Dear all (and apologies for cross posting), I am pleased to announce that the programme for the *Spalding Symposium 2026*, to be held on *27–28 March*, held at the Faculty of Divinity,* Cambridge University*, has now been finalised. Please find the programme below, which includes the full list of speakers and sessions.
Tickets can be purchased via *Eventbrite* at the following link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/51st-annual-spalding-symposium-on-indian-religions-tickets-1982632212318 We very much look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be an engaging and stimulating event. Kind regards, *The Spalding Symposium organising committee* - Kush Depala, Hershini Soneji and Saran Suebsantiwongse Local convenor: Ankur Barua — *Friday 27 March* 8:30 Arrival and registration 9:00 - 9:10 Welcome & Housekeeping *9:10 - 10:00 Keynote 1* Ankur Barua (Cambridge University) 15 min Break *10:15 - 11:45 Panel 1* Karen O’Brien-Kop (KCL): Using Samkhya to query ontological boundaries and mobilise consciousness in the Anthropocene Rosina Pastore (UGent): Brahman and Cinema: Explaining Vedānta in 20th century North India 11:45 - 13:00 - Lunch *13:00 - 15:15 Panel 2* Nabanjan Maitra (Bard): How to Re(Write) the Veda Paola M Rossi (Milan): The poet ‘who fashions the boundaries’: Vedic poetry and mapping cosmos Shivani Bothra (California State: Long Beach): Reimagining Dharma: Jain Migration, Gender, and the Shifting Boundaries of Tradition 15 minute break *15:30 - 17:45 Panel 3* Brian Black (Lancaster): From the Margins to the Centre: Rethinking Nāgas in the Mahābhārata Ayelet Kotler (Leiden): Persian Ramayanas and Mughal Cosmopolitanism Sinah Kloß (Bonn): Hair, Heat, and Boundaries: Questioning the Material and Sensory Dimensions of the Body in Hindu Suriname Dinner thereafter 18:45 *Saturday 28 March* *9:00 - 11:00 Panel 4: Postgraduate Panel* Aamir Kaderbhai (Oxford): The Infinite Mirror: Questioning the Boundary between Reality and Imagination in the Mokṣopāya Weibing NI (Cambridge): ‘Sita Crosses Kala Pani’: Retelling the Ramayana in the Caribbean Simon Winant (UGent): Where Othering ends and Smothering begins: how to discuss the ‘Muslim’ merchant Saʽīd/Ṣadīq in Jain chronicles Ojaswini Shekhawat (Yale): Fantasizing as the (Un)Attainable “Other”: A 17th Century Minor Sanskritist’s Take on the Mughal Harem 15 minute break *11:15 - 12:45 Panel 5* Neelima Shukla-Bhatt (Wellesley College): Dancing and Questioning Boundaries: Garbo, the Goddess Worship Ritual of Gujarati Women Madhumita Sengupta (IIT Gandhinagar): Ashaan Bibi and the Cultural Resonances of Partition in Bengal 12:45 - 14:00 - Lunch *14:00 - 15:30 Panel 6* Mukesh Kumar (Zürich): Fluid Frontiers of Faith: Boundary Crossing in the Ritual Ecology of South Canara Maharshi Vyas (UNC Chapel Hill): What does it mean to be ‘tribal’? Questioning Identitarian Boundaries through Historical Interactions and Contemporary Lived Religious Realities 15 minute break *15:45 - 16:35 Closing Keynote* Prof. Monica Juneja (HCTS, Heidelberg University) 16:35 - 16:45 - Closing Remarks
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