Topic: “Postcolonial studies after fifty years: What did we learn about encounters between Europe and India?”
About the keynote speaker
Associate Professor Martin Fárek is member of the Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Humanities and Education, Technical University Liberec, Czech Republic. His work, inspired by the Comparative Science of Cultures research program, presents an analysis of several topics in relations between Europe and India: problems of conceptualization of the Indian traditions as Hinduism and Buddhism, debates about caste and race, and transfer of the Indian traditions to the West. He wrote several books, the most recent are India in the Eyes of Europeans: Conceptualization of Religion in Theology and Oriental Studies (2021) and co-edited Western Foundations of the Caste System (2017 and 2020). Martin Fárek currently leads COST Action 23144 – ESIND – Europe’s Representations of India: Texts, Images, and Encouters. He took part in several other projects focused on co-operation with Indian universities, organized university delegations to India, conducted research with his Ph.D. students there, and helped to build ties between people of Europe and India in other ways.
