Categorie: Nieuws

This year’s Ācārya Mahāprajña Annual Lecture will be held on Thursday 5 October, from 4:30 pm. It will take place in the Faculty Board Room (Blandijnberg 2), but will also be accessible online (see below for registration).

Our speaker Prof. Dr. Claire Maes (University of Tübingen) will discuss the age-old Jain practice of sallekhanā (a form of end-of-life fasting) in light of contemporary medical and legal frameworks.

 

Beyond Life’s End: Towards an Ethical Evaluation of the Jain Practice of Fasting to Death

In this lecture, I make an ethical argument to consider the Jain practice of fasting to death (known as sallekhanā) as different from suicide. To this end, I bring the Jain fast into conversation with the practice of ‘Voluntarily Stopping of Eating and Drinking’ (VSED), an end-of-life option, available in various countries for competent adults, to hasten the end of life by consciously choosing to not eat and drink. From a medical and legal point of view sallekhanā can be considered a form of VSED. Although differing in terms of intent and historical context, the two practices are similar insofar that they relate to capable and sound individuals who voluntarily forego food and water until death. Showing the critical similarity between VSED and sallekhanā, I argue that the grounds put forward by major medical associations and legal societies to differentiate VSED from suicide are equally applicable to the case of sallekhanā. I contend that the Jain fast needs to be disentangled from the concept of suicide based on the quality of intent, but also because the process is, in theory and for some time at least, reversible, supported by loved ones and members of the larger Jain community, and dependent on the individual’s continuous and prolonged will of renouncing food and water. I also show how medical and legal authorities defend an individual’s right to VSED based on the principles of self-determination, bodily integrity, self-ownership, and respect for persons. I put forward the view to take these ethical principles into account to legally protect a Jain’s right to take the vow of sallekhanā.

 

 

Speaker

Claire Maes studied Indian Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, Belgium, and Indian Philosophy at the University of Mysore in India. She earned her Ph.D. degree in 2015 from Ghent University with a dissertation that examines the influence of Jain thought and practice on the Buddhist monastic community in early India. Soon after, she joined the University of Texas at Austin where she worked for several years at the Asian Studies Department, first as a postdoctoral fellow of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies, and subsequently as a Sanskrit lecturer. Since September 2021, she is an assistant professor at the Department of Indology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her principal research topics are the Jain understandings of what constitutes a good death and the development of the Buddhist monastic community in ancient India.

 

Registration

Register for on-campus attendance: https://event.ugent.be/registration/annuallecture

Register for online attendance: https://event.ugent.be/registration/annuallectureonline

This event will be followed by a small reception.

One more research grant awarded to our department!
Our colleague Charles DiSimone has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant as the Principal Investigator of “Corpora in Greater Gandhāra: Tracing the Development of Buddhist Textuality and Gilgit/Bamiyan Manuscript Networks in the First Millennium of the Common Era”.
Prof DiSimone is a member of SANGH – South India Network Ghent and of GCBS – Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies.
Congratulations, Charles!

From the academic year 2023-2024, our Bachelor of Arts in Oriental Languages and Cultures (India) features a brand new course: Art and Archaeology of South Asia.

For more info on our Bachelor’s degree program, check out the study guides!

As from the academic year 2023-2024, Sara Mondini will be part of our department as a new Assistant Professor of Art and Architecture of West and South Asia. Sara has been awarded an Odysseus Type II grant by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO) for her 5-year project “The Mosques of Kerala: Artistic Vocabularies in the Identity-Building of Muslim Communities”. Welcome, Sara!

In August 2023, Prof. Eva De Clercq, Prof. Tine Vekemans, and our program manager Inge Claerhout travelled to India to define potential collaborations between our Department of Languages and Cultures and new partner institutes in India: Manipal University (MAHE) near Udupi in Karnataka, Somaiya University in Mumbai, FLAME University in Pune, and IIT Jodhpur in Rajasthan.

New opportunities for trainings and exchange programs coming soon!

On 22 June our colleague Aaricia Ponnet successfully defended her PhD with a dissertation titled “Climbing the language tree: multiple case studies on the acquisition of Hindi as a Foreign language”, a groundbreaking study on foreign language learners of Hindi in Europe. Aaricia has a background in Indian Studies and currently works at the Department of Linguistics, Ghent University. Here you can find more details about her latest work.
Congratulations, Aaricia!

Our department welcomes Saarthak Singh as a new member from the academic year 2023-2024! Saarthak has been awarded an FWO postdoc junior fellowship to work on his  project titled “Coexistence, conflict and calamity: entangled worlds of Hinduism and Islam in the heart of India”. Swagatam!

Organized by the Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University
Organizer: Biljana Zrnic
Members of the organizing committee: Imre Bangha, Richard Williams, Dhurjjati Sarma, Ishan Chakrabarti

 

The Department of Languages and Cultures (Ghent University) is organizing the tenth Early Hindi / Braj Bhasha Workshop. The workshop will take place from 15-25 July 2023 on Brijuni (one of the National Parks of Croatia, located near the city of Pula). Leading experts from India, Europe, and America will present and examine with the global readership early modern Hindi texts composed between the 16th and 19th centuries and discuss challenges of interpretation, variations, and other aspects of the texts. Academics and students with a solid foundation in Brajbhasha or another form of early Hindi, and familiarity with essential grammatical terminology in English or Hindi, are welcome to join.

Accommodation:
Bed and breakfast rates for Rooms Karmen on Veliki Brijun:
Shared double room – 54 EUR
Single room – 75 EUR
If you plan to come with your family members:
Double room 2 + 1 (park view) – 107 EUR
Double room 2 + 1 (sea view) – 119 EUR
Optional dinner costs 22 EUR. Meals will be served in the hotel Neptun (situated just next to Rooms Karmen). There are other restaurants nearby.
Rooms Karmen do not have WiFi. For internet access, it is advisable to use the seminar room or buy an internet SIM card.
Arriving to Brijuni:
1. The nearest airport is Pula Airport, located only 13 km from Brijuni. Transfer from the Pula Airport to the hotel (and vice-versa) is free of charge.
2. Another option is to book a flight to Zagreb, then take another flight Zagreb-Pula or take a bus Zagreb-Pula at the central bus station in Zagreb (duration by bus Zagreb-Pula is ca 4 hours). Transfer from Pula central bus station to the hotel (and vice-versa) is free of charge.
3. If arriving from Italy, take a bus Trieste-Pula (duration 2 hours) or a ferry from Venice to Pula (duration ca 3 hours and 30 min).
The island can be reached by the national park boat (duration 15 minutes). For hotel guests, transfer from the island to the coast (and vice-versa) is free of charge for the whole stay.

PROGRAM

 

July 15, Saturday – ARRIVAL

18:00                          Welcome party

 

July 16, Sunday

9:30 – 11:00               Jaroslav Strnad: Kabīr 1^st  

11:30 – 13:00             Biljana Zrnic: Sūrdās 1^st

15:00 – 16:30             Monika Horstmann: Prithīnāth 1^st (hybrid)

 

July 17, Monday

9:30 – 11:00               Jaroslav Strnad: Kabīr 2^nd  

11:30 – 13:00             Biljana Zrnic: Sūrdās 2^nd

15:00 – 16:30             Monika Horstmann: Rajab 2^nd (hybrid)

17:00                          Excursion – Veliki Brijun Tour

 

July 18, Tuesday

9:30 – 11:00               Jaroslav Strnad: Kabīr 3^rd   

11:30 – 13:00             Robin Rinehart: Guru Gobind Singh – Dasam Granth 1^st  

15:00 – 16:30             Monika Horstmann: Rajab 3^rd (hybrid)

 

July 19, Wednesday

 9:30 – 11:00               Heidi Pauwels: Rasik Bihārī and Nāgarīdās 1^st

11:30 – 13:00             Robin Rinehart: Guru Gobind Singh – Dasam Granth 2^nd  

15:00 – 16:30             Imre Bangha: Ālam-keli 1^st (hybrid)

17:00                          Excursion – Pula

 

July 20, Thursday

 9:30 – 11:00               Heidi Pauwels: Rasik Bihārī and Nāgarīdās 2^nd  

11:30 – 13:00             Imre Bangha: Ālam-keli 2^nd      

15:00 -16:30               Dalpat Rajpurohit 1^st (hybrid)

 

July 21, Friday

9:30 – 11:00               Heidi Pauwels: Jānā Begum – Risālah-i Mūsiqī 3^rd  

11:30 – 13:00             Yogesh Pratāp Shekhar: Dev – Bhāv Vilās 1^st   

15:00 – 16:30             Dalpat Rajpurohit 2^nd (hybrid)

17:00                          Excursion by boat around Brijuni

 

July 22, Saturday

9:30 – 11:00               Swapnā Sharma: Gadādhar Bhaṭṭ Padāvalī 1^st

11:30 – 13:00             Yogesh Pratāp Shekhar: Dev – Bhāv Vilās 2^nd  

15:00 – 16:30             Devendra Sharma 1^st (hybrid)

 

July 23, Sunday

9:30 – 11:00               Swapnā Sharma: Gadādhar Bhaṭṭ Padāvalī 2^nd

11:30 – 13:00             Eva De Clercq: Svayambhudev – Paumacariu 1^st

15:00 –16:30              Devendra Sharma 2^nd (hybrid)

17:00                           Excursion – Rovinj

 

July 24, Monday

9:30 – 11:00               Eva De Clercq: Svayambhudev – Paumacariu 2^nd

11:30 – 13:00             Tine Van Overberghe: Bulākīdās – Bhārat Bhāṣā 1^st

15:00 – 16:30             Neha Tiwari: Somnāth – Sujān Vilās 1^st (hybrid)

 

July 25, Tuesday

9:30 – 11:00               Closing session                     

 

Croatia is a member of the Schengen area. The currency in Croatia is the euro.

A 10-40 EUR voluntary donation is suggested to help scholars from India attend the workshop.

Taking screenshots or recording the sessions is not allowed.

To register, send an email to biljana.zrnic@UGent.be

We have a new brochure of our online English master’s track. Students without prior Hindi or Sanskrit courses at university level may now apply through a preparatory programme.

8 March – 17 May 2023, on Wednesdays at 7:30, hybrid or online

In this lecture series, specialists in different aspects of Indian religious and philosophical traditions introduce their innovative research and insights. The lectures deal with different traditions that originated or further developed in the South Asian region (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism) and touch upon historical as well as contemporary developments. Together, these nine talks provide an overview of the unique religious and cultural diversity as well as the depth of philosophical enquiry that typify the South Asian region.

Full programme

Lecture series versus Certificate course

All lectures are offered separately and without evaluation in the lecture series. In this case, you only attend the lectures and you get a certificate of attendance. Registration is required.

If you register for the certificate course, it means you take part in the evaluation and you will obtain a certificate. You can’t choose separate lectures in this case, you always register for the complete programme.

Contact

Questions or problems, please email humanitiesacademie@ugent.be

Organized by South Asia Network Ghent and Humanities Academy