51st Annual Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions

We are pleased to share notice of the 51st Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, which will take place at the Faculty of Divinity in Cambridge. Registration is required and can be done via Eventbrite (see Sign up link above). 

Dr Ankur Barua (Cambridge) and Prof Dr Monica Juneja (Heidelberg) will deliver keynote lectures at this two-day symposium.

Cambridge students are exempt from registration fees (excepting the optional dinner), but should still visit Eventbrite to reserve a space. 

From the organisers

As the Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions moves into its fifty-first rendition, and turns a new corner, we would like to take this opportunity to examine the state of the field of Indian Religions, to see where boundaries are, and where the field might go next.

Questioning a boundary makes one aware of what that boundary is, what purpose it serves, and what it seeks to keep in, and to keep out. Ancient texts, such as the Upaniṣads and the Tripiṭaka, have explored the lines between the perishable and imperishable, the material and immaterial, dhārmika and adhārmika, right and wrong, true and false. Limits are negotiated, policed, contested, and crossed, not only in philosophical, ritual and legal texts, but also in literature, art, performance and even architecture. Boundaries become fluid, and status quos are challenged as ideas, methods and thoughts are applied and re-applied in new contexts.

The scholarly field of Indian Religions has examined the role of boundaries and limits. More recently, scholarship has focused on boundaries of the global north and south, the human and the ecological, and boundaries of religious traditions. We have also seen work that challenges disciplinary boundaries and methodological approaches, and also involves interlocutors, artists, filmmakers and the public.

Where can the field go next? How can and do scholars interact with the digital, the material, and the global? What new approaches may they use? What should the 2025 scholar of Indology and/or Indian Religions be aware of, and what other places can the modern scholar learn from? How can the field become more equitable and open to new approaches and methods? How can the study of Indian Religions maintain its relevancy in a time and place where the Humanities are increasingly under threat? And how can the study of Indian Religions help us deal with the problems of today such as isolation, extremism, post-truthism, intolerance and climate change?

Background

Each year, the Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions invites papers from established academics and a new generation of rising scholars who share a concern for informed and critical study of religion. The Symposium has a dedicated website, journal and member networks. Launched in Cambridge in 1975 with the financial support of the Spalding Trust, the Symposium has been an annual event ever since. 

The 2026 organiser team is comprised of Hershini Soneji (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge), Kush Depala (South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg) and Saran Suebsantiwongse (Leiden University).