Srinivas speaking for American Academy of Religion

Tulasi Srinivas, associate professor and director of faculty development for the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, has been invited to be the keynote speaker at the New England meetings of the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting.

Held at Boston College School of Theology on March 21, the meeting is expected to draw students and faculty from all over the Eastern seaboard. Srinivas’ speech is titled, “The Wonder and Study of Religion.”

The American Academy of Religion is a national body of approximately 9,000 members.

The group’s mission states, “In a world where religion plays so central a role in social, political, and economic events, as well as in the lives of communities and individuals, there is a critical need for ongoing reflection upon and understanding of religious traditions, issues, questions, and values.”

Srinivas said she is “delighted and honored” to speak at the meetings and to promote the idea of such reflection.

Below is a description of her lecture:

“What is the place of wonder in religion and in the study of religion? How do we think about wonderment and its companionate forms of mystery and awe? How can we use the understanding of wonder to better rethink the contemporary study of religion?

“Tulasi Srinivas will share some insights from her 15 year ethnography of wonderment and ritual creativity in the city of Bangalore, India, to reflect upon the problems and promise of the study of religion in the contemporary moment. Following a long critical intellectual tradition within religious studies, Srinivas will interrogate the very concept of religion. But in a twinned consideration she will build upon this established interrogation to ask how scholars of religious studies might better consider the pursuit of knowledge through a focus on wonderment.”