Giulia Pedrucci is going to present a working paper on 'Epistemological and Methodological Reflections on the Study of Religions, Gender, and Women. Demeter and Kore/Persephone: The mother-daughter relationship as a fruitful case study'

Through an approach that combines the academic study of religions with motherhood studies, this paper examines rarely considered maternal aspects of Demeter, a goddess of the pantheon of ancient Greek religion. We first discuss which theoretical inputs and categories of maternal theory are relevant to uncover innovative lines of research on religious representations and practices in polytheistic systems of the past, thus also contributing to broader epistemological reflections in the history and study of religions. Then, considering the Homeric Hymn as well as key ritual elements of the Thesmophoria festival through the lenses of maternal theory, we examine the mother-daughter relationship and place emphasis on the role of the mother as maternal trainer. This concrete case study from the ancient Greek world demonstrates the relevance for historians of religions of considering past polytheistic systems while harnessing the fruitful interdisciplinary potential of maternal theory.

Beatrice Renzi is going to present a working paper on 'Intersectional perspectives on Dalit women and justice: Exploring the systemic interlinkages between patriarchy, caste and class'

The paper takes stock of present day conditions involving violence against Dalit women. It strives to unpack the many normative systems shaping Dalit women’s social positionalities and their lived realities of justice. The analysis is focused on gaining an understanding of the ordinary every-day context within which systemic violence and its normative frames of reference are inscribed. By positioning the field of investigation at the intersection between questions of gender, caste and class entangled within locally contextual dynamics of power, the paper aims to illustrate how the understanding of violence and justice changes if it is viewed from Dalit women perspectives and how this view alters our assessment of the potentials and constraints facing democratic institutions and the rule of law in contemporary India. This also represents a methodological choice which seeks to highlight how a seemingly liminal analytical perspective becomes central in illuminating some of the pivotal junctures that help to explain the workings of a system as a whole.

Angelika Malinar is presenting a working paper on 'Karmic history, politics and the synthesis of “East” and “West”: Annie Besant (1847-1933) on Hinduism'

The research focusses on European women as interpreters of Hinduism in the colonial-modern period. The interpretation of Hinduism as well as the “woman question” were prominent arenas of the political-cultural debates that characterised the entangled history between India and Europe at that time. From the last decades of the nineteenth century onward women not only in India, but also in Europe participated increasingly in the debates about Indian religion and society. Annie Besant (1847-1933) and Margaret Noble (1867-1911), for instance, did not only pursue their own spiritual interests, but were also actively engaged in socio-political and educational projects. In doing so they challenged constructions of gender and regimes of power both in India and Europe which resulted in complex biographies as well as in various. While their political activities received some scholarly attention, their interpretations of Hinduism did not. One reason for this is that these interpretations were often seen as intellectually irrelevant or mere apologetics. This view seems to be based on the application of certain paradigms in the interpretation of female agency and individuality in the colonial context. The European women were considered as being either mere mouthpieces of “Indian Gurus” or agents of imperialism (even when they saw themselves fighting against it). Such unilateral views of colonial history have been challenged in recent years by emphasizing the entangled, multi-layered interactions between Indians and Europeans as well as the complex personal relationships they entertained. In following this approach, I shall explore the individual biographies, the social and political networks of the European women and the larger intellectual contexts of their interpretation of Hinduism. The paper focusses on Annie Besant and deals firstly with some theoretical issues and in the second part discusses certain features of Besant´s interpretations of Hinduism.

Tanja Visic is presenting a working paper on 'Ethnography of living arrangements, informal work and the transnational care: Experiences of domestic workers from the former Yugoslavia in Germany'

The main objective of the doctoral research project is to examine the phenomenon of care and domestic work from a perspective that combines a macro-level and micro-level using ethnographic approach based on case studies, thick descriptions and perspectives from the actor’s points of view. The text you are reading is doctoral dissertation description which is divided into five parts. The first part introduces the subject of research, main research questions and information about fieldwork that has been conducted so far. The next two sections outline main theoretical debates around domestic and care work within feminist theorization of care work, migration and globalization studies. In the fourth and fifth section I contextualize previously mentioned debates within Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav female labour migration indicating the research gaps in the field and potential contributions of my research project. Next two parts will inform you about research questions, levels of analysis, approach to the research and concepts which will be applied in the study. In the last part I will present multiple practices of data collection known as ethnography I use in the research, and shortly introduce the methodology, namely the challenges of feminist ethnography while focusing on production of knowledge about women lives in specific socio-cultural contexts.

Jana Vogl presents a paper on "The fragile reputation of women: Women, sexuality, conflicts"

In this paper, I present the first half of a chapter of my PhD thesis, where I ask how women intervene in a case of (severe) sexualized violence in a slum in Chennai, South India. Whereas the second half of the chapter asks how women interact with the police and “the law”, the first half – which I present today – concentrates on understanding how women frame the incident of sexualized violence in their narrations. I argue that the way they narrate the incident – as having happened to a woman who was “good” although she had (an) affair(s) and as having transcended the legitimate amount of suffering every woman faces commonly in her live – the incident is rendered a matter worth of public intervention (by the common people, potu makkaḷ, ūr makkaḷ) as opposed to a “family matter”. This way of framing the incident, however, is not without contention, especially among male inhabitants. Thus, I argue more specifically that the incident is made a “women's issue” by transformation of the common narrative form of the female lament (Kalpana Ram) into a source of solidarity amongst women.