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The influence of the Ramayana on various cultures and civilisations will come under focus during a two-day International Ramayana Conference at Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb, Illinois, in the first week of June.
The conference is being organised by International Ramayana Institute in cooperation with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU on June 4-5 to promote goodwill among communities and to foster interaction on Ramayana-related studies between various universities and academic institutions.
This is the second Ramayana conference, the first one being in 2001. That conference included scholars from seven different American universities and as many number of countries, including India, Indonesia, Thailand, France and Belgium.
The theme of the 2005 conference will be Ramayana in the global context and will feature presentations on seven Ramayana-related themes in the form of talks and paintings, dances and puppet shows.
The presentations will include topics such as the effect of Ramayana on family relations, the gender and political aspects of Ramayana, extrapolating Ramarajya (ruler-induced peace and happiness) in today's environment, Ramayana-related education and research efforts, literary and poetic forms of Ramayana and the inception of Ramayana in various countries.
The inaugural of the conference will be marked by opening remarks by Susan Russell, Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU, and Rathindra Bose, vice-president for research and dean of graduate school at NIU followed by keynote by Sally Sutherland Goldman of the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Goldman will speak on 'the not-so-perfect wife: Valmiki's construction of gender.'
Others speaking on the 'gender and political aspects of Ramayana' include Bijoy Mishra of MIT Lincoln Laboratory. A galaxy of other Ramayana researchers both from within US and outside, including South Africa, Thailand and Indonesia, are expected to address the conference.