The Sanskrit Dilemma Workshop

This workshop seeks to explore methods and best practices of Sanskrit pedagogy in light of the discussion at the 2022 AAR panel, “The Sanskrit Dilemma.” Having begun a discussion in 2022 about what it means to be a scholar of Sanskrit when Sanskrit is often used to fortify and reproduce configurations of brahminical power, patriarchy, and Orientalism, we now ask how to critically engage with these issues in a concrete and practical way. This workshop will particularly focus on the teaching of Sanskrit language, literature, as well as texts in translation in classrooms in North America, but its outcome will be beneficial to anyone involved in the transmission of Sanskrit-based content at any institution. Through this workshop, we propose to establish the creation of the subfield of Critical Sanskrit Studies.