CFP: International #Conference on #Hermeneutics of #Divine Soundscapes: Decoding the #Musical Signatures of Sri #Guru #Granth Sahib -October 2024-#Punjab University, India

 About The Conference

The relationship between spirituality and music is deeply rooted in the sacred verses of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. This conference aims to interpret the divine soundscapes within Sri Guru Granth Sahib and uncover the layers inherent in its musical signatures. By bringing together scholars, musicians, theologians, and practitioners, this conference aims to foster the understanding of the spiritual and interpretative dimensions of Sikh musical traditions. The conference has several objectives, such as investigating the symbolic meanings and semiotic nuances embedded in the musical signatures of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and exploring how they contribute to the overall discourse. The role of music in the spiritual and normative practices associated with Sri Guru Granth Sahib and its impact on the spiritual experience of practitioners is another area that will be explored.

The conference aims to facilitate dialogue on how the various interpretations of divine soundscapes in Sri Guru Granth Sahib resonate with and influence diverse cultural and religious practices and contexts. Finally, it will discuss the contemporary relevance of the divine soundscapes in the context of evolving religious thought and cultural dynamics.

Sub-themes:

• Ragas in Sri Guru Granth Sahib

• Ghar in Sri Guru Granth Sahib

• Dhuniyan (melodies) in Sri Guru Granth Sahib • Chhant in Sri Guru Granth Sahib

• Pauries in Sri Guru Granth Sahib

• Partaal in Sri Guru Granth Sahib

• Poetic Signatures in Sri Guru Granth Sahib

• Sikh Musical Traditions (e.g. Gharane)

Guidelines for Abstract and Paper Submission

We invite abstracts between 200-300 words along with a bio-note of not more than 100 words. Full-length papers should be 3000-5000 words long. The Authors can present their papers in Punjabi/English. The abstract can be e-mailed at head_bvsc@pbi.ac.in or nmiannualconference@gmail.com

Accepted papers will be presented at the conference and included in the proceedings published by the Nad Music Institute in a dedicated volume. Lodging and boarding shall be covered for all the conference participants. Full or partial travel grants will be provided to the selected participants. The selected young researchers shall be encouraged with special rewards.

Important Dates:

Submission of Abstracts: 25th April 2024

Intimation of Accepted Abstracts: 30th April 2024

Full Paper Submission: 1st September 2024

Intimation of Acceptance of the complete paper: 15th September 2024

About Bhai Vir Singh Chair

Bhai Vir Singh Chair was formally established in 2013. Padma Bhushan Bhai Vir Singh, an acclaimed figure in the literary world, is widely recognised as the father of modern Punjabi literature. His contribution to Punjabi language and literature has been remarkable, having dedicated 50 years of his life to our traditional heritage through modern scientific idioms. Emulating the tradition of philosophy, knowledge, and experience set forth by Guru Nanak Sahib, Bhai Vir Singh created various forms of literature, including poetry, fiction, rhetoric, editing, interpretation, and research, all of which have played a significant role in shaping modern Punjabi literature.

About Nad Music Institute

Nad Music Institute, a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington (USA), established in 2018, is committed to advancing Sikh music through academic research, collaboration with musicians and musical societies, and the creation of educational resources.

Contact Information

Dr. Jaswinder Singh, In-charge, Bhai Vir Singh Chair, Punjabi University, Patiala 

Dr. Manjit Singh, Nad Music Institute, USA

Contact Email: nmiannualconference@gmail.com

URL:http://www.punjabiuniversity.ac.in/

Attachments

cfpbhai-vir-singh-chair-nmi.pdf

#CallForPublications: #Academics, #Activists, and "#Superstition" -February 28, 2024.

 

“Superstition.” Historians, folklorists, anthropologists, scholars of religion have long critiqued the term, and taught our students to do so as well. Always unavoidably ascriptive, it functions to divide: true religion from primitive magic, right reason from blind faith, “us” from “other.” Whether deployed by Stoic philosophers against the silly practices of the plebians, by medieval urban Catholics against rural “pagans,” by early modern Protestants against Catholics, by Victorian scholars against colonized and Indigenous peoples, or (across millennia) by men against the beliefs and practices of “old wives” and women more generally, the category of “superstition” is a weapon of domination and marginalization.

“Superstition.” Human rights activists, disability activists, advocates for the elderly or for children languishing in “witch camps” have recently deployed the term to great pragmatic effect. Organizations such as the #Maharashtra Blind Faith Eradication Committee in India and Advocacy for Alleged Witches in Nigeria shame the accusers of alleged witches as “superstitious.” By doing so, they forge alliances with international humanist movements, align themselves with the language of human rights organizations forged in the Enlightenment tradition, and effect policy changes to the benefit of the demonized. In a historical twist, the category of “superstition” can be a weapon of the marginalized against domination, violence, and dehumanization.

Contributions from junior scholars, and from scholars writing from and/or about historically marginalized communities, are especially welcome.

If interested, please send an abstract of about 100-150 words to MRW co-editor Michael Ostling by February 28, 2024, at michael.ostling@asu.edu, or contact us with questions.

Full drafts of those contributions accepted for inclusion in the Discussion Forum will be due June 30, 2024. Anticipated publication in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft volume 20.1 (Spring 2025).

Discussion Forum pieces tend to be short (2000-4000 words) and conversational. While they may be theoretically sophisticated and grounded in detailed scholarship, they should also be accessible to audiences across a wide range of disciplines and positionalities: historians and sociologists, philosophers and activists, policy actors and ethnographers. Please write accordingly.

Contact Information

Michael Ostling

Contact Email

michael.ostling@asu.edu

CfP: Religion and Technology in an era of Rapid Digital and Climate Change-RWTH Aachen University (Germany) and IIT Madras (India)-NOV-2023

(RaTiRDaCC 2023)

Organized by: RWTH Aachen University (Germany) and IIT Madras (India)

November 21-23, 2023, IIT Madras, INDIA

 

Call for Papers 

Papers are invited (from early researchers, post-doctoral scholars, Faculty and practitioners), for an International Conference to be held from November 21 to 23, 2023 at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. This conference aims to discuss the interplay and adaptation strategies in, and between, the realms of religion and technology in an age of tremendous transformations. Among the transformations, we particularly wish to emphasize the rapid developments with regard to the digital world and the climate, and the considerable global changes and challenges they have produced. We think of ‘religion’ in this context as a key source for value-based solutions, and of ‘technology’ as a specific approach to the world. We regard religion and technology as mirror image twins and thus envisage projects on the changing forms of impacts through both of them.

 

Recent trends in religious studies have emphasized “material religion” - with focus on the material elements of practice rather than just on theological or doctrinal matters. This turn opens up the way for the history of technology productively to intervene in a number of ways. Historians can illuminate the way objects exist in public performances of religious identity and belonging, and the changes in religion and religious practices, riding on technological advances (like online darshans/meditations, social-media channels, online groups, ‘Apps’, etc.). Beyond organized mainstream religions, papers can also look at the interface of technology and the ‘magical’ (acts, spirit possession, black magic), and other so-called 'demonic' work. Others may put the spotlight on the architecture of religious structures, the spiritual character of engineering works, the changing light, sound and other aesthetic elements, and how these changes reshape public participation both in terms of religion and technological usage and challenges. Ethical challenges like loss of privacy, anxiety about the human person’s distinctiveness and dignity, and mankind’s handling of the environment need to be discussed too with regard to increasing digitization and climate change. With the above broad lineaments, proposals can relate themselves to any of the following specific themes:

 

1. Religion and the Digital World – the Digital as a method to capture and describe the world and our livelihoods; vast increase around the world in the use of telecommunication and digital technologies for promotion of both traditional and new-age faiths – their increased valency especially amidst the Covid-19-induced restrictions on physical gatherings; ways in which pilgrimages have been transformed due to the new digital facilities (from travel planning to booking darshans); theological/philosophical re-orientations and reflections centered on these new openings.

 

2. Technology and Religion in the Context of Climate Change – possible solutions to the challenge of climate change from religion/theology; their distinctiveness from secular thought/debates; how climate change has impacted on the self-understanding of religions, their dogmatic, social and moral positions; the climate discourse as a modern form of apocalypticism; practical manifestation of ecological sensitivity - influencing the building of mosques, churches, and temples; influence of local communities and indigenous knowledge systems.

 

3. Artificial Intelligence – philosophical and spiritual/theological reflections touching on fundamental questions of Being, Consciousness and the (Post)human; parallelism in the ‘transcendence’ sought to be attained by spiritual efforts/exercises and those wrought by new spatial categories like ‘metaverse’ (going beyond our understandings of the ‘cyberworld’), and other such ontological questions and dilemmas.

 

4. Technology and Religious scholarship/pedagogy – from printing press to online theology classes; role of technology in preservation of religious materials and creation of religious repositories like digitisation of palm leaf manuscripts, building devotional hymns database; the regional variations in approach and content; the various innovative practices in creation, delivery and marketing; the subjectivity of technology and its power to include and exclude.

 

5. Representation of Religious-Technological life worlds – in literature, arts and films including science fiction/ climate fiction; representations of knowledge in policies and practices affecting the lives on the ground.

 

In terms of methodology, it is hoped that the various proposals and papers would throw forth a rich mix of different approaches and source materials - including intercultural theology, oral history, decolonizing research methodologies, archival work, textual and media analysis, ethnographic research, social analysis, theoretical formulations and ethical/philosophical reflections.

 

To submit a paper proposal, please send the following information on a single-sided document in English, before 23 May 2023 to ratirdacc23@gmail.com.

• A provisional Title and the Theme Number it would fit under (nos. 1 to 5 – see above)
• Full name and academic post/institutional affiliation of the author/s
• Full postal and email-addresses
• An outline of about 400 words, highlighting the relevance of the paper to the conference themes, or other forms of interaction between technology and religion, and the main contribution/argument of the proposed paper
• 5-10 keys words

Information about the acceptance of a paper will be given by end of May 2023 together with guidelines for the paper and its presentation and the Registration fee payment mode. [A nominal registration fee of Rs.500 (15 USD for international participants) is payable].  Complete papers must be received by 25 August 2023. Papers (along with session schedule), will be made available for pre-reading to registered participants. Some of the papers presented at the Conference will be chosen for further expansion and inclusion in a special issue of a relevant journal of high international standing, or in an Edited Volume. (Presentation of paper in the Conference does not automatically guarantee publication).

 

Most of the outstation speakers will be provided accommodation from 20th November to the evening of 24th November 2023 in the IITM Guest House at a nominal cost of Rs 500 to 1000 per night depending on the size and occupancy (single/double) of the room. Participants who are unable to travel can participate online. Travel or other forms of financial assistance, if any, will be announced if adequate funds are raised.

 

TIMELINE

Deadline for submission of Abstracts – May 23 2023

Intimation about selected Abstracts - May 30

Deadline for submission of first Drafts - Aug 25

Conference: Nov 21 - 23, 2023

Intimation about Papers selected for Publication – Dec 3 2023

Resubmission of the selected Papers [for Peer Review] - Jan 10 2024

 

Contact Info: 

John Bosco Lourdusamy

Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences

IIT Madras, Chennai 600 036, INDIA

Contact Email: 

ratirdacc23@gmail.com