Buildings, books, sculptures, pilgrimage sites, music, performances, or social networks are material and immaterial objects entangled in religious practices and belief-systems. Their role in religious experience and the communication thereof is manifold. They may be perceived as manifestations of the transcendent, as visual expressions of religious semantics or as a medium facilitating communication between worldly and otherworldly spheres. They may foster the encounter between religious groups, allow negotiating religious identities or provide a forum for religious discourses. While the academic field of religion and media has gained increasing attention in the last decades, the intersection between religion and (im)material objects in South Asian contexts remains to be addressed more specifically.
This seminar brings together Master students, doctoral candidates and early career researchers who share an interest in the interplay between religion and media in South Asian religious traditions, may it be during historical or contemporary periods. This course is envisaged as a colloquium which will meet every other week to discuss topics pertinent to the participants’ research. It will offer a platform for participants to share their work, whether prospective or on-going. It will combine the presentation of concrete case-studies based in different historical contexts with the discussion of more theoretical reading that reflect on the relationship between religion, material, and immaterial objects as a specifically South-Asian phenomenon. This reading will draw upon modern scholarship as well as on Classical Indian discourses (e.g. commentarial literature, treatises) to explore how the interaction between religion, material culture, and aesthetics has been theorized.
The specific program will be introduced during the first meeting on Wednesday, 14th of April. The seminar will conclude with a one to two days workshop on the 29th and 30th of July.
- Kursleiter/in: Jessie Pons