CFP | After Xavier: Representations of Christianity in India and beyond | 11-12 December 2024
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CONFERENCE | CALL FOR PAPERS
AFTER XAVIER
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AFTER XAVIER
Representations of Christianity in India and beyond
Christianity in Goa and the Indian subcontinent predates the arrival of the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier (1506-1552) in Goa by over a millennium. Nonetheless, much like the revered St. Thomas in southern India, Xavier remains emblematic of the spread of Christianity in Goa and beyond. Christianity in Goa has in this sense been inscribed after Xavier. Notwithstanding the charismatic persona and transcontinental missionary travels of Francis Xavier, such representations of Xavier were cultivated by the hagiographic turn within Jesuit missionary literature as well as other coeval testimonies that contributed to his canonisation (1622). Subsequently, the cult of Francis Xavier has been eulogised with epithets like Goycho Saib (Lord of Goa), Apostle of the East as well as the conferral of such titles as the patron of all missions (1927). In Goa, Xavier has been the patron of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman (until 2000).
These representations of Xavier and Christianity in Goa and beyond tend to subsume the multiple locations and contexts within which Christianity propagated after Xavier (post-Xavier). As much as missionaries accommodated their missionizing strategies to specific contexts, local elites and converts also negotiated the terms of these accommodations to either fashion their own identities or advance their own interests. The multiple temporalities of Christianity in the Indian subcontinent after Xavier not only uncover the diverse localised forms and practices of the Christian faith, but also counter the popular grand missionizing narratives like those of Xavier.
The decennial exposition of the relics of Saint Francis Xavier in Old Goa (21 November 2024 – 5 January 2025) provides an occasion to revisit the enduring legacy of Xavier, but also examine it through the multiple representations of Christianity after Xavier. The site of these representations move beyond the boundaries of Goa, India and Asia.
The conference invites scholars to explore the multiple representations of Christianity shaped and influenced by the missionary legacies of Xavier (after Xavier, as being influenced by Xavier) as also those developed much later and independently of Xavier (after Xavier, as in post-Xavier). The conference welcomes scholars from across the disciplines to present ongoing research as also explore new pathways in which the Xavierian legacy is either continuous or discontinuous with the multiple locations of Christianity. These explorations can be through the fields of humanities and the social sciences as well as religion and the arts.
Proposals
Please forward an abstract of your proposed presentation (within 300 words) along with a narrative CV (within 200 words) to xchr.s...@gmail.com by 5 October 2024.
Acceptance of your proposal will be confirmed within 10 days of receiving your abstracts.
Dates
11 December: Academic conference
12 December: Heritage visit and lecture
Venue
Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa
Accommodation
Accommodation will be made available to outstation presenters for the duration of the conference from 10-13 December 2024.
Publication
After the conference, selected presentations will be invited to contribute their papers towards a peer-reviewed volume with an academic press.
Academic Partners
Heras Institute of Indian History and Culture, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai
Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage of the Church, Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Rome
Funding
The conference, After Xavier, has been locally funded under the aegis of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa.
Xavier Centre of Historical Research
B B Borkar Road, Porvorim, Goa 403521, India
© 2024 Xavier Centre of Historical Research
B B Borkar Road, Porvorim, Goa 403521, India
