From Archives to Herstory – Women’s Contributions to the Study of Asian Religions

Recent schol­ar­ship advo­cat­ing for glob­al reli­gious his­to­ry empha­sizes the
need for reli­gious stud­ies to move beyond euro­cen­trism, to decon­struct
ide­o­log­i­cal­ly charged and his­tor­i­cal­ly evolv­ing con­cepts, and to
acknowl­edge the diverse (non-west­­ern) play­ers and exchanges involved in
the co-pro­­duc­­tion of knowl­edge on reli­gions. This work­shop seeks to
con­tribute to this broad­er con­ver­sa­tion about the neces­si­ty of epis­temic
decen­tring with­in the dis­ci­pline, focus­ing on the role of women researchers
in shap­ing reli­gious stud­ies.
As fem­i­nist stud­ies have demon­strat­ed, in a male-dom­i­­nat­ed soci­ety,
women face the chal­lenge to devel­op mul­ti­ple strate­gies to trav­el, pub­lish,
and carve out new spaces for them­selves. In acad­e­mia, this often means
sac­ri­fic­ing a tra­di­tion­al aca­d­e­m­ic career and instead cre­at­ing alter­na­tive
pro­files. Con­se­quent­ly, the knowl­edge of reli­gions pro­duced by women
researchers can­not be attrib­uted sole­ly to schol­ars, but also to writ­ers,
artists, prac­ti­tion­ers, and indi­vid­u­als whose con­tri­bu­tions have been
over­looked so far.
This work­shop specif­i­cal­ly high­lights per­son­al archive col­lec­tions as a vital
space where over­looked encoun­ters, silenced voic­es, and inven­tive
strate­gies can be brought to light. To facil­i­tate com­par­i­son, we will focus on
the entan­gled his­to­ry of Europe and Asia, which we view as a par­tic­u­lar­ly
rich area in the her­sto­ry of reli­gious stud­ies. Such an endeav­our, how­ev­er,
requires the­o­ret­i­cal aware­ness, method­olog­i­cal cau­tion, spe­cif­ic prac­ti­cal
skills, and an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary dia­logue, which we aim to fos­ter open­ly and
direct­ly by shar­ing our expe­ri­ences with archival mate­ri­als from women
researchers and by stim­u­lat­ing exchanges on our indi­vid­ual research
agen­das and prac­tices.

Reg­is­tra­tion until Sep­tem­ber 29, 2025 to: religionswissenschaft@univie.ac.at

Pro­gramme of Work­shop