UST hosts 5th SSEASR International Conference

The University of Santo Tomas will host the Regional Conference of the International Conference of the South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion (SSEASR), an affiliate of the International Association of the History of Religions (IAHR) under the auspices of the UNESCO. 

 

This year’s gathering will bring together scholars, writers, artists, and the religious for a four-day conference from May 16 to May 19, 2013 to be held at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex Auditorium. 

 

Taking place every two years, the SSEAR conferences were previously held in cities such as New Delhi in India (2005), Bangkok in Thailand (2007), Bali in Indonesia (2009) and Thimphu in the Kingdom of Bhutan (2011). Manila will be its 2013 site. The 5th SSEASR Conference is committed to provide an academic platform to discuss the relationship between culture and healing; hence its theme “Healing, Belief Systems, Cultures and Religions of South and Southeast Asia.”

 

Sen. Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate committee on Education, Arts and Culture, and chair of the committee on Science and Technology will deliver the Keynote Address during the Opening Ceremonies.  

 

The other conference topics are: Health, Healing and Healers in South and Southeast Asia; Healing in South and Southeast Asian Transnational Communities; Science and Traditional Healing Systems; Sacred Sounds of South and Southeast Asia; Traditional and Alternative Means of  Healing; Suffering and Penance through the Bodily Practices; Plants, Peoples, and Sacred Practices; Belief Systems and Island Cultures; Folk Christianity in South and Southeast Asia; Pilgrimage and Spiritual Well-being; Rites, Rituals and Sacredness in South and Southeast Asia; Beliefs and Survival among South and Southeast Asian Diasporic Communities; Routes as Carriers of Cultures and Religions; Literature of Prayers and Invocations; Indigenous Religions of South and Southeast Asia; and Festivals of the Ethnic Groups of South and Southeast Asia.   

 

Part of the activities are a pre-Conference one-day tour to Laguna province for the San Isidro Labrador Festival, a cultural and religious event, on May 15, 2013 and a post-Conference tour of Cebu and Bohol in the Visayas from May 20 to 22 for interested participants.   

 

For more details, contact the 5th SSEASR Conference Secretariat through telefax number + (02) 7313038, email address SSEASRphilippines@yahoo.com; fpuy@mnl.ust.edu.ph or visit the conference website. Press release from University of Santo Tomas