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Edward C. Holland, an assistant professor of geography in the Department of Geosciences in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, is our Arkansas Visiting Fellow for the 2019-20 academic year. Edward is staying here in Cambridge with his wife Mackenzie and their 14-month-old twins, twins Benjamin and Greta.

Edward is affiliated with the  (MIASU), a leading center globally for the study of Inner Asia, which includes contemporary Mongolia and extends to Kalmykia, a region in the west of Russia. Kalmykia is the only place is Europe where Buddhism is the most-practised religion. Friday's seminar will focus on racism, Buddhism and identity

Holland is also working on a book on Kalmyk Buddhism, tentatively titled, To the Golden Abode: Kalmyk Buddhism in History, Minority, and Diaspora. This book will integrate the varieties of religious experience for Kalmyks through a consideration of the importance of Buddhism in distinct historical periods and geographical contexts: during the Soviet period, in the republic today, and in diaspora in the United States.

The conference will take place at:

Mond Building Seminar Room

The Mond Building

Free School Lane Cambridge CB2 3RF

Open to All. No registration required

The programme is below:

 

Contemporary Kalmykia

Religion and Identity in a Russian Republic

 

1 November 2019

Mond Building Seminar Room

The Mond Building Free School Lane Cambridge CB2 3RF

Open to All. No registration required

10:30 am – 10:45 am: Welcome and tea/coffee

10:45 am – 11:00 am: Conference Opening – Edward Holland (University of Arkansas)

11:00 am – 12:30 pm: Session One

Experiences with racism and xenophobia in Kalmykia and beyond -

Elvira Churyumova MIASU, University of Cambridge and Edward Holland

The 1943 Deportation and its legacy for the Kalmyks – 

Elza-Bair Guchinova (Kalmyk Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

Discussant: Caroline Humphrey (MIASU, University of Cambridge)

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm. Lunch

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm. Session Two

Buddhism in Kalmykia at the start of the 21st century – 

Valeriy Badmaev (Kalmyk State University) Kalmyk Identity in Historical Perspective –

Baasanjav Terbish (MIASU, University of Cambridge)

Discussant: Valeriya Gazizova (MIASU, University of Cambridge)

3:00 pm – 3:15 pm. Concluding remarks 

 

Photo courtesy of the University of Arkansas.