Lecture Series: "Asian Religions and the Politics of Heritage"

“Asian Religions and the Politics of Heritage” is the topic of the CATS-Lecture Series in the summer term of 2021. Jointly organised and hosted by the South Asia Institute and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, it aims to facilitate a dialogue across disciplines and regional foci that can illuminate the many aspects and challenges of the heritage and religion conundrum.

Today, religious actors in Asia and the Asian diasporas creatively appropriate the language of global heritage used by UNESCO and other international organisations to advance specific demands, indicating that the ‘heritage status’ is increasingly seen as a path to sustainability, recognition and visibility. In so doing, meanings of heritage and its relationships with the realm of religion are continuously transformed. A critical exploration of the frictions between, and entanglements of, heritage and religion is thus an ongoing challenge for scholars from various fields, including (critical) heritage studies,transcultural studies and area studies, anthropology and religious studies. Seen from a critical areas studies and a critical heritage studies perspective, it brings together twelve internationally renowned speakers on heritage and religions from, across and beyond Asia.

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