CONFERENCE. God and Consciousness in Indian Traditions (15-17 May 2024): Call for Participation

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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION (online and in-person)

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1st Conference on

GOD AND CONSCIOUSNESS IN INDIAN TRADITIONS 

Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Worcester College, University of Oxford, UK

May 15-17, 2024

Website: https://www.god-and-consciousness.com/oxford-conference

Registration: god.and.consciousness@gmail.com

Deadline: May 07, 2024

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REGISTRATION

To register, send an email to god.and.consciousness@gmail.com, with the subject “Registration at the Oxford Conference” by May 07, 2024. The body of the message should contain the following information: (1) full name, (2) institution/country, and (3) type of attendance (in-person or online). Attendance will be guaranteed on a first come, first served basis.

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THE CONFERENCE

This the first (hybrid) conference of the project “Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions: Towards a Theistic Theory of Consciousness”, hosted by the Brazilian Association for the Philosophy of Religion and supported by funding totaling $260,000 from the John Templeton Foundation.

https://www.god-and-consciousness.com

It is hosted by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and will take place in Worcester College, University of Oxford.

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KEYNOTE TALKS

• God, Consciousness, and Cosmos: Prospects for a Non-illusory Theistic Monism, Timothy O’Connor (Indiana University, USA)
• Of Micropsychism, Memory, and Maheśvara: Utpaladeva on God as the Unifier of Consciousness, Amit Chaturvedi (University of Hong Kong, China)
• Is God Conscious? Reflections on Śākta-Śaiva Ideas of Transcendence and Immanence, Gavin Flood (University of Oxford, UK)
• Karl Christian Friedrich Krause’s Panentheism and the Vedic Traditions, Benedikt Paul Göcke (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany)
• Panpsychism and Divine Embodiment, Joanna Leidenhag (University of Leeds, UK)
• Does and Could Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta concern itself with the Hard Problem of Consciousness? Anand Jayprakash Vaidya (San Jose State University, USA)

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CONTRIBUTED TALKS

• A Bare Theism for a Fully General Comparative Philosophy of Religion, Ravi M. Gupta and Mike Ashfield (Utah State University, USA)
• A Comparative Analysis of Brahman and the Anselmian Being: Exploring Divine Concepts through the Bhagavad Gita, Saheba Saxena (University of Lincoln, UK)
• Advaita Vedānta and the God-World Relation, Thomas Oberle (University of Alberta, Canada)
• Ascending Concepts of God in the Bhagavad-gītā, Ithamar Theodor (Zefat Academic Colege, Israel)
• Between Theism and Atheism: A Jain Paradigm of God, Jinesh R. Sheth (University of Mumbai, India)
• Can the Bhagavad Gītā Explain the Existence of Consciousness? Akshay Gupta (Independent scholar)
• Consciousness, Agency, and Moral Responsibility in Vedānta, Brett Parris (Balliol College, University of Oxford, UK)
• Decombining Perspectives: A Kashmiri Śaivist View of Cosmopsychism, Munema Moiz (University of Toronto, Canada)
• Divine Consciousness as Linguistic Consciousness: The Trika Śaiva adaptation of Bhartṛhari’s levels of language as they relate to divine potency, union, and revelation, Veronica Benjamin (Independent scholar affiliated with Ishvar Parvat Samvidālaya Library, India)
• Gauḍīya Vaisnavism and Personal Identity: A Reductionist Approach, Alan Herberth (Oxford Centre fo Hindu Studies, UK)
• Looking at the Prakṛti-Puruṣa dichotomy through the lens of Feminist Materialism: A Critique of Western Hegemonic Dichotomies and a New Perspective on Dualism, Sarnali Chatterjee (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India)
• Panentheism and the Contradictory God in a Bhedābheda Vedānta Tradition, Ricardo Sousa Silvestre (Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil)
• Śiva’s Creative Pulsation: A Theistic Understanding of Consciousness and Matter, Klara Margareta Agnes Hedling (University of New Mexico, USA)
• The universe as aṁśa of Brahman: Towards a Viśiṣṭādvaitic existence-cosmopsychism, S Siddharth (Sai University, India)
• The Vaiṣṇava Vedānta approach to subjective awareness, Shivanand Sharma (University of Birmingham, UK)

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ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITEE

• Alan Herbert, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, UK (chair)
• Gabriel Reis de Oliveira, Saint Louis University, USA

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SCIENTIFIC COMMITEE

• Ricardo Sousa Silvestre, Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil (chair)
• Yujin Nagasawa, University of Oklahoma, USA
• Monima Chadha, Monash University, Australia
• Swami Medhananda, UCLA and University of Southern California, USA
• Ananya Barua, University of Delhi, India
• Dilip Loundo, University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil