Index Buddhicus at Brill looking for researchers

Brill Academic Publishers is looking for two to four indexers for its new classified bibliography for Buddhist Studies edited in close collaboration with the Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

It is intended that the Index Buddhicus will be the main academic bibliographical reference in the field of Buddhist studies. It will consist of classified bibliographical records for monographs, reviews, chapters in edited volumes, journal articles, reference works, electronic resources, and whatever else is thought relevant in Western language secondary literature.

Supervisor: Richard Mahoney

Workspace: Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany

Requirements:

MA (or higher)-level knowledge of Buddhist studies
The indexers will be appointed on a project basis, but in the longer term a fixed position within the framework of the project is possible. Initial duration: 12 months. Salary is an hourly basis ranging from E 15–E 18. Indexing a sample of articles will be part of the selection procedure.

Official start: December 2013 or January 2014

Deadline for applications: October the 22nd.
Further details are available here:

http://www.ceres.rub.de/en/news/all/en-20131002-job-index-buddhicus/

Please direct all enquires to Prof. Sven Bretfeld, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitaetsstr. 150, FNO 01/176, 44780 Bochum.

sven.bretfeld[at]rub.de

Call for Papers SASA

Why a SASA (South Asian Studies Association) conference? Because the conferences about Asian studies are way too broad and South Asian specialists either don’t participate or come back dissatisfied.  In case you are wondering: Classicists are also invited.

“Philosophy is the only thing alive”. An interview with Aleix Ruiz-Falqués (part 2)

Aleix Ruiz-Falqués (his blog is here) studies (in Cambridge) Pāli Grammatical Literature written in Burma. He is an engaged scholar and one who is not shy to get involved in controversies about ideas. You can read the first part of this interview here. This time I will be asking him more general (and more provocative) questions.

EF: In some of your posts (see here and here), you seem to be quite sceptical about Anthropology as applied to Buddhism (i.e., you seem to share the textual-based approach you described in the first part of your interview). You also exhibited some scepticism concerning comparative philosophy and comparatism in general. How do you see interactions with people outside your field? Are they still possible, these premisses notwithstanding?

Philosophers’ Carnival 155

The 155th Philosophers’ Carnival has recently been published!

For those who are new to the Philosophers’ Carnival: Each month (around the 10th) a different blog hosts the Carnival. The blogger selects interesting blog posts about all topics of philosophy (including the philosopher’s profession), based on her own interests and on what has been submitted here (where you can also find the list of all previous editions of the Carnival). Thus, if you want to see more Sanskrit (etc.) Philosophy featured, be sure to signal interesting blog-posts (either your own ones or someone else’s ones) about it.

On Monday the 23rd and Tuesday the 24th I will host a panel with Philipp Maas at the 32nd DOT in Münster. The panel’s title is:

Adaptive Reuse of Texts, Ideas and Images and it is part of the broader project of rethinking categories such as Authoriality, Originality and Creativity in South Asia. The Coffee Break Meeting in December 2012 in Rome (and the volume of essays which will be published soon in the Journal of Indian Philosophy) have investigated the form of textual reuse (literality of quotations, acknowledgement of reuse, marks of reuse and the like), while independently a 2012 conference in Matsumoto (and the proceeding thereof) have focused on the reused “fragments” and the possibility to collect them. This panel goes one step beyond and focuses on the originality implied in each instance of reuse, showing how reuse always adapts a text/an idea/an image to new conditions.

Date: September 23, 2013
Time: 17.00-19.00
Event: Deutscher Orientalisten Tag, Münster
Topic: adaptive reuse
Venue: Fürstenberghaus, F3
Location: Münster
Germany
Public: Public

Group blog on Sanskrit (and) Philosophy

I am firmly convinced that any purpose we might want to achieve within Sanskrit (and) philosophy can only be achieved through a joint effort (alone, we will never be influential enough). Further, working together means more fun:-) This is the foundation of the Coffee Break Project (see here) and I would like it to be the foundation also of a group blog on topics of Sanskrit (and) philosophy. It should work along the lines of other group blogs in the field of (Western) philosophy (see for instance: http://www.newappsblog.com/ or http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/) or of Chinese philosophy, see: http://warpweftandway.com/

Have you written your first manuscript? AIIS BOOK PRIZE

For those who may be working on their first book manuscript, this is a reminder about the AIIS BOOK PRIZE:

In order to promote scholarship in South Asian Studies, the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) announces the award of two prizes each year for the best unpublished book manuscript on an Indian subject, one in the humanities, “The Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize in the Indian Humanities” and one in the social sciences,  “The Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences”. Only junior scholars who have received the PhD within the last eight years (2005 and after)  are eligible. This must be the first book by the author.

A prize committee will determine the yearly winners, though the committee may choose not to award prizes for any year in which worthy submissions are lacking.  The prize will include a subvention of $2500 for the press publishing the manuscript. There is no designated press for publication. Authors are advised to submit their manuscript for publication at the most appropriate press; concurrent submission to multiple presses is recommended. Manuscripts under contract at the time of application are not eligible.

Unrevised dissertations are not accepted. Applicants must demonstrate they have revised the original dissertation.

Manuscripts are due October 1st, with an announcement of the awardees in the winter of 2013-14 . Send TWO copies of your manuscript, postmarked no later than October 1, 2013, to the Publications Committee Chair, Brian Hatcher, Dept of Religion, Tufts University, 314 Eaton Hall, Medford, MA 02144.

Queries can be addressed to brian.hatcher@tufts.edu

 

Please remember that the surest way not to get a prize is just not to participate!

1 year Post-Doc on Buddhism

The Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) of the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University invites applications for a One Year full-time position (Post-doctoral Fellow) in the field of Buddhist Studies, to begin as soon as possible.

 

One Year Post-Doctoral Fellow Position in the NWO Project Buddhism and Social Justice (1.0 fte)

Coffee Break Conference 4: Panel on the Philosophy of Testimony

From Tuesday the 3rd of September to Sunday the 8th I will be in Turin, for the Forth Coffee Break Conference. You can find the program here: orario_CBC_13.

(Additional information can be found on the CBC’s website.)

More in detail, I will be hosting a panel on the Philosophy of Testimony (aka śabdapramāṇa). Beside trying to answer to testimony/śabda-related problems and questions, we will also focus on the possibility to discuss about it in a way which should not take into account the opposition between Western vs. Indian philosophy.  This is hopefully the first attempt of doing “just philosophy” (with no further geographical boundary added). Ideas for the next “just philosophical” panels are always welcome.

(You can find my short .ppt presentation introducing the panel here: Intro.)