Dear Colleagues,
Here is a Call for Applications for an upcoming Summer School that we're
hosting here in Göttingen, Germany. PhD and research Masters students
are our target audience.
Regards,
Jovan Maud
Summer School Göttingen SPIRIT 2016
"Beyond the City Limits: Rethinking New Religiosities in Asia"
18-22 July, 2016
University of Göttingen, Germany
A cooperation between the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology
(GISCA), the Center for Modern Indian Studies (CEMIS) & the Center for
Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS) at Georg-August University Göttingen,
Germany
Theme
With the rapid urbanization across Asia, with new cityscapes, glittering
skyscrapers, shopping malls, globalized forms of consumption it is easy
to assume that cities are the primary sites for the production of the
new. Indeed, urbanity is often a synonym for modernity and Asian futures
would appear to be increasingly urban. The study of religion is no
exception, and emergent trends, practices and movements are often
implicitly or explicitly connected with the city. For example, new
religious movements are commonly treated as distinctly urban phenomena
that reflect middle class sensibilities and subjectivities, concerns and
consumption patterns. Moreover, the rise of new religious forms is often
understood as coming at the expense of the rural, as when village
mediumship practices are seen to give way to urban spirit cults, or when
urban expansion leads to the incorporation of previously rural religious
centers, such when so-called "forest monasteries" in Thailand
increasingly find themselves in urban or peri-urban zones.
But if cities are the future, is the country then the past? Does the
focus on cities as sites of "the new" ignore the complex ways rural
contexts, settings and imaginaries are implicated in contribute to
contemporary religious practice? And to what extent does the notion of
"urban religion" implicitly depend on its "others"? Does it reproduce
the urban/rural distinction as one of the "great divides" (Latour 1993)
that have been central to the experience of modernity?
This Summer School takes up these issues and asks how the study of
contemporary religious life in Asia can benefit from "thinking beyond
the city", whether "the city" is understood as a spatial entity, a site
of enquiry, and as an analytical category. It will call into question
many of the assumptions that go along with the study of urban
religiosity and will attempt to bring "the urban" explicitly into
relationship with its various "others" --- such as the "rural",
"hinterland", "periphery", or "village". Central questions include: How
do patterns of pilgrimage, travel and tourism, or the circulation of
religious symbols or objects connect "urban" and "rural"? How to
religious networks and practices help particular actors --- such as
rural/urban migrants --- to negotiate tensions between their rural and
urban lives? How do notions of nostalgia and pastness figure in projects
of religio-spiritual renewal? To what extent does the notion of an
urban/rural divide itself inform religious practices and imaginaries?
Speakers will include:
ˇ Prof. Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
ˇ Prof. Ursula Rao, Leipzig University
ˇ Prof. Christina Schwenkel, UC Riverside
ˇ Prof. Tim Winter, Deakin University
ˇ Dr. Radhika Gupta, Göttingen University
Applications
We invite applications from interested doctoral and research-based
masters' students of all cultural-studies disciplines, whose work
relates to East, South and/or Southeast Asia. We offer expertise
especially in social and cultural anthropology, history, sociology,
media and visual studies, religious studies, and area studies. The
number of participants is limited to 20.
Applicants should submit an abstract of their thesis or dissertation
(max. 500 words), a statement of motivation (max 1 page), a brief
statement by the applicant's supervisor, as well as proof of current
university enrollment. Scholars of GISCA, CEMIS and CeMEAS will select
the participants. Free accommodation will be provided and there are no
tuition fees. Travel stipends may be available to fund participants
otherwise unable to attend due to the financial burden of travel costs.
Please e-mail your application to Karin Klenke at
[log in to unmask] Application deadline: February 28, 2016.
Successful applicants will be informed by mid-March.
For more information see the attached document.
--
*
Dr Jovan Maud*
Lecturer
Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology
Georg-August University
Theaterplatz 15
37073 Göttingen
Germany
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Tel: +49 551 39 7869
Fax: +49 551 39 7359
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