Faculty News
Jason Neelis
visited Singapore in February, where he presented a paper on "Economic Networks of Long-distance Transmission of Buddhism in South and Central Asian Transit Zones" for a conference on Buddhism Across Asia. In March he was the program chair for the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he presented a paper on "Saka Networks of Religious Patronage." He has received a research fellowship to participate in a project on "Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe" from the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany (www.ikgf-religions.de), where he will be on leave from late April through next year (2009-2010).
Robert Kawashima
co-edited a Festschrift, to which he contributed a chapter as well, that was recently published: Phantom Sentences: Essays in Linguistics and Literature Presented to Ann Banfield (co-edited with Gilles Philippe and Thelma Sowley), Bern, Peter Lang, 2008. Dr. Kawashima also spoke at two conferences on linguistics and literature over the spring and summer, in Paris and Berkeley.
Roman Loimeier
visited Norway in September, to give a talk titled “What is reform? The dynamics of Islamic reform in Africa,” at the annual meeting of the Nordic Network on Islam in Africa in Bergen.
Vasudha Narayanan
published “‘With the earth as a lamp and the sun as the flame’ Lighting Devotion in South India” in the International Journal of Hindu Studies (Springer Verlag). In July, she presented a keynote address “Constructing the cosmos, creating communities: Hindu temples from Angkor to Atlanta” for the conference on The Public Representation of a Religion called Hinduism, European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies, held at the University of Manchester. In the fall, she gave talks at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Rutgers University; Miami University, Ohio; and James Madison University, Virginia. In December, she gave a talk on the relationship between Kanchipuram and Kambuja (Cambodia) at the Prakriti Foundation, Chennai, India.
Jason Neelis
has published several journal articles on his work on early Buddhist manuscripts. Dr. Neelis also gave a presentation in June on “Domestication of Gandharan Avadanas in British Library Kharosthi Manuscripts” for a panel on Gandharan Manuscripts and Gandharan Buddhism at the 15th Conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies held in Atlanta.
Anna Peterson and Manuel Vásquez
have published Latin American Religions: Histories and Documents in Context (New York University Press, 2008). Dr. Peterson is also a co-principal investigator (PI) on a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop curriculum and teaching materials on the ethics of sustainability, directed by Dr. Charles Kibert of the College of Building Design & Construction.
Mario Poceski
has published an article in the Journal of Chinese Religions, titled “Lay Models of Engagement with Chan Teachings and Practices among the Literati in Mid-Tang China.” He is presently working on a new book, the Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism, which will be published by Blackwell. Dr. Poceski also gave an invited lecture at the University of Oslo on “Monastic and Lay Practices in Classical Chan (Zen) Buddhism” in September. Also in Norway, Dr. Poceski presented a paper at the International Conference on Zen Texts as Public Documents, on the topic of “Popular Remembrances and Literary Transfigurations of the Great Chan Teachers from the Tang Era.”
Whitney Sanford
discussed her recently published book Singing Krishna: Sound Becomes Sight in Paramanand’s Poetry (SUNY, 2008) at Goering’s Book Center in Gainesville on October 29, 2008. Dr. Sanford traveled to Adelaide, Australia to participate in a conference on “Globalising Religion and Culture in the Asia Pacific” in December 2008. She also presented at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in Chicago. Dr. Sanford also recently received a grant from the American Academy of Religion for her new project, “Gandhi’s Environmental Legacy: Food Democracy and Social Movements.” Along with two of our graduate students, Shreena Gandhi and Michael Gressett, Dr. Sanford served on a (nearly) all-Gator panel at the Conference for the Study of Religion in India in September at Marville College in Tennessee.
Zoharah Simmons
has published two articles: “Martin Luther King Revisited: A Black Power Feminist Pays Homage to the King,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (November 2008) and “From Muslims in America to American Muslims,” Journal of Islamic Law & Culture (Winter 2008–2009).
Travis Smith
presented a paper at an international conference on “Transformation and Transfer of Tantra/Tantrism in Asia and Beyond” in Berlin in December.
Manuel Vásquez
published an article on transnational religious networks in Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. In early Spring 2009, Rutgers University Press is publishing his co-edited volume titled To Take Place, which is based on research on the religious lives of new Latino immigrants in Florida.
Robin Wright
Robin Wright’s new book:
Native Christians: Modes and Effects of Christianity among
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Edited by Aparecida Vilaça, Museu Nacional, Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil and Robin M Wright, University
of Florida, USA
Vitality of Indigenous Religions Series
February 2009
Native Christians reflects on the modes and effects of Christianity among indigenous peoples of the Americas drawing on comparative analysis of ethnographic and historical cases. Christianity in this region has been part of the process of conquest and domination, through the association usually made between civilizing and converting. While Catholic missions have emphasized the 'civilizing' process, teaching the Indians the skills which they were expected to exercise within the context of a new societal model, the Protestants have centered their work on promoting a deep internal change, or 'conversion', based on the recognition of God's existence.
Various ethnologists and scholars of indigenous societies have focused their interest on understanding the nature of the transformations produced by the adoption of Christianity. The contributors in this volume take native thought as the starting point, looking at the need to relativise these transformations. Each author examines different ethnographic cases throughout the Americas, both historical and contemporary, enabling the reader to understand the indigenous points of view in the processes of adoption and transformation of new practices, objects, ideas and values.
Robin Wright edits special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture on the theme of "The Religious Lives of Amazonian Plants."
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Volume 3 number 1 March 2009
Special Issue
"The Religious Lives of Amazonian Plants"
Guest Edited by Robin M. Wright
Recently, Dr. Wright was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Shamanic Studies which will be used to create a center for the revitalization of shamanic knowledge in the Northwest Amazon, Brazil. It also includes the award of an annual stipend for the last true shaman among the Baniwa peoples.
