The Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap is a member of the ‘Education about Religion & Beliefs’ Network of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. recent news items<< view old news items
On the 29th of August 2010, the Kannada translation of Prof. S N Balagangadhara's book, "The Heathen in his Blindness"...Asia, West and the Dynamic of Religion (1994) was released by the Centre for the Study of Local Cultures (CSLC) at the Kannada Sahitya Parishat in Bangalore. The book titled 'Smriti, Vismriti: Bhaarateeya Samskruti', was translated by Dr. Rajaram Hegde.
Speakers:
Doctoral defense: 2 April 2010, Het Pand, Onderbergen 1, 9000 Gent
The Research Centre organizes a panel 'Is there a religious-secular divide in the Indian traditions?' at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 25-28 March 2010.
Papers and participants:
Newly published by Routledge, January 2010
Prof. Balu gives a talk on 'The Secular and the Religious Distinction: The Dark Side of the Secular'
3th Antwerp Indian Film Festival
lecture by Professor Balu on 'being an Indian abroad', 26 november, 7pm.
The Research Centre organizes a panel 'The European Experience and the Concept of Religion' at the 9th annual conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR), Messina, Italy, 14-17 September 2009. The session is held on 15 September, at 9 a.m.
Papers and participants:
Vishweshwar Bhat, “Vi.Vi.Ge Kulapatiye Shaapavaadare Uddhaara Maaduvavaraadaru Yaaru?” (“If The Vice-Chancellor Ruins The University, Who Will Save It?”) Vijaya Karnataka, 13 August 2009, section: noorentumaatu.. read
the article
The Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap is a member of the ‘Education about Religion & Beliefs’ Network of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.
Workshop on 'What are the consequences of particular religious-secular distinctions?'
Organised by Trevor Stack and Timothy Fitzgerald in Aberdeen.
Professor Balu speaks on 'The Dark Side of Secularism'.
25-26 June 2009
Symposium 'Identity and Participation: Cross Cultural and Muslim Youth in Europe'
Professor Balu has been invited to participate in the workshop 'Pluralism and Cross Cultural Identity: Developing a New European Narrative'.
29-30 June 2009
Forthcoming: edited volume, published by Routledge
Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism
Edited by Esther Bloch, Marianne Keppens, Rajaram Hegde
Series: Routledge South Asian Religion Series
Publication Date: 01/12/2009
>> More information and possibility of ordering the book
18-19 January 2009: 4th Dharma and Ethics conference: 'Rethinking Political Thought in Modern India'
Read
more about Dharma & Ethics or listen to the audio recording of Balu's talk on Ambedkar, Gandhi and social justice
10-13 January 2009: Rethinking Religion in India II: ‘Rethinking Secularism’
Read
more about Rethinking Religion in India
>> The Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap publishes in the press
Professor Balu in Ter Zake (Canvas, Belgian television, 27/11/2008) about the assaults in Mumbai.
OLD NEWS ITEMS view recent news items
08/06/2009: Professor Balu speaks on India at the The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.
05/06/2009: Prof. Balu speaks on Doing Development Research in Asia: Problems and Perspectives at the meeting on "Evaluation of Development Research", organised by the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences.
Workshop 'India Intensive: Business Development', in collaboration with VOKA Oost-Vlaanderen
1-3 November 2008: The Research Centre organizes a panel at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Chicago, under the auspices of the “Law, Religion And Culture Group,” in the context of the “Religion and Colonialism Consultation.”
Theme: Colonial Secularism, Religious Fundamentalism and the Codification of Law in South Asia. Presentations by S.N. Balagangadhara, Jakob De Roover and Sarah Claerhout. Welcome to session A2-320, Sunday - 5:00 pm-6:30 pm, CHT-Boulevard C, Chicago.
3-12 November 2008: Royal visit of the King and the Queen of the Belgians to India. Prof. Balagangadhara has been invited to join the academic delegation. Ghent University makes use of this unique occasion to ratify its long-standing collaboration with Karnataka by signing a consortium agreement between Ghent University and Universities in the state of Karnataka.
7-11 September 2008, Brno, Czech Republic - The Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap organises two special 'Rethinking Religion in India' panels at the 8th conference of the EASR (The European Association for the Study of Religions): "Rethinking Religion in India: Socio-Political Predicaments," and "Rethinking Religion in India: Historical and Methodological Issues." More information can be found here or download the panel and paper proposals.
Special seminar: 'Why Rethinking Religion in India?'
15 August 2008, London, organised by the Sikh Human Rights Group - with a lecture by Dr. Jakob De Roover, a respondent discussion forum led by Prof. Gurharpal Singh (University of Birmingham), followed by a public discussion .
From 17.00h till 19.00h At Norwoord Hall, Khalsa School (Norwood Green Road, Southall - UB2 4LA) Contact: SHRG 0208 840 3222 or email shrg@shrg.net
Interview with Jakob De Roover, 22 june 2008, RTE, Irish Radio
10 June 2008 - Nele de Gersem talks at a Special Business Meeting, GiVi Services & Training (What to Learn from India). The talk will focus on management stereotypes on India. Tuesday 10 June, 13h30 to 16h30. GiVi Services & Training, Uitbreidingstraat 66, 2600 Antwerpen, Belgium. Download Invitation.
May 2008 - Asia-Link DEVHAS Conference: Europe and South Asia – Going Beyond the Stereotypes, in Belgium (Ghent). The Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (Ghent University, Belgium) invites a broad academic and non-academic public for a 3-days conference in Ghent (May 7-10). The Asia-Link DEVHAS Conference will focus on the problem of stereotyping and cultural differences, which European representatives from the political sector, the business community, the educational sector, the NGOs and the media face when cooperating with Indian representatives of these sectors, and vice versa. International academic as well as political and business experts will be invited to give lectures about their experiences with these problems. In work sessions the audience will have the opportunity to discuss the topic with some of the experts and the Asia-Link DEVHAS junior researchers and to start a process of writing strategic documents on the topic of European-South Asian stereotyping and cultural differences. Contact: Nele.DeGersem@UGent.be.
>> visit the conference website
26-28 March 2008 - The Research Centre
Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap organises a panel at the BASAS (British Association
for South Asian Studies) 22nd Annual Conference: "The Genealogy of Colonial
Discourse." University of Leicester, UK.
9 March 2008 - Prof. Balagangadhara talks
at the Hindu
Temple of the Woodlands, Houston, Texas, USA: "How to Reflect on
Our Own Experience: Colonial Consciousness and the Indian American Community."
Sunday 9 March, 10.30 to noon. B-102 Montgomery College.
27 February 2008 - Presentation at the
3rd EuroAsian Entrepreneurship and Management Network Conference, on Doing
Research and Educational Business with India, in Amsterdam. "European
- South Asian Stereotypes: EC Asia-Link Events". The presentation links
the hypothesis about stereotypes, developed in the Asia-Link project DEVHAS,
with existing stereotypes in contemporary Indian-European management interaction.
( Abstract )
9th December 2007 - The Hindu publishes an interview with S.N. Balagangadhara on the upcoming conference "Rethinking Religion in India".
30th November 2007 - The University of Lausanne, Switzerland, organises a doctoral workshop in the study of religion. Prof. S.N. Balagangadhara will talk on the future of religious studies: an attempt to specify the questions that religious studies should ask and answer, if it is to have a future. He will suggest that the present state of religious studies makes it impossible to gain any insight into an understanding into traditions elsewhere because of its secularized theological framework. The title: "What should religious studies do, if it is to have a future?"
October 2007 - Prof. S.N. Balagangadhara has been invited to give the opening keynote lecture at the Conference “Various Interpretations of Religions: Methods and History,” Chateau of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czech Republic, 9-11 October 2007. He will give a talk with the title “Should Religious Studies Have a Future, What Should it Do in the 21st Century?”
September 2007 - The Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap organizes a panel session on “Educating the Masses: Reform, Change and Conversion in Colonial India” at the Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions, Plurality and Representation: Religion in Education, Culture and Society (September 23-27, 2007 in Bremen, Germany).
13.08.2007 - The Hindu publishes an article covering the Karnataka Academy for Social Sciences and Humanities. Download here.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung has invited Prof. Dr. S.N. Balagangadhara to participate in and present at the 4th Asia-Europe Dialogue of Cultures: “How do we perceive each other? About some Asian and European stereotypes and prejudices.” Bonn, 2-5 September 2007. The Asia-Europe Dialogue of Cultures connects academics, policy makers, religious scholars, representatives from international institutions and civil society from east and west, to overcome cultural misunderstandings between the different civilizations in Asia and Europe and to deepen mutual understanding. To enable an in-depth discussion of the papers and statements, the conference will be limited to 20 participants. The various papers and contributions to the discussion shall be published at a later stage.