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AAR/SBL 1996 Annual Meeting
November 23-26, New Orleans, LA

For Information regarding hotels, etc., call: 404/727-2343 or e-mail:

For tapes of RISA and other AAR Annual Meeting sessions, contact: ACTS Inc.

Program of the Religion in South Asia Section, 1996 Annual Meeting

1. Sat. Nov. 23, 3:45-6:15 pm

Mary McGee, Columbia University, Presiding

Theme: Whose Veda? Revelation and Authority in South Asian Religions

Frederick M. Smith, University of Iowa
The Veda, the Construction of Knowledge, and Dark Matter

James L. Fitzgerald, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The Veda in the 'Fifth Veda' of Vyasa's Mahabharata

Philip Lutgendorf, University of Iowa
"Vedacization" Revisited

M. Thomas Thangaraj, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
The Veda-Agama in Tamil Christianity

Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida
The Veda in Tamil Islamic Literature

Respondent: Francis X. Clooney, Boston College

2. Sun. Nov. 24, 3:45-5:45 pm

Robert D. Baird, School of Religion, University of Iowa, Presiding

Theme: "Man" and "Woman": The Conceptualization of Gender Roles in India

Robert N. Minor, University of Kansas
"Being a Man" in Early Indian Texts

Robert Menzies, School of Religion, University of Iowa
Inside-Out and Outside-In: The Formation of Role and Identity in Vrat Katha

Tracy Pintchman, Loyola University of Chicago
Talking About Men: What Patterns of Ritual Participation Tell Hindu Women About the Inherent Nature of Males

Tracy Coleman, Brown University
Sahajiya Theory, Sahajiya Practice: Gender and Ritualization of Erotic Activity Among the Vaisnava-Sahajiyas of Bengal

Respondent: Kay K. Jordan, Radford University

5:45-6:15 pm: Business Meeting

Kathleen M. Erndl, Florida State University and Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University, Presiding

3. Mon. Nov. 25, 9:00-11:30 am

Paul Courtright, Emory University, Presiding

Theme: From Baboos, Bohras and Banyas to Bureaucrats and Businessmen: The Middle Classes and the Building of Modern Religion/s in South Asia

David L. Haberman, Indiana University
Enough Moksha! Constructions of "Middle-Class Hinduism"

Arthur F. Buehler, Colgate University
Jama'at Ali Shah Middle-Class Sufism in British Colonial India and the Mediating Shaykh

Joanne Punzo Waghorne, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Middle Classes and Modern Temples: The Vitality of Hybridization

Karen Pechliss Prentiss, Drew University
Middle-Class Multiculturalism in Madras

Roxanne Poorman Gupta, Cornell University
Sri Sarveshwari Samooh: Sakti at the Service of the Emerging Middle Class

Respondent: Daniel Gold, Cornell University

4. Mon. Nov. 25, 1:00-3:30 pm [Co-sponsored by Women and Religion Section]

Cynthia Ann Humes, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont Graduate School, Presiding

Theme: Methodology and Hindu Goddess Worship: Linking Feminist Theory and Indology

Panelists:

Laurie L. Patton, Bard College
Leslie C. Orr, Concordia University
William Sax, University of Canterbury
June McDaniel, College of Charleston
Rachel Fell McDermott, Barnard College, Columbia University
Rita M. Gross, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
John S. Hawley, Barnard College, Columbia University
Donna M. Wulff, Brown University

5. Mon. Nov. 25, 3:45-6:15

Steven P. Hopkins, Swarthmore College, Presiding

Theme: Presences and Absences in South Indian Devotional Traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain

Denise Marie Hanusek, Harvard Divinity School
The Presence of the Lord and the Presence of the Acarya: A Contrast

Ginni Ishimatsu, University of Denver
Becoming and Adoring God in Saiva Siddhanta Ritual

Anne E. Monius, Harvard University
Devotion to the Great Sage Absent and Present in Tamil Buddhist Literature

James Ryan, California Institute of Integral Studies
On a Mountain Under a Tree: The Distant Presence of the Arhat in the Civakacintamani

Respondent: John B. Carman, Harvard Divinity School

6. Tues. Nov. 26, 9:00-11:30 AM

Bruce Lawrence, Duke University, Presiding

Theme: Hindu and/or Muslim: Shared and Contested Saints

Carl Ernst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and James W. Laine, Macalester College
A Militant Hindu in Sufi Guise: Ramdas between Marathi and Urdu

Robin Rinehart, Lafayette College
Sufi or Hindu: Claiming Bullhe Shah

Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida
Hindu Landscapes and Islamic Poetry: Revering Shahul Hamid in the Tamil Landscape

Lakshmanam Sabaratnam, Davidson College
Sharing Metaphors between Hindu and Muslim in Tamilnad

Respondent: Tony K. Stewart, North Carolina State University

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