Summer seminar for teachers to focus on the ‘Bhagavad Gita’

The National Endowment for the Humanities will sponsor a three-week seminar for college and university teachers that will be devoted to an intensive study of the “Bhagavad Gita.”

Written in the early centuries CE, the “Bhagavad Gita” is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and offered a reflection on the moral, philosophical, and religious issues at the heart of the epic. It is considered a concise point of entry for the study of Hinduism. 

Titled “The Bhagavad Gita: Ancient Poem, Modern Readers,” the seminar will be held July 9-27. Richard H. Davis, professor of religion and Asian studies and director of religion program at Bard College, will lead the seminar. The course will be a study of what is considered a seminal work both in its original context as well as through modern renderings and reinterpretations. Secondary readings will range from a number of thinkers including Mohandas Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, and Aldous Huxley, among others.

Applications are open to college and university teachers, including non-tenure track faculty. Readings will be in English. Applicants are not expected to have a background in South Asian studies. For more information, visit the course website and its Facebook page. The deadline for applications is March 1.