Conference on the Study of Religions of
India
Conference on the Study of Religions of India
The next meeting of the Conference on the Study of Religions of India (CSRI) is tentatively scheduled for Summer 2028 in Toronto.
The CSRI held its last meeting at the University of California, Davis, June 25-28, 2026. The conference theme was “Decoration and Adornment.” Plans for a published collection of the papers from that conference are underway.
At that meeting there were 30 scholarly presentations representing a range of disciplinary and methodological approaches to decorative and elaborative practices—visual, verbal, lyrical, and other—representing diverse religious traditions and communities of India and its diasporas. Specific topics included visual ornamentation of deities, worship spaces, and religious bodies; poetic adornment and rhetorical flourish in religious texts; sartorial creativity and excess; commentarial texts and practices; rhetorical and argumentative extravagance; modes of aesthetic perception; ritual accoutrement and accessory; argumentative excess; and the stylistic flourish.
Many thanks to our conference host at Davis, Archana Venkatesan, and the staff and faculty who who made this meeting possible.
Please send all questions to CSRI Executive Committee Chair Brian Pennington at bpennington4@elon.edu.
The Conference on the Study of Religions of India (CSRI) is a forum of exchange for scholars engaged in the academic study of the religious traditions of India in both native and diasporic contexts. It provides scholars a leisurely, collegial environment in which to present their work in person. Emphasis will be placed on informality among peers. Committed to critical and creative inquiry, the conference is not an advocacy forum for the religions of India and does not endorse or proscribe a particular point of view. Scholars with terminal degrees in Religious Studies or related academic disciplines (like Anthropology, Art, Ethnomusicology, History, Philosophy, Theology, and Gender/Women’s Studies) researching and/or teaching in the area of religions of India are eligible to present, attend, and participate in the conference. Graduate students in any of these disciplines are also warmly welcomed to present and participate in the conference.
For over 50 years, a vital space for intellectual community and scholarly exchange.
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