The Indian and Chinese Religions in Dialogue Unit of the AAR invites panel and paper proposals for the 2026 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Denver. The deadline is Friday, March 6th. Panel and paper proposals covering all Indian and Chinese traditions from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives are welcomed. Please see below the panel themes already proposed and reach out to the relevant contact person if interested. Proposals of others are welcomed as well. Proposals should be submitted through PAPERS. Proposed Panel Themes
Ontologies of Silence in Ancient and Chinese and Indian Thought
In the ancient world, silence was never merely the absence of sound; it was a presence charged with meaning. Both Chinese and Indian traditions treat silence as an ontological reality rather than a void. In the Upaniṣads and Bhartṛhari’s writings, silence appears as the unmanifest ground of language; Buddhists sometimes argue that silence signals the ineffability of ultimate truth; Daoist texts frame silence as attunement to the Way or the cosmic spontaneity. This panel examines how these traditions conceptualize silence as a distinct mode of being and explores its philosophical or socio-political implications.
Contact: Yi (Allan) Ding: allan.ding@depaul.edu
Festivals and Celebrations in Indian and Chinese Religions
This panel invites papers examining festivals, ritual celebrations, and communal observances in pre-modern Indian and Chinese religious traditions. Topics may include ritual performance, seasonal or temple festivals, image processions, commemorations, and the social or artistic dimensions of celebration. Comparative or transregional approaches—especially those engaging material or visual culture—are particularly welcome.
Contact: Dessi Vendova, d.vendova@columbia.edu
Dialogue on the Way: Indian Perspectives on a Chinese Classic
The Zhuangzi is one of the most beloved works of philosophy and literature in China. In this roundtable, we invite scholars of Indian thought to select a passage from the Zhuangzi and engage it from within their own tradition. We also invite experts on the Zhuangzi to respond and open a cross-cultural conversation.
Contact: Eyal Aviv aviv@gwu.edu
Translation Beyond Words: Speaking of the Ineffable
How does one speak of that which cannot be spoken? In the dialogue between Indian and Chinese traditions, the ineffability of ultimate reality is not merely a philosophical dead-end, but a generative starting point for rigorous theory, practice, and aesthetics. We invite proposals for a panel exploring the diverse strategies employed to navigate, manipulate, and transcend the boundaries of conceptual thought in the Indic and Sinitic worlds. Beyond doctrinal analysis, we seek to investigate the broader literary and practical modalities through which the ‘unspeakable’ is articulated and realized. We welcome contributions that explore how the ineffable inspires literary and artistic production; how somatic and ritual practices bypass language; and how thinkers have translated these paradoxes across cultural and linguistic borders.
Keywords: Philosophical & doctrinal strategies; Poetics and literary aesthetics; Praxis and embodiment; Translation beyond words
Contact: Merijn ter Haar, merijn.terhaar@yale.edu
Memory of Past Lives
Memories of past lives is a common trope in Indian multi-life stories, in pre-Buddhist, Buddhist, and Jain narratives. This trope is embedded with the notional complex of karma and transmigration. However, as this complex was absent from ancient Chinese notion of death and afterlife, how were ideas of memories past lives understood and adapted in Chinese narratives, both Buddhist and Daoist?
Contact: Gil Raz, Gil.Raz@dartmouth.edu
