The Kerala Mosques Project team is excited and happy to announce the Summer School “History, Material Culture and Heritage of Kerala Muslims” which will take place in Kodungallur, Kerala (India) from 21 to 27 July.
We look forward to receiving applications by 30 May 2025: more information on the flyers attached.
“The mosques of Kerala. Artistic vocabularies in the identity-building of Muslim communities” is is a project based at the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies with a FWO Odysseus Type II.
The annual online lecture series organised by the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies (GCSAS) is dedicated this year to the theme “Ascetiscapes: Studies at the Intersection of Asceticism and Space”.
Ascetics before the shrine of the Goddess. Folio from Kēdāra Kalpa. India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, ca. 1815. The Walters Art Museum
Asceticism, as a set of psycho-physical practices aimed at redefining, transforming, perfecting or obliterating the self, stretches beyond the purely bodily and spiritual dimensions of the practitioner. Both on the individual and the community level, it influences and is constantly influenced by physical and non-physical space.
This online lecture series invites reflection on the various ways in which ascetic practitioners in South Asia have engaged with abstract, physical, social and embodied space. We will explore different traditions from various disciplinary angles, collectively interrogating the relationship between ascetic paths and the transformation of conceptual and material space.
All our presenters can be followed online (registration required); three lectures will also be available on campus.
Everyone is warmly invited to join: follow the links in the programme below to register!
PROGRAMME & REGISTRATION
Thursday 27 February, from 4pm CET
Akshara Ravishankar [Ghent University]
Even the Wise Grieve: Narrative and Renunciation in the late Advaita Bhagavad Gītā
On 24 February, Dr Barbara Čurda (Marie Curie fellow, University Clermont Auvergne and French Institute of Pondicherry) will deliver a talk titled “Feminine agency and social value in shifting urban environments: the transmission of Odissi dance in Bhubaneswar”.
This talk is organised by the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies (GCSAS) and the Center for Research on Culture and Gender (CRCG). It can be followed both in person and online.
Drawing on ethnographic data from the early 2020s, this presentation explores the relation between women’s agency and their degree of adherence to patriarchal values in an environment subjected to rapid and intense changes. It focuses on women practising Odissi dance, considered by the government of India to be one of the “Indian classical dances”, in the urban context of Bhubaneswar, capital city of the Indian State Odisha, in which these practices thrive. India has undergone rapid socio-economic and technological transformations in the past decades. Moreover, the city of Bhubaneswar has experienced a particular stark growth. This has affected the socio-economic fabric that support Odissi dance practices, based on a social order regulated by pronounced gender asymmetries. How do these changes affect the gendered equilibrium? What are the present constraints and opportunities? How do values and norms evolve in such a context?
About the speaker
Barbara Čurda is an anthropologist, and has been working as a Marie Curie fellow on the MSCA-IF-GF project GATRODI* (Gender asymmetry in the transmission of Odissi dance in India – a case study). The project interrogates relational dynamics and conceptions of know-how amongst dance practitioners, using qualitative and ethnographic methods. Her research interests include gender, inequalities, corporeal practices, heritage, and South Asia. She holds a PhD in anthropology from the Université Blaise Pascal (France), and has taught extensively in the higher education sector and notably at the Université Clermont Auvergne (France).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101033051.
The Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies has organised a film screening of ‘The Death of Us’, a documentary on the death penalty in India, followed by a Q&A conversation with the filmmaker Vani Subramanian.
We will discuss about the history and stakes of the debates on the death penalty, criminality, and justice in contemporary India.
Students, faculty, researchers, and staff are very welcome to attend: no registration is required.
When: 3 February 2025, from 11:00 to 13:00
Where: room 5.50, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Campus Boekentoren – Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent
A quiet contemplation on a range of cases in which the death penalty was pronounced, ending in execution, commutation to life sentence, acquittal or even pardon. Speaking to those who have been on death row or those very closely involved with the cases, we engage in complex conversations on crime and punishment, revenge and justice, popular rhetoric and personal experiences.
Direction: Vani Subramanian
78 mins | English, Hindi, Telugu | English Subtitles | 2018
DOCUMENTARY
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Vani Subramanian has been a women’s rights activist and documentary filmmaker since the nineties. Her work as a filmmaker explores the connections between our everyday practices, perceptions and prejudices, and the larger political questions confronting us – be they in the areas of culture, food practices and production, education, sectarian intolerance, sex selective abortions, or questions relating to justice and the death penalty. Her films have been screened and received awards, both nationally and internationally. Presently she is the Creative Director of reFrame Institute of Art and Expression, an initiative that produces, mentors and disseminates artistic efforts that respond to contemporary challenges.
We are pleased to announce an upcoming Guest Lecture hosted by the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies on 12 December 2024 at 1:30 pm CET in a hybrid format:
in person: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Camelot 3.30, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent
Title of the Lecture: “Exploring the creative world of Ācārya Hemacandra”
Speaker: Prof. Sreenath VS (IIT Madras)
Through this talk we will delve into the Jaina contributions to aesthetics in the work of Hemachandra.
Sreenath VS, Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities, IIT Madras, is a visiting scholar at the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies this December, and his lecture is part of this appointment.
The Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies (GCSAS) and the Center for Research on Culture and Gender (CRCG) are pleased to host Prof. Anandita Pan from IIT Hyderabad, India, for the upcoming seminar titled “Justice for Whom? Gender, Caste, and Intersectionality”.
The seminar
The topic of gender justice must begin with the inevitable question: what gender is justice? Linda R. Hirshman asks, “Is the law male?” Hirshman’s question points out how the “maleness” of the legal system affects every woman.
Prof. Pan’s lecture will focus on gender justice through the lens of intersectionality to emphasize the necessity of recognizing the interconnectedness as well as differences among categories. Intersectionality challenges traditional notions of justice that treat social categories as separate or distinct.
Instead, it calls for an approach to justice that acknowledges how various systems of oppression (e.g., sexism, casteism, classism) intersect and compound one another. Achieving gender justice, therefore, requires addressing these interconnected forms of oppression holistically.
About the speaker
Anandita Pan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Liberal Arts, IIT Hyderabad. Her areas of interest are Feminist theory, Gender Studies, and Dalit Feminism. She is the author of Mapping Dalit Feminism: Towards An Intersectional Standpoint (Sage-Stree, 2020) and Aesthetics in India: Transitions and Transformations (Orient Blackswan, 2023). She is the recipient of the President’s Award for Best paper at the IAWS conference, 2020.
On Wednesday 27th November, Prof. Seema Chauhan from Trinity College Dublin will be guest of the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies (GCSAS) and will deliver a talk titled “Re-examining the emergence of Jain householders”.
We warmly invite everyone to attend!
The talk will be in person and no prior registration is required.
Location: Camelot 3.30, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent.
We are thrilled to announce that on 26th October 2024 Prof. Eva De Clercq was honoured with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award 2024. The award was presented by the Indian Ambassador to Belgium, Mr Saurabh Kumar, in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to strengthening academic ties between Indian and Belgian institutions in the field of Indian Studies.
The event marked a significant moment in the academic calendar, celebrating not only Prof. De Clercq’s outstanding achievements but also the enduring friendship between India and Belgium.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Prof. De Clercq for this well-deserved recognition and look forward to witnessing her continued impact on the global academic community.
We are glad to announce that the third Ācārya Mahāprajña Annual Lecture will take place on Tuesday October 22nd, from 4:30 pm CET. The wonderful Prof. Dr. Julia Hegewald (University of Bonn) will give a talk titled ‘Sacred Place and Structured Space – Pilgrimage in Jainism’.
Registration for on-campus attendance: https://forms.gle/dDBN8EeVSWjYJ7tj6
Registration for online attendance: https://us06web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_ChbEIKvpQ6-X9tNwJbE5Cg
More information, including the full abstract and bio of the speaker: https://www.jainastudies.ugent.be/annual-lecture/
In collaboration with the University of Birmingham and the Arihanta Institute, the Jaina Studies group at Ghent University is once again co-organiser of the lecture series “Dialogues in European Jain Studies”.
The event series features a variety of topics and methodologies ranging from philosophical, anthropological, historical, philological, and applied approaches to Jain Studies, and more. All the lectures are held online and are intended to be accessible in times zones ranging between Europe, North America, Africa, and India.
The Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies has organised a film screening of ‘The Death of Us’, a documentary on the death penalty in India, followed by a Q&A conversation with the filmmaker Vani Subramanian.
th October 2024 Prof. Eva De Clercq was honoured with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award 2024. The award was presented by the Indian Ambassador to Belgium, Mr Saurabh Kumar, in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to strengthening academic ties between Indian and Belgian institutions in the field of 
