The ISKCON Studies Institute will hold its next conference at Radhadesh (Belgium) from May 22-24, 2015. This year’s conference theme is Devotional Ethics, Community, and Practice in Caitanya Vaisnavism.

The ISKCON Studies Institute Conference 2015 features an outstanding array of academic scholars from around the world. The conference schedule is now finalized and a list of speakers and presentation topics is included below: 

Dr. Kiyokazu Okita (Kyoto University, Japan): When a Royal Pandit is Refuted: Court, Conflict, and Controversy in Eighteenth Century Bengal 

Lucian Wong (University of Oxford, UK): Bhadraloka and Brahmanical Polemics Against Vaisnava Deviance 

Dr. Ricardo Sousa Silvestre (Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Brazil): Some Philosophical Reflections on the Ethical Aspects of the Theory of Karma in the Teachings of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Dr. Kenneth Valpey (Oxford Center for Hindu Studies, UK) / Javier Pera López (University of Wales, UK): Ethical Reflections in ISKCON Autobiographical Writing: The cases of Tamal Krishna Goswami and Satsvarupa Das Goswami

Claire Robison (UC Santa Barbara, USA): The Negotiation of Caste Identities in Pursuing Caitanya Vaisnava Ethics of Service

John Fahy (University of Cambridge, UK): An Ideal Vedic City of Ideal Vaisnava Selves

Dr. Sthita Dhi Muni (University of Florida, USA): ISKCON’s views on science and Vaisnavism: Comparing the 1979 Life Comes from Life project with the archival transcripts of the recorded conversations

Cyril Wohrer (University of California Riverside, USA): Demons in Dhotis, Vaisnavas in Pants: The issue of dress-code in ISKCON

Dr. Rembert Lutjeharms (University of Oxford, UK): How Worms Become Wasps: An exploration of hatred for the divine

Dr. Ravi Gupta (Utah State University, USA): Dialogue or Debate? Lessons from Sri Caitanya’s Encounter with the Qazi of Navadvipa

Huber Robinson (Ricardo Palma University, Peru): Bridging West and East: Carl Jung and the Bhagavata

Dragana Jagusic (University of Leuven, Belgium): The Ethics of Desire, Unity of Love: Transplanting the seeds of bhakti into the Greek-Roman soil 

Christopher Fici (Union Theological Seminary, USA): Caitanya Vaisnavism as Liberation Theology: The Matrix of Material and Spiritual Liberation

Benjamin McClintic (University of Virginia, USA): Visions of the Eternal by Way of Temporal Motifs

Dr. Sthita Dhi Muni (University of Florida, USA): The Richard L. Thompson Archives: A memorial archival-library project dedicated to a pioneering ISKCON scholar

Presentation abstracts are also available at the following link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3eq_hjmlPuLRUlMbjhYWU1IeU0/view?usp=sharing 

The ISKCON Studies Institute is committed to cultivating scholarly discussions in conference forums that cherish a devotionally respectful and academically rigorous ethos meant to foster critical thinking in relation to concerns of ISKCON and its broader cultural, religious, and intellectual environments.

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For conference e-registration, please fill in and submit the following online form: http://goo.gl/forms/UvztGWZW6E 

The deadline for registration is April 30, 2015. Because space is limited, kindly register as soon as possible. Please note that a 40€ registration fee will be collected from all participants at the beginning of the conference.

For further questions and inquiries, please write to: iskconstudiesconference@gmail.com.