The Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies: Scholarly collaborations, interdisciplinary cooperation, and the study of tantra.

The recent publication of The Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies represents the culmination of decades of scholarly interactions and conference participation involving the Tantric Studies units of the AAR, the Society for Tantric Studies, and other organizations. This roundtable will discuss a range of issues concerning the development and fruition of the volume: addressing some of the obstacles to the study of tantra; facilitating scholarly discourse; addressing the problems of category, definition, and origins; and facilitating collaboration between scholars working on different forms of tantra. Instead of employing sectarian, regional, or disciplinary categories, the volume was organized topically. Rather than viewing tantra as a subset of Śaiva, Śākta, Vaiṣṇava, Jain, or Buddhist traditions, the essays demonstrate how tantra can be studied in terms of action, transformation, gender, cosmogony, power, extraordinary beings, art and architecture, language and sound, social dimensions, and history. Participants include the co-editors, editorial assistants, and contributors.