Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual I: Grammars and Morphologies of Ritual Practices in Asia

Held in Heidelberg from September 29 to October 2, 2008 by the collaborative research center SFB 619 "Ritual Dynamics" , the international conference "Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual" assembled most of the leading experts on rituals studies and more than 600 participants for the purpose of reassessing the traditional subject in view of the latest research. The results, which are presented in five volumes (see below), are pathbreaking for future transcultural, interdisciplinary and multi methodical research on rituals. The convention was marked by the broad range of disciplines and the corresponding diversity of methods. It embraced a tremendous variety of topics in terms of cultural geography and spanned a time horizon from the antiquity to the present. The proceedings show how broadly the term ritual can be defined, as well as the conditions, modes and functions of ritual actions in different cultures of the present and past. One of the most important conclusions of the conference is that there cannot be "one single" model for rituals and that interdisciplinary collaborations are the key to research on rituals. This also includes the development and use of creative research methods. Volume I: Grammars and Morphologies of Ritual practices in Asia; Volume II: Body, Performance, Agency and Experience; Volume III: State, Power and Violence; Volume IV: Reflexivity, Media and Visuality; Volume V: Transfer and spaces. (Harrassowitz Verlag 2010)

Lucia Dolce is a senior lecturer in Japanese Religion and Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is a specialist of Japanese Religions and has spent a considerable time of fieldwork in Japan. She has published widely on different aspects of Japanese religious practice, and is regularly invited to deliver guest lectures at universities in Europe, US and Japan. She has created and has been in charge (since 1999) of the MA in Japanese Religions at SOAS (the only MA programme in Europe focused on Japanese Religions); she teaches three of the options on offer in the programme, including the core course. She is also the chair of the SOAS Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions and in this capacity convenes weekly guest lectures and postgraduate seminars, and has organized several international conferences on different aspects of Japanese religiosity.