4-5 October 2008, Cornell University
Organized by Rochester University, Syracuse University, and Cornell University
Long before the beginning of European expansion in the sixteenth century, the Indian Ocean constituted a cosmopolitan arena within which traders, religious scholars and mystics affiliated with different world religions circulated with minimal friction. Recent work by authors such as Bose and Ho have shown that the peoples of the area continued to circulate even during the period of high colonialism when most shipping was controlled by European powers. The purpose of this conference is to explore expanding and contracting translocal connections within the Indian Ocean arena from the 18th century to the present day. What were, and are, the conditions leading to more and less cosmopolitan or parochial religious practices in the region? How do we write histories of the varied, and sometimes competitive, visions of collective belonging oriented by religion that shaped, and were shaped by, Indian Ocean flows? We invite papers to address these questions by focusing particularly on local sites and arenas within which the character of translocal processes becomes visible. Such arenas include: educational institutions, points of contact between religious specialists and devotees, pilgrimage sites, and spaces in which ruling power (or the aspiration to rule) is performed in a religious idiom.
All those attending the conference are expected to read the papers in advance as full papers will not be read by participants. To request papers and confirm your attendance please contact Bernardo Brown at beb66@cornell.edu