, 2:30-4:30 pm
White Hall 200
Come hear students present their recent papers and participate in discussion, moderated by Prof. Eric Reinders. Tentative program is:

• Jonathan Lowell: The Pilgrim's Process: The Search for Authenticity on the Road to Santiago
• Elana Jefferson: Rastafarian I-and-I Communotheism: A Theological Anthropology for Black Women and Men—Sinning, Being and Bewitching in Liminal Spaces
• Diana Rowe: The Understanding of Generosity through the Power of Love:
  The Story of Prince Vessantara
• Sarah Cordes: The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in the Fight against HIV/AIDS
• Bethany Therriault: Avebury–Sacred Battleground

Click here for the event flyer in pdf format. Light refreshments provided. For more information, contact the Department of Religion, 404-727-7596.

You may also be interested in the Institute for Jewish Studies calendar of events, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies Department events and Asian Studies Program events.

Past Religion Department events:

Fall 2004-Spring 2005 events

Fall 2003-Spring 2004 events

Fall 2002-Spring 2003 events

Fall 2001-Spring 2002 events

Spring 2001 events

Fall 2000 events

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