North American Hinduism Unit and South Asian Religions Unit

Domesticity, Motherhood, Embodiment

Contact: Aarti Patel (apatel10@syr.edu)

This panel seeks papers that explore the intersections of homemaking, pregnancy, and/or motherhood with South Asian religious traditions in the United States. Papers might address questions and the discourse around access to particular kinds of pre-and post-natal (health)care while considering the context of South Asian conceptions of maternal- and child- care, traditions, rituals, and/or beliefs more broadly.

Queerness and Queering in South Asian and Hindu Religions (Texts, Traditions, and Spaces)

Contact: Prathik Murali (prathikmurali@ufl.edu) and/or Arun Brahmbatt (abrahmbhatt@stlawu.edu) 

This panel aims to explore a range of ways in which Queering manifests and Queerness is expressed and experienced South Asian Religions (Texts, Traditions, and Spaces).

Pedagogical Strategies for Teaching Caste and Casteism in North American Contexts

Contact: Shreya Mani (sm820@duke.edu)

This roundtable seeks to explore the ways caste can be taught in South Asian religions and Hinduism courses at the university level. We seek panelists who consider how to center the perspectives and lived experiences of caste-oppressed groups within the teaching of traditions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Buddhism, and other South Asian religions. Potential topics include: how to teach Hindu canonical texts equitably, caste as a heuristic for understanding South Asian religious traditions and cultures, media representations of caste as a teaching tool, etc. We welcome papers that consider caste equity broadly within South Asian traditions in the context of North American pedagogy on South Asian religious traditions.