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Publication
Strike
In
one of my sping 2005 courses, I posted the
folowing
to Telesis, Washington University's online
discussion forum.
I have said much the same thing in my
semi-formal reports
to my colleagues, and has received (at least)
tacit approval:
"I
always ask my students to ask themselves the
questions, "Why was this book written?" and "Why
was this book published?" All too often,
"scholarly" books are written to advance a
career, in line with the demand "publish or
perish." "Scholarly" books are published to make
money, like any other sort of commodity. Often
they are formulaic, written according to the
demands of ideology, e.g. feminism or
"post-structuralism," the current PC approaches.
I am very fortunate not to be subject to any
"publish or perish" rule, as a full time college
teacher for the Religious Studies Program (with
no other duties). College teaching is an honest
job, at least."
I
will neither publish (except at my own pace) nor
perish.
I am a full time college teacher, by my own
choice. My
students will always come first, by choice.My
duties do
not include publication. Recent publications
will not be
reported, and tmy CV will not be kept up to
date. I will
publish at will, but I will not use publication
to promote my
career, because I am a teacher.
Other
Lecturers and Senior Lecturers, Adjunct
Lecturers,
and other teaching faculty may follow suit, or
not, as
you wish. "It's a free country."
I
work for Religious Studies, and have faithfully
kept,
and will continue to keep, my contract with that
Program,
and my obligations to the community built around
it.
Please
support better job security and a tenure
option
for college teaching. All hard-working teachers
are
entitled to respect, decent pay and workng
conditions,
and job security. We also have the right to
free
association, free speech, and collective
bargaining.
Please
support cooperative, non-hierarchical models
of education. Let's get rid of the academic
"star system."
Let's have equal pay for equal work, and fairer
deals
for everyone!
Ongoing
Research
°Translation
and study of Nala's Pakadarpana, a
Sanskrit culinary text.
°Article
on the placement of images in Kalpa Sutra
illustrated manuscripts.
°Article
on the miracle system of the Svetambara
Jains.
°Sourcebook
and introduction to Jainism.
°Comparative
study of miracles, anomalies, and religious
authority in Hindu/Jaina and Christian/Pagan
traditions.
°Study
of Jaina Krishna mythology.
°Study
of transnational culture, and transformations in
American culture and civilization.
Publications
°
Articles on:
° "Kalpa Sutra,"
° "Karma,"
° "Purana"
° "Dohada (Pregnancy
Craving)," in:
South
Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia
[Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal,
Pakistan, Sri
Lanka]
Mills, Margaret; Claus, Peter; and Diamond,
Sarah, eds. 2003. New York:
Routledge.
°"Dohada
(Pregnancy Craving)" republished in:
Indian
Folklife,
published by the National
Folklore Support Centre,
Chennai
[Madras],
India.
°
"Hero of Wonders, Hero in Deeds: Vasudeva
Krishna in Jaina Cosmohistory," under review for
inclusion in Alternative Krishnas, under
review by SUNY Press.
°Articles
on:
° "Acharya Bhiksu,"
°"Acharya Tulsi,"
°"Banarsidass,"
°"Kanji Swami,"
°"Shrimad Rajcandra," in:
Holy People of the World: An Encyclopedia
(Three Volumes)
Jestice, Phyllis G., ed. Forthcoming, Autumn
2004. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
°Review
of Jaina System of Education,
Dasgupta, Debendra Chandra, 1999 (repr). Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass;
forthcoming in International
Journal of Hindu
Studies.
°Several
articles in the Oxford Dictionary of World
Religions, Bowker, John, ed. Oxford
University Press, 1997.
°Review
notice of Helmuth von Glasenapp's Doctrine of
Karman in Jain Philosophy, Religious
Studies
Review,
Vol. 19, No. 3, July 1993, pp.
280-281.
°Master's
Theses on South Asia at the University of
Pennsylvania, 1926-1987, with Kanta Bhatia,
University of Pennsylvania South Asia Regional
Studies Occasional Papers Series,
1992.
Presentations,
Conference Papers, Workshops
°Co-organizer
of the Sophia
/ ATMA
Symposium on "Religion
in Medicine,"
Washington University, March 24-25, 2003.
°Presented
"Karma and Theodicy: The Problem of Evil in
Indian Thought," Southern
Illinois
University-Edwarsville,
sponsored by the SIUE Department
of Philosophical
Studies,
the Minor
Program in Religious
Studies,
and the Philosophy
Society,
October 2, 2002.
°Presented
"Jaina Natalism and the Mythology of Maternal /
Fetal Bonding," American
Oriental
Society
Meeting, Houston, Texas, 2002.
°Presented
"Who Are the Jains," St. Louis Unitarian Church,
May 2001.
°Presented
"Primal and Final Omniscience in Jaina
Tradition" at the Eastern Regional conference of
the American
Philosophical
Society
and Society
for Asian and Comparative
Philosophy,
New York, 2000.
°Presented
"Knowledge, Superknowledge, and Omniscience:
Fetal Divinization and its Control" at the
American
Oriental
Society
Meeting, Portland, Oregon, 2000.
°Presented
"The Birth Bath (Janmabhisheka) in Jain Myth and
Ritual" at the 1999 conference of
JAINA
(the Federation of Jain Associations in North
America),
Philadelphia.
°Presented
"Embryo Transfer and Infant Exchange: The
Religious Significance of a Motif of Folklore"
at the Eastern
International Region American Academy of
Religion
convention,
Geneva, New York, 1999.
°Presented
"The Origin of the Harivamsa Lineage" at the
American
Oriental
Society
Meeting, Baltimore, 1999.
°Presented
"Karma and Pregnancy Craving (Dohada)" at the
Mid-Atlantic
Region Association for Asian
Studies
Convention, University of Delaware,
1998.
°Co-Chaired
a panel on Asian and Asian American related
student organizations, Mid-Atlantic
Region Association for Asian
Studies
Convention, University of Delaware,
1998.
°Attended
the American
Committee on South Asian
Manuscripts
Workshop on Paleography and Codicology at
Columbia
University,
led by Professor David Pingree, Summer 1998.
°Presented
"Beyond Curry" in the Hill College House lecture
series, University of Pennsylvania, Spring
1997.
°Presented
"Ascaryas and Miracles in the Svetambara Jaina
Tradition" at the American
Oriental
Society
Meeting, Philadelphia, 1995.
°Presented
"Mahavira's Embryo Transfer: A New Look at a
Svetambara Jaina Miracle Story," at the
American
Oriental
Society
Meeting, Madison, 1994, and again at the
American
Academy of
Religion
convention, Chicago, 1994.
°Presented
"Mahavira's Embryo Transfer: Interpreting a
Svetambara Miracle," at the Mid-Atlantic
Region, Association for Asian
Studies
convention, Lehigh, PA, 1987.
°Presented
"Mythologies of Civilization," at the
Person,
Culture and
Religion
section of the American
Academy of
Religion
convention, Anaheim, California,
1985..
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