South Asian Religions and Cultures
Research Focus Group
Conveners
Barbara Holdrege, Religious Studies (holdrege@religion.ucsb.edu)
Gurinder Singh Mann, Global and International Studies
Research Interests of Group
The South Asian Religions and Cultures IHC Research Focus Group is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students from a range of departments across campus whose research interests center on South Asia. The South Asian Religions and Cultures RFG was established in the fall of 2005 and serves as a forum for faculty and graduate students to meet regularly and discuss the participants’ ongoing research projects as well as a range of social, cultural, and religious issues in South Asian studies. The topics that we intend to engage over the coming years include visual culture; ethnography of rituals; diaspora and transnational identities; religious nationalisms; spatial analysis of sacred places, cultural landscapes, and cyberspace; cinema and post-colonial media theory; and race, gender, and identity politics.
Participants
The South Asian Religions and Cultures Research Focus Group draws its membership from UCSB faculty and graduate students whose research interests involve a significant focus on South Asia. The participants represent a range of disciplinary approaches to the study of South Asia, including religious studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, history of art and architecture, film studies, literature, music, linguistics, and Asian American studies.
Faculty
Kum-Kum Bhavnani, Sociology
Jose Cabezon, Religious Studies
Juan Campo, Religious Studies
Magda Campo, Religious Studies
Swati Chattopadhyay, History of Art and Architecture
Carol Genetti, Linguistics
Bishnupriya Ghosh, English
Mary Hancock, Anthropology and History
Gregory Hillis, Religious Studies
Barbara Holdrege, Religious Studies
Mark Juergensmeyer, Sociology and Global and International Studies
Gerald Larson (Emeritus), Religious Studies
Gurinder Singh Mann, Global and International Studies and Religious Studies
Scott Marcus, Music
Bhaskar Sarkar, Film and Media Studies
Stanley Tambiah, Religious Studies
Vesna Wallace, Religious Studies
Catherine Weinberger-Thomas, Religious Studies
David White, Religious Studies
Graduate Students
Partap (Rana) Ajrawat, Religious Studies
Kendall Busse, Religious Studies
Nancy Caplow, Linguistics
Alex Catanese, Religious Studies
Travis Chilcott, Religious Studies
Randi Clary, Religious Studies
David Cooper, Religious Studies
Pawan Deep Kaur Dhillon, Religious Studies
Gayathri Embuldeniya, Anthropology
David Fowler, Religious Studies
Rahuldeep Singh Gill, Religious Studies
Stuart Gray, Political Science
Holly Grether, Religious Studies
Aaron Gross, Religious Studies
Autumn Jacobsen, Religious Studies
Michael Jerryson, Religious Studies
Zachary Johnson, Religious Studies
Shalini Kakar, History of Art and Architecture
Max Katz, Music
Ashish Kumar, Physics
Zoran Lazovic, Religious Studies
Jared Lindahl, Religious Studies
Chloe Martinez, Religious Studies
Nathan McGovern, Religious Studies
Mark McLaughlin, Religious Studies
Daniel Michon, Religious Studies
Alyson Prude, Religious Studies
Nathaniel Rich, Religious Studies
Anandi Salinas, Religious Studies
Kerry San Chirico, Religious Studies
Amandeep Sandhu, Sociology
Justin Scarimbolo, Music
Gibb Schreffler, Music
Greg Seton, Religious Studies
Ami Shah, Religious Studies
Megan Sijapati, Religious Studies
Catherine Tsuji, Religious Studies
Aaron Ullrey, Religious Studies
John Warneke, Anthropology
Justin Weaver, Linguistics
Rob Wallace, English
Fernando Wiroshana, Anthropology
Brian Zeiden, Religious Studies
Events Schedule 2006-2007
Planning Meeting, South Asian Religions and Cultures Research Focus Group
Monday, December 4, 6:00 pm
3041 Humanities and Social Sciences Building
Will Glover, Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
Is There Such a Thing as Sikh Architecture?
Wednesday, February 14, 12:30 pm
1414 Bren Hall
Farina Mir, History, University of Michigan
Fiction as Historical Archive? Reconfiguring Inquiry into India’s Colonial Past
Wednesday, February 14, 3:00 pm
3024 Humanities and Social Sciences Building
Juan Campo, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Between Mecca and Malabar: Pilgrimage in the Formation of Muslim and Hindu Identities in the Indian Ocean Region
Wednesday, February 21, 3:00 pm
3041 Humanities and Social Sciences Building
Inderjit N. Kaur, Sikh Music Heritage Institute, Santa Cruz
What is Sikh Sacred Music? The Nature and Role of Music in Sikh Traditions
Monday, March 5, 12:30 pm
1414 Bren Hall
Scott Marcus, Music, University of California, Santa Barbara
Now “Ladies” Also Sing: Gender Politics in Post-1990 Biraha, A North Indian Folk Music Tradition
Friday, March 9, 3:00 pm
3041 Humanities and Social Sciences Building
Judith M. Brown, History, Balliol College, Oxford University
Britain's Changing Religious Landscape: The Impact of South Asian Migration
Thursday, April 12, 7:00 pm
Founders Room, Westmont College, 955 La Paz Road, Santa Barbara
Erasmus Society Lecture Series, Westmont College
Judith M. Brown, History, Balliol College, Oxford University
South Asian Historiography: Current Trends and Future Trajectories
Friday, April 13, 4:00 pm
Location to Be Announced
Screening of the Bengali Film Herbert, Followed by a Discussion with the Film’s Director, Suman Mukhopadhyay
Tuesday, April 24, 6:00-9:00 pm
1701 Theater Dance
Tracy Pintchman, Religious Studies, Loyola University Chicago
New Voices, New Challenges, and New Opportunities in Hindu Studies
Wednesday, May 9, 3:00 pm
3041 Humanities and Social Sciences Building
Rajkamal Kahlon, IHC Visiting Artist
You Said It Wouldn't Hurt: Revisualizing (South Asian)
History through the Grotesque
Wednesday, May 16, 4:00 pm
3041 Humanities and Social Sciences Building
