Call for Grad Student Papers: The Sounds and Colours of Japanese Rites

[PMJS Moderation Team]

Posted by the PMJS Moderation Team on behalf of Mikael Bauer. 

Call for graduate student papers 

6^th annual conference on pre-modern Japanese religions: ‘The Sounds and Colours of Japanese Rites’

The School of Religious Studies, McGill University, October 23-24 2025

Dear colleagues,

We invite applications from graduate students for our 2025 conference at McGill University entitled ‘The Sounds and Colours of Japanese Rites.’ This conference explores the material and musicological aspects of Shinto, Buddhist or combinatory rituals in pre-modern Japan. We encourage students working on the following topics to apply:

• music (chants, reciting, instrumental aspects of rituals…) 
• the relation between rituals and the performing arts (such as Sarugaku, No,….)
• the role of sculpture or architecture in ritual, ritual implements or robes
• ritual manuals

Presentations can be in either English or Japanese, as the conference will be bilingual. 

If accepted, the conference will cover airfare (from your home university to McGill ), lunch/dinner and accommodation. The conference is sponsored by The Japan Foundation.

Please send your proposals by August 15 2025 to:

mikael...@mcgill.ca

Best wishes,

Mikael Bauer

Director of the School of Religious Studies McGill University

Associate Professor of Japanese Religions (Buddhism), School of Religious Studies

Associate Member Department of East Asian Studies

Resources for supporting graduate student well-being:

https://www.mcgill.ca/gps/students/supporting-graduate-student-well-being

McGill University

Birks Building 004

3520 rue University

Montreal, QC H3A 2A7

Canada

514-398-8318

Recent Publications:

Bauer, Mikael. “The sacralization of Sovereignty.” In: Matthew D. McMullen and Jolyon Baraka Thomas  ed. The New Tanzan Guide to Japanese Religions. Honolulu : University of Hawai'i Press, 2024. 

Bauer, Mikael. “In the Sovereign's Presence. Fujiwara no Nakamaro and the Creation of the History of the Fujiwara House.” In: Steffen Döll and Martin Lehnert ed.  Interactions between Religious and Political Authority: Case Studies from Japan and China, Past and Present.  

ÖSTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, BEITRÄGE ZUR KULTUR- UND

GEISTESGESCHICHTE ASIENS, nr. 111, 2024.