Symposium: Rethinking tradition & modernity

This afternoon symposium is curated in partnership with three visiting academics, each of whom is working on a different aspect of religious boundaries.

• Dr Agustina Altman (Universidad de Buenos Aires) is an anthropologist whose research focuses on processes of religious change among the indigenous peoples of the Argentine Chaco.
• Rev Dr Felicity Apaah (University of Ghana) is exploring the traditional authority and spirituality of women chiefs in Ghana, through the case of Nana Kow Ackon V.
• Prof Dr Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha (Institute of Language Studies and Research, Kolkata) is studying pre-modern traditions of cross-cultural dialogue, with reference to Bengali Sufism. 

Programme

12:45 Registration

13:15 Introduction—Joanna Page (Professor of Latin American Studies and Director of CRASSH) & Jörg Haustein (Professor of Global Christianity, Faculty of Divinity)

13:30 Documentary screening: Travelling ethnographers. Research chronicles (Chaco – USA); selected and presented by Agustina Altman.

13:50 Indigenous Christianities as ‘border zones’: shaping modernities in the Argentine Chaco—Agustina Altman 

14:35 Tradition and modernity in Brahmo new dispensation: vernacular interfaith traditions in pre-colonial Bengal—Anindya Sekhar Purkayastha 

15:15 Break

15:45 Harmony in diversity: the spiritual odyssey of a woman king in modern-day Cape Coast, Ghana—Felicity Apaah 

16:30 Reading group session on inter-religious encounters, led by the Fellows. 
Texts will be sent for advance reading to all registrants two weeks before the event.

17:30 Drinks reception

This event is organised in partnership with CRASSH and the Faculty of Divinity as part of World Interfaith Harmony Week.