The Sixth EASAS Academic Workshop – 20 April 2023
Ancient Wisdoms for Modern Times: Analysing Contemporary Challenges through the Lens of Tantra and Shamanism
‘Ancient Wisdoms for Modern Times: Analysing Contemporary Challenges through the Lens of Tantra and Shamanism’ is a workshop organised as part of the EASAS Academic Workshops scheme, in collaboration with the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies and Lyon Catholic University
For detailed information about the workshop please click here
EASAS resumes funding of academic workshops. The call is open now for the proposal of workshops to be held in 2022 or 2023. The workshop must involve more than two EU countries and preferably invite some scholars and post-docs based in South Asia. The workshop can be organized either as the basis for the preparation of papers for publication, or as an event to map out and develop new research projects. Proposals can also include comparative discussion of other parts of the world, as long as there is a strong focus on South Asia. EASAS can support workshops with an amount of up to € 3,000 for on-site events and up to € 1,000 for events planned in an online format.
THE CALL IS NOW CLOSED!
The Call to Universities and Higher Education Institutions to host the 2022/2023 EASAS Doctoral Workshop is now open.
The workshop will give PhD students an opportunity to receive feedback on their theses from senior scholars and fellow PhD candidates who are also working on South Asian topics. In addition, it
will create networks between PhD candidates working on South Asia and help them develop contacts with others. The doctoral workshop is envisaged as a two-day event for a maximum of 16 PhD
candidates and 6 senior scholars based in Europe, to be held at a host European university.
The host university will organize the workshop and arrange board and lodging for students as well as the invited senior scholars. The selection of the host university will be made by the EASAS Council. The EASAS will financially assist with accommodation and board for students and senior scholars at the workshop with a sum up to € 3,000. Participants will have to make their own travel arrangements. In case a host university wants to organize a workshop as an online event, EASAS support funding will be capped at € 1,000. Please note that the EASAS membership is mandatory for all participants (join here: https://www.easas.eu/become-a-member/; pay your fees here: https://dashboard.easas.eu/).
THE CALL IS NOW CLOSED!
One of the stated aims of the European Association for South Asian Studies is to encourage and support young scholars working in the field of South Asian Studies. In pursuit of this aim, the Association offered awards linked to its biennial conference. Awards were to be made for the most outstanding papers by currently registered research students presenting at the conference.
SASNET – A Unique National Swedish Research and Information Network
– BY LARS EKLUND
In May
2000, the Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) was created through agrant from
Sida/SAREC and Lund University with the aim to create an institutional base in Sweden
for academic competence building and thematic work on present day South Asia.The
long-term goal was to strengthen the relatively weak academic competence in Sweden in
the field of South Asia. SASNET soon became a successful network, funded by Sida for 10 years and after that by continued Lund University
funding.
Till December 2016, SASNET was a unique feature – a national all-Swedish research and information network, not found elsewhere in the World. However, from January 2017 SASNET was transformed into a local Lund University Research Centre. It still keeps the network name but in reality it is a completely different institution than the ”old” SASNET. This is the story of old SASNET, 2000-2016, the SASNET that was built up by Staffan Lindberg and Lars Eklund in 2001, and within a few years became an internationally highly recognised network connecting all Swedish and Nordic researchers in the field of South Asian Studies.
Please find the complete story of SASNET, 2000-2016, written by Lars Eklund HERE.
In Memoriam
Dietmar Rothermund (1933-2020),
Professor of South Asian History at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (1963-2001),
Chairman of the European Association for South Asian Studies (1997-2008),
Honorary President of the European Association for South Asian Studies (2010-2020)
It is with profound sadness that we announce that Professor Dietmar Rothermund passed away on 9 March 2020. He was an internationally distinguished historian of South Asia who focused on the history of Indian political ideas and Indian economic history.
In the first half of the 1950s, Rothermund studied history and philosophy in Marburg and Munich. A Fulbright fellowship took him to the University of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD in 1959 for a thesis on the social history of America. After completing his studies, he travelled to India in 1960 as a recipient of a German Research Foundation (DFG) scholarship. This journey was decisive for his future research which thereafter centred on India.
Professor Rothermund’s entire academic career was associated with the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg where he worked from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. From there he was awarded his habilitation in 1968 for the monograph Die politische Willensbildung in Indien, 1900–1960 and was soon appointed to the professorship in the history of South Asia. He also directed the Institute for 15 years during several separate terms and succeeded in establishing an international network for research and cooperation.
In 1968, Professor Rothermund was among the founding fathers of the European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies (ECMSAS) that later evolved into the European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS) and gave birth to the European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS). He contributed immensely to the association’s development for more than four decades and served as its first Chairman from 1997 to 2008. Professor Rothermund is especially remembered by EASAS members for his dedication to the cause of promoting South Asian Studies in Europe. In recognition of his decades-long engagement for and representation of South Asian Studies within and beyond academic circles, Dietmar Rothermund was made the – only – honorary life member of EASAS. His inspiration and presence will be sorely missed at future conferences and meetings.
A prolific scholar, in addition to numerous scholarly articles, Professor Rothermund authored many monographs, including Government, Landlord and Peasant in India: Agrarian Relations under British Rule 1865-1935 (1978), An Economic History of India (1993), Mahatma Gandhi: An Essay in Political Biography (1999), India: The Rise of an Asian Giant (2008) and Contemporary India: Political, Economic and Social Developments Since 1947 (2012). His most popular and probably most widely read work, A History of India (originally published in German in 1982), co-written with Hermann Kulke, is well known to students of South Asian Studies across the world as it has appeared in multiple, constantly up-dated editions and has been translated into several languages.
In 1988, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London. His work on the dissemination of knowledge on South Asia saw him recognised by the German government with the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2011) and by the German-Indian Society with the Rabindranath Tagore Culture Prize (2011).
The world-wide community of South Asian scholars has lost one of its most eminent members. He will be remembered as a distinguished professor who put South Asian Studies firmly on the academic map, as a supportive colleague bringing scholars together across Europe, and as an astute and kind human being,
The EASAS Council and Community
Photo: Prof. Dietmar Rothermund at the ECMSAS Conference 2008 in Manchester (courtesy of Lars Eklund).