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Tagged: India

Book Reviews & Exhibitions / Case Studies / Concepts & Theory / Personal Reflections / Talks & Papers

Reflections on the Globality of Religion and Urbanity

Since 2018, the ‘Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations’ (FOR 2779) research group within the Max-Weber-Kolleg of Universität Erfurt has hosted over 100 fellows from all over the world to investigate how these two concepts intertwined with one another in more than 80 cities across space and time in Europe, the circum-Mediterranean, and South Asia. After 8 years, the research group has entered its final phase and has invited all former fellows and members back to Erfurt to take stock…

Case Studies / Personal Reflections / South Asia

Kalimpong as Tibet’s Penumbra: Shangri-la, Lhasa, Delhi and Beijing

My interest in writing the hook-ups between the Chinese, Tibetan and Indian towns/cities was to map out the exchanges— politico-historical as well as socio-cultural— between them. Setting up my theodolite, taking measurements as it were,  Kalimpong the border town offered a unique vantage point in the eastern Himalayas…

Announcements / Case Studies / Personal Reflections / Talks & Papers

Summer School Report: Performing Religion in the City – Urban Spaces, Interactions and Media

Amidst the plastered narrow alleys of Erfurt’s city centre, fittingly emblematic, it was a piece of light-coloured sandstone that inaugurated the Summer School Performing Religion in the City. Placed on the seminar tables of Erfurt’s International Meeting Centre by co-convenor Isabella Schwaderer, the stone fragments represented the material grounding of Erfurt as a city and its religious life. Retrieved from a ridge close to Gotha, the stone was used to build Erfurt’s landmark, the Erfurt Cathedral, and thereby, symbolically, foreshadowed the Summer School’s theme…

Announcements / Case Studies / Personal Reflections / Talks & Papers

Conference Report: KFG Annual Conference “Making Boundaries”

While the topic of boundaries has received considerable scholarly attention, this conference focussed on the dynamic processes of making, maintaining and modifying or crossing boundaries and brought together scholars from various disciplines discussing case studies from Europe, the Mediterranean and South Asia from Antiquity to today…

Case Studies / Concepts & Theory / Personal Reflections / Talks & Papers

Conference Report: Necrogeographies of the Marginal Dead

Dealing with the dead and death is a topic that attracts scholars of every period. The universal question of transitioning from one state-of-being into the other represents a basic process applicable to every human being. As we all die one day and become part of the dead, their whereabouts and treatment will eventually affect every one of us. That is why this conference’s topic Necrogeographies of the Marginal Dead has a natural attraction to it because all of us will die one day and join the ranks of the dead…

Announcements / Book Reviews & Exhibitions / Case Studies / South Asia

Book release of Accessing Water by Sara Keller

After the workshop organised in 2021 at the Augustinerkloster in Erfurt, Sara Keller edited a volume entitled Accessing Water in the South Asian City. The book published by Primus and released this August contains an introduction by Sara Keller and 9 chapters in a broad range of disciplines by Julia A.B. Hegewald, Julia Shaw, Jutta Jain-Neubauer, Nicolas Morelle, Padma Sunder Joshi, Prakhar Vidyarthi, Akil Amiraly, Heather O’Leary and Laura Verdelli…

Announcements / Case Studies / Concepts & Theory

2025 Entries in “Religion & Urbanity Online”

In 2025, there were 16 new entries in the database “Religion and Urbanity Online” so far. They cover the time span from antiquity to modernity, cities as different as Aleppo, Singapore and Sens, and approach religion and urbanity from a range of disciplines, including history, anthropology, literature studies and the history of religions. Enjoy reading!

Case Studies / Hindi Translations / Personal Reflections / South Asia

कालीकट की सड़कों पर चलते हुए (I)

जैसा कि इस ब्लॉग के पाठक पहले से जानते हैं, मैं  अक्सर कालीकट आती रहती हूं। शहर का आधिकारिक नाम “कोष़िकोड” है (मलयालम में: കോഴിക്കോട്), लेकिन इस शब्द का यूरोप वालों के लिए उच्चारण करना कठिन है, इसलिए हम इसे कालीकट ही कहेंगे। कहा जाता है कि अरब व्यापारियों ने इसे यह नाम (क़ालिक़ूट) दिया था।

Announcements / Europe / Interviews / Personal Reflections / South Asia / Talks & Papers

Indo-German Exchanges in Religion and Aesthetics: Insights from Dr. Isabella Schwaderer

This interview marks the beginning of a series in which Ahmad Ali will be engaging with scholars working on India at the Max-Weber-Kolleg. He is a student of Religionswissenschaft at the University of Erfurt, currently working on the project “Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations”.