All the times are in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
A PDF copy of the schedule can be found here.
To view an individual abstract, click on the abstract title below the speaker’s name.
Friday, May 27, 2022
The Poetry of Vedāntadeśika
Session Chair: Akshaya Tankha
9:45 AM
Conference and Day Introduction
Steven Wilkinson, Henry R Luce Director, the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies
10:00 AM
Suganya Anandakichenin (University of Hamburg)
À propos Vedānta Deśika’s theological verses in Tamil
10:40 AM
Yigal Bronner (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Lawrence McCrea (Cornell University)
The Celibate Seducer: Vedānta Deśika’s Domestication of Kṛṣṇa’s Sexuality in the Yādavābhyudaya
11:20 AM
Shiv Subramaniam (Columbia University)
Poetry As Vivid Remembering: Fine Literature in the Śrīvaiṣṇava Tradition
12:00 PM
Lunch Break
Śrīvaiṣṇavas and Telugu Poetry
Session Chair: Eben Graves
1:00 PM
Harshita Mruthinti Kamath (Emory University)
Loving and Making Love to God: The Telugu Padams of Tāḷḷapāka Annamayya
1:40 PM
Ilanit Loewy Shacham (Tel Aviv University)
Śrīvaiṣṇavism as Poetic Framework: Perspectives from Kṛṣṇadevarāya’s Āmuktamālyada
2:20 PM
General Q&A Time
Saturday, May 28, 2022
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa in Vernacular Poetry and Classical Poetics
Session Chair: Supriya Gandhi
9:45 AM
Day Introduction
10:00 AM
Kiyokazu Okita (Sophia University)
Scholars Won’t Get It but Devotees Will: A Contested Place of Devotion in the History of Sanskrit Aesthetics
10:40 AM
Swapna Sharma (Yale University)
Vaishnava Literature: Krishna’s Play and Play of Words
11:20 AM
Jack Hawley (Barnard College, Columbia University)
The Literary—and Vaishnava?—Excellence of Surdas
12:00 PM
Lunch Break
The (Self-)construction of Poetry and Poets in Tamil Literature
Session Chair: Sasha Restifo
1:00 PM
Whitney Cox (University of Chicago)
Crossing the Godāvarī: thoughts on ‘translation’ and the Kamparāmāyaṇam
1:40 PM
[POSTPONED]
Archana Venkatesan (University of California, Davis)
Purposeful Poets and Trickster Gods: The Worlds of the Āḻvār Poem
Dr. Abhishek Ghosh will talk about changes in the Journal of Vaishnava Studies (JVS) instead.
2:20 PM
General Q&A Time
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Vaishnavism and Literary Genres: Part One
Session Chair: Abhishek Ghosh
9:45 AM
Day Introduction
10:00 AM
David Buchta (Brown University)
Praising Kṛṣṇa, Not Kings: Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Repurposing of the Virudāvalī Genre
10:40 AM
Aleksandar Uskokov (Yale University)
On the Origins of Allegory in Sanskrit Literature: The Story of Purañjana
11:20 AM
Rembert Lutjeharms (University of Oxford)
Threading Verses: The dual authorship of Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Padyāvalī
12:00 PM
Lunch Break
Gauḍīya Vaishnavism and Literary Genres: Part Two
Session Chair: Aleksandar Uskokov
1:00 PM
Thibaut d’Hubert (University of Chicago)
Brajabuli: Sanskrit and Vernacular Poetics Redefined
1:40 PM
Ishan Chakrabarti (University of Chicago)
The Person of Rāmānanda Rāya: Penetrating Insight in Biographical Memory and Literary History
2:20 PM
General Q&A Time
