Gender and Spiritual Praxis
in Asian Contexts
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Gender and Spiritual Praxis in Asian Contexts,
25-28 September 2006, Lancaster University
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Conference Programme

Provisional programme

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

MONDAY 25 SEPTEMBER

2:00 – 5:00pm
Registration, Tea/Coffee on Arrival, Waterstones Bookstall‡

6:00 – 9:00pm
Dinner hosted by Dr. Hiroko Kawanami

TUESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER

10:00 – 10:30am
Welcome Address with Professor Tony Gattrel, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

10:30 – 11:00am
Morning Coffee

11:00am – 12:30pm
Panel: Childlessness, Widows and Womanhood
Makiko Habazaki (Hokkaido University, Japan) “Customs, Ritual and Tradition in Widows’ Human Rights Movements in Nepal”
Yolanda Van Ede (Amsterdam University, the Netherlands) “Celibacy, Womanhood and Renunciation in Nepal”
Mizuho Matsuo (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan) “Gender, Caste, and Childlessness: Religious Treatment Seeking Behavior in Rural India”

12:30 – 1:30pm
Lunch

1:30 – 3:00pm
Panel: Renunciation, Buddhist Nuns and Feminism
Joanna Cook (Cambridge University, UK) “In what ways do Hagiographic Narratives Create Possibilities for Thai Buddhist Nuns?”
Cristina Bonnet (SOAS, University of London) “Subversive Daughters of the Buddha: The Feminisms of the Burmese Buddhist Nuns”
Noriko Kawahashi (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan) “Re-creating Japanese Buddhist Women”

3:00 – 3:30pm
Afternoon Tea

3:30 – 5:00pm
Panel: Womanhood and Social Norms
Tomiko Yuyama (Seikei University, Japan) “The Confucian Norm and Mother-Child Relation of a Modern Chinese Intellectual: In the Case of a Mother’s Son, ‘Lu Xun’”
Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen (SOAS, University of London, UK) “To what extent do young female Soka Gakkai members’ support for the political party Komeito challenge prevailing norms of females as professional housewives and men as cooperate warriors?”
Yumi Furusawa (Tokyo University, Japan) “Gender and Care and Japanese Spirituality”

5:30 – 7:00pm
Special Session: Michael Yorke, Film Showing and Talk

7:30 – 9:30pm
Dinner: The Golden Dragon, Lancaster City Centre

WEDNESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER

9:00 – 10:30am
Panel: Gender and Religious Change
Santi Rozario & Geoffrey Samuel (Cardiff University, UK) “Gender, Religious Change and Sustainability in Bangladesh”
Monica Lindberg-Falk (Lund University, Sweden) “Gender, Social Engagement and Religious Change in Thailand”
Elizabeth Harris (Birmingham University, UK) “Gender and Social Change in Sri Lanka”

10:30 – 11:00am
Morning Coffee

11:00am – 12:00pm
Panel: Gender and Identity
Meenakshi Thapan (Delhi University, India) “Aspects of Religion and Identity among South Asian Muslim women in Transnational Contexts”
Sukawarsini Djelantik (Parahyangan University, Indonesia) “Gender and Identity amongst Javanese Moslems”

12:00 – 12:45pm
Lunch

1:00 – 5:00pm
Lake District Excursion
to the Market Town of Hawkshead for afternoon tea and scones,
followed by Beatrix Potter’s House at Hill Top, Near Sawrey

5:30 – 7:30pm
Special Interactive Session: “Gender and Spiritual Praxis”: Personal Trajectories
Ursula King (University of Bristol & SOAS, University of London, UK)
Hema Goonatilake (Red Lotus – National Buddhist Organisation for Humanitarian Services)

7:30 – 9:30pm
Dinner

THURSDAY 28 SEPTEMBER

10:00 – 11:00am
Panel: Gender and Spiritual Praxis
Meg Gentes (Independent Scholar, California, USA) “The Miko and the Veliccappatu: context and practice of two female ritual specialists of Japan and India”
Minerva Terrades & Jordia Viñals (the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) “Gender and Deconstruction of Shintô”

11:00 – 11:30am
Morning Coffee

11:30am – 12:30pm
Panel: Biology, Sexuality and Spirituality
David Smith (Lancaster University, UK) “Gender, Biology, and Art: Yoni and Linga in South Asian Tradition”
Masakazu Tanaka (Kyoto University, Japan) “Cult-Like Nature of the Activities of a Japanese Porn Director, Tadashi YOYOGI”

12:30 – 2:30pm
Lunch
Waterstones Bookstall‡

Please Note:
* Ms Ingrid Norbu will be making a radio programme about the Conference for German National Radio, Deutschlandfunk (the programme will be in German).
† Where changes are made, the organising committee will endeavour to restrict alterations in the programme to the same day. However, in the event of more drastic changes, the effected speakers will be informed as soon as possible. We will try to respect speakers’ wishes as far as possible.
‡ Waterstones will be hosting a specialist bookstall in George Fox Foyer on Monday 25 September 3:00 – 5:00 and Thursday 28 September 1:30 – 2:30. Due to staff shortages they are unable to keep the stall staffed at other times. However, if you would like to purchase any books between these dates, the specialist stock will be kept in Waterstones, Alexandra Square, Lancaster University campus.
Discussants available over the course of the weekend include:
Ian Reader, Lancaster University, UK
and Hiroko Kawanami, Lancaster University, UK.


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