Rama Watumull Collaborative Lecture Series (RWCLS)

with Dr. KEYA MAITRA

Rama Watumull Collaborative Lecture Series –  October 7 – 11
DR. KEYA MAITRA – Professor of Philosophy at UNC Asheville

The Center for South Asian Studies, Philosophy Department, History Department, and the Department of Religion and Ancient Civilizations are pleased to welcome Professor Keya Maitra, Professor of Philosophy at UNC Asheville. 

SCHEDULE:
October 7, 2024: Welcome Reception
TIME: 4-6pm
WHERE: Philosophy Department Lounge, SAKA C-308

October 8, 2024: RWCLS Workshop
 “Sultana’s Dream: Philosophical Accounts of Decolonial Feminist Consciousness and Social Identity”

“At least 10 years before Charlotte Perkins Gilman publishes Herald– often considered the first utopian writing within Western feminist context, Rokeya Sekhawat Hossain – a Bengali Muslim woman – publishes Sultana’s Dream in 1905 in pre-independent India. Targeting the practices of purdah & zenana faces by women in colonial Bengal, Rokeya imagines a world of complete freedom and peace where men are in seclusion while women are in charge. The overall goal of my proposed workshop is to introduce Rokeya’s little known utopian story and make explicit its numerous arguments while exploring carefully their philosophical implications. Roushan Jahan and Hanna Papanek argue that Sultana’s Dream represents “feminist sentiments grow[ing] from indigenous roots.” In structuring the interactive and cross-culturally designed workshop around the narrative of Sultana’s Dream, my goal will be to engage with the ways it offers a location to explore Important philosophical questions. My working conclusion is that in being disruptive and utopian, transformative and liberators, Sultan’s Dream proposes interesting philosophical accounts such as the of decolonize feminist consciousness and of a postcolonial social identity. This engagement allows us to expand the purview and cross-cultural relevance of Indian philosophy when construed broadly.”

Link to Sultana’s Dream: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html
TIME: 3-6pm
WHERE: Philosophy Department Lounge, SAKA C-308

October 11, 2024: RWCLS Colloquium
“Emotions in the Bhagavad Gita”

“My paper aims to carry forward the cross-cultural dimension in the philosophy of emotion especially in relation to the Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita or the Gita. Both Bilimoria & Johnson contend that the Gita offers a view “regarding the regulation of emotions and the appropriate role of emotions in moral reasoning.” They also argue that the Gita provides us with a social construction view of the emotions where the moral import of a dilemma or a counsel is contextualized in terms of the emotions appropriate to the specifics of one’s personal and cultural settings. My paper explores the relationship between emotions and morality in the Gita from a different direction. By focusing on the concept central to the Gita’s morality, namely, equanimity (samatvam). I consider its conceivability as an emotion. Equanimity, in its cognitive dimension, involves mastering one’s mind and senses. A typical interpretation is that emotions play no role in this process. However, the Gita also depicts the yogi not only as equanimous but also as marked by positive emotions such as compassion, love and joy. My paper develops a theory of emotions in the Gita, especially by considering whether equanimity can be viewed as primarily a result of social construction.”

TIME: 2:30-4:30pm
WHERE: ARCH 205