The Institute for South Asia Studies, the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, the Townsend Center for the Humanities, the Catherine and William L. Magistretti Chair in South and Southeast Asian Studies, the Center for Buddhist Studies, and the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion are very pleased to invite you to a day-long conference on Jain studies titled:
 A Symposium in honor of Prof. Padmanabh Jaini's 90th BirthdayThe Study of JainismSaturday, October 26, 2013 |
The symposium brings together a select group of leading experts of Jainism from Europe and the US who work in different arenas of Jain Studies and represent different disciplines, including textual studies, anthropology, history, and art history. They will present papers on different aspects of Jainism drawing upon their current research. In this way the current state of Jain Studies will be brought to bear in its disciplinary breadth. This is to allow for discussions on past accomplishments and also the challenges and the new directions that may be envisaged for this important and still rather neglected field of study.
The symposium is organized in honor of Prof. Padmanabh Jaini who has pioneered the study of Jainism in the English speaking world. His "The Jaina path of purification" (first published in 1979) has brought the study and knowledge of Jainism to a broader English speaking public, and his numerous further publications—such as his book "Gender and salvation: Jaina debates on the spiritual liberation of women" (1991) and his "Collected papers on Jaina studies" (2000)—have made him one of the leading scholars in this field. Even as he is about to become a nonagenarian he continues to work and publish at the forefront of Jain Studies, and will also present himself.
The international panoply of speakers includes:
- Prof. John Cort, Director of Denison University Department of Religion
- Prof. Paul Dundas, Reader in Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh
- Dr. Peter Flügel, Chair of the Centre for Jaina Studies at SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Phyllis Granoff, Religious Studies, Yale University
- Prof. Padmanabh Jaini, Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley
- Prof. Robert Goldman, Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley
- Prof. Olle Qvarnström, Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University
- Prof. Alexander von Rospatt, Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley
- Dr. Kristi Wiley, Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley
