Specialist in Things Tantric - STS NEWS # 4
File: News#488
STS NEWS # 4 April, 1988
The first conference of the Society for Tantric Studies was held at the Quail Roost Conference Center in Rougemont, North Carolina in April of 1987. The first conference was reasonably small and aimed at workshop presentations of ideas and works in progress rather than the presentation of finished proto- articles. Sessions were informal, open, and often led to conversations that went well into the post- midnight hours.
The second STS conference will be held at the Vandercamp Conference Center on Lake Oneida, New York (about 20 miles North of Syracuse) on October 14-16, 1988. Once again we have scheduled the meeting at a secluded site, in a pleasant season (we will hope for more normal weather than the spring storm that came to us at Quail Roost), with easy access to nature. We hope that this venue will help us both to capitalize on the best features of the first meeting and also to build beyond those strengths for an even better conference the second time around. In particular we would like to maintain the informal and discussion-enhancing atmosphere of the first meeting as well as the broad cross-cultural range of its presentations. We also hope to have some practical arts oriented presentations such as those of Phillip Zarrilli and Roxanne Gupta at the first event.
But there are likely to be some changes too. The nearness of Syracuse to a large number of other major universities should lead to a larger total number of participants than we had last time. Word of the last conference has already lead some of our constituents to hold preliminary conversations about panels they would like to offer. While we don't want to see the in formality of the first meeting lost, it may be that the program's overall focus will be tighter without having to give up the spontaneity of the 1987 meeting. We also hope for a bit of East Asian societies--though some disparity here may be simply a function of the place of tantra in China and Japan.
The Venue. The Vandercamp Conference Center is located about 20 miles North of Syracuse, New, York, on the shore of Lake Oneida. It is a lovely setting and we will be there at the peak of the fall foliage season. The nearest airport is Syracuse Cost. The cost will be approximately $35-40 per night, including most meal costs. We will have to buy provisions for the joint Indian meal to be cooked one night by the conference participants. There will also be a fifteen dollar registration fee.
Panel Topics. Several topics have, in fact been, suggested by interested parties and are already being organized. Dwight Tkatschow and June McDaniel are organizing a panel titled Ecstasy, Trance, and Possession in Tantric Religion. Tony K. Stewart is organizing a panel on Bhakti and Tantra: Continuities and Discontinuities? Charles D. Orzech is organizing a panel on Magical and Alchemical Traditions.
At the last informal meeting at the AAR the following areas were also discussed: Performative Dimensions of Tantra; Historical Developments in Tantra; Central and East Asian Tantra. Panels or papers on all topics are encouraged. Keep in mind that these should be working papers to be read and discussed in plenary sessions.
The structure of the meeting will probably be similar to that of the 1987 meeting, with five plenary sessions. A likely scenario includes a reception before dinner on Friday, dinner, and then the first session Friday evening, followed by informal discussions. A second session will be held after breakfast on Saturday morning. Lunch will be served, followed by a free period, and Session three from mid-afternoon until dinner. Following dinner will be another evening session and discussion. Session five will convene Sunday morning after breakfast, and will prob ably be followed by lunch. A specific schedule including papers to be given and times of sessions will be mailed once the details have been finalized.
Roxanne Gupta will be the primary person on the ground for the conference, though she expects to receive the strong support of Syracuse University faculty members Agehananda Bharati of the Department of Anthropology and Charles H. Long and Richard Pil grim of the Department of Religious studies. Though a separate mailing will be sent to the membership once the full program is in place, please be aware that space at Vandercamp is limited and since we do expect some pressure on it, persons wanting to make an early reservation for the meeting should contact Roxanne Gupta directly at the South Asia Center, Syracuse University, 724 Comstock Avenue, Syracuse, New York, 13244-4023 (315-423-2552).
Paper proposals. The main purpose of this letter is, of course, to elicit some paper proposals. Such proposals--and please do not constrain yourself to the topics suggested above--should be sent to James H. Sanford, Department of Religious Studies, 101 Saunders Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., 27599. Please send proposals in by May 15. These should consist of a title (tentative if you like) and a paragraph or two of the area you would like to deal with. An ad hoc program committee (primarily the STS Board and the Syracuse hosts) will construct an interesting and coherent program out of these and notify program participants of acceptance by June 1. We will doubtless, need a few discussants as well. These should, naturally, be persons well able to address the issues treated by a given set of papers. But we do not want to ignore the important reality that for some of you discussant status may be convertible into air-fare subsidies from your home institutions. The exact structure of the program will determine the exact nature of the discussants needed, but persons wishing to put their name in a general pool of possible discussants are invited to submit their areas of interest early on. These too can be sent to Sanford. As was the case for last year's meeting, information on the final program as well as the conference air carrier, discounts, and on the ground transportation will be sent out in a separate mailing at a later date.
