Tuesday, July 3, 2012

A new project on Mīmāṃsā and Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta (by me!)

I just came to know that the Lise Meitner project I submitted to the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has been accepted!

Lise-Meitner projects are single projects (i.e., the principal investigator is basically alone, although he might have co-workers working on specific tasks) meant for scholars coming from anywhere in the world and moving to Austria. One just needs an Austrian institution confirming that they are willing to have you (which is easier than one might think, since you will be paid by the FWF, so that the institution will have an additional researcher gratis). If you are interested in more information, check this website.
In my case, I will be working at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (aka IKGA, within the Centre for Studies in Asian Cultures and Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences), in Vienna. I will also have the pleasure to be working with Dr. Marion Rastelli, which I cannot wait for.

The project, about which you might have already read a little bit through this blog, will focus on the way Veṅkaṭanātha (Vedānta Deśika) uses Mīmāṃsā doctrines within his apologetics of the validity of Sacred Texts. More in detail, I will try to understand how a theist can use these Mīmāṃsā doctrines, which are based on the apauruṣeyatva 'non dependence on any personal author [be it human or divine]' of the Vedas. The project inclused the edition and analysis of Veṅkaṭanātha's Seśvaramīmāṃsā.

If you have been implied in the project (or in its evaluation), thank you! If not, any suggestion is welcome!

On Veṅkaṭanātha/Vedānta Deśika, see this post.



6 comments:

Dominik Wujastyk said...

Congratulations!!!

elisa freschi said...

Thank you Dominik, I am SO happy!

Ruy D'Aleixo said...

Congratulations Elisa!

elisa freschi said...

Thank you Aleix. It is so nice to have supportive friends. (By the way, consider applying for a LM or a Marie Curie, in due time).

Phillip said...

What? There are still universities in Europe? There's still money for the humanities, or anything? I had the impression from the news that you Europeans must have been all but reduced to cannibalism by now (though they do say it's not as bad in Germany). Congratulations all the more.

elisa freschi said...

Thanks Aśvamitra! Austria seems to be another place where the government understands that humanities matter (perhaps because the tourists coming to Vienna do it because of the opera and not because of the night life?).
As for cannibalism, I try to insist on working in teams and cooperating. South Asian studies (and, thus, South Asian scholars) can only survive if they can make the world understand that they matter. And this can only be done as a team.

Licenza Creative Commons
Quest' opera è distribuita con licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 2.5 Italia.