CoronAsur

CALL FOR SHORT CONTRIBUTIONS ON
PANDEMIC LEFTOVERS:
LIFE AND RITUAL IN THE ‘NEW NORMAL’
for a special section of CoronAsurur: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/coronasur-home/
A research blog on religion and Covid-19 in Asia and beyond

The research blog CoronAsur, launched in 2020, has become a vibrant site of documentation and reflection about religious responses to COVID-19 and the afterlife of the Covid pandemic.

We are currently seeking contributions that can add to the understanding of the mutual shaping of religion and society after the Covid-19 pandemic emergency. What are the ‘leftovers’ of the pandemic? What are the changes (including in terms of digital engagements, sensory and bodily practices, spatial and temporal dimensions) that have outlived the global health crisis? Have religious practices simply reverted to their pre-pandemic forms, or have there been changes that have had longer-lasting effects? What is really “new” about the new normal?

We welcome contributions of approximately 2,000 words. If you are interested in sending a contribution, please send your personal details (name, affiliation, email address) and a short abstract (150 words) describing the main focus of your contribution to Emily Hertzman ([email protected]) cc-ing Carola Lorea ([email protected] ) before 15th October 2024. Authors of successful proposals will be notified by 1st November 2024 and will be expected to submit their full contribution by 31 January 2025.

The CoronAsur blog has served as a basis for the phygital edited volume CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age (https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/.../coronasur-asian-religions.../) as well as special issues in the Journal of Asian Medicine (https://brill.com/.../journals/asme/19/1/asme.19.issue-1.xml) and Religion (https://www.tandfonline.com/.../10.../0048721X.2022.2061701).

Based on the breadth and originality of the submissions in this call, these blog contributions will be developed into a collaborative academic publication for those who are interested.

We are looking for contributions that document and discuss the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ focusing on ritual communities and ethnographic contexts in Asia and beyond. Since the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, every religious tradition has undergone radical changes. With the implementation of safety measures, some religious lives have gone digital. The enforcement of hygienic and ‘social distancing’ practices has dramatically changed aesthetic, affective and material dimensions of ritual acts.

We are asking, what are the “leftovers” of the pandemic? By leftovers we do not merely mean the material debris, the residues and the medical waste that the pandemic has left behind, in the landfills and in our oceans. Besides leftover products like extra packs of face-masks and self-test kits that lay inertly in your closets at home, the Covid pandemic has had socially long-lasting impacts. What are the changes that have outlived the global health emergency period? These leftovers may be leading to more substantial changes in community organization, the position of minority religions and broader debates on ritual and social change in times of crisis.

Long Covid is a syndrome with biological and neuropsychiatric symptoms that is beginning to be understood not only in physical and psychological terms but also in relation to its social impact. For example, family and personal relationships, work environments, economic security and other aspects of daily life. Are long-lasting changes to religious practice a dimension of this syndrome? Could recognizing the social aspect of long Covid aid our healthcare systems to manage the endemic phase of the virus? How might these conditions alter religious and secular traditions, in different ritual communities and cultural regions?

Call for Papers | Faith in Immunity: Religion, COVID-19 Vaccines, and Structures of Trust | Deadline: 30 April 2022
https://ari.nus.edu.sg/events/faith-in-immunity/
This workshop interrogates notions of immunity, focusing on the ways in which it is also culturally constructed and socially shaped through processes and practices that involve the intertwined spheres of cosmology, medicine, ritual and health.
Through the concepts of “faith in immunity” and “structures of trust,” this workshop will explore the different conceptualisations of personal and collective responsibility towards COVID-19 resistance tracing the forms of epistemological authority that come from collective religious, non-religious, and spiritual traditions in Asia and globally.
Please submit your proposals using the template provided in the link to Ms Valerie Yeo at [email protected]
Organised by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

"Rather than an intentional punishment, the pandemic outbreak during Ramadan is a source to strengthen the religiosity of devotees by reconnecting their Islamic faith to reality."

Read more at: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/20331-80/

Market Da’wa through COVID-19: The Case of American Muslim Preachers on YouTube - Asia Research Institute, NUS

In a foreign country with limited aid, explore how religious spaces became the last refuge for many immigrant workers displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more here:

Buddhist Temples as Shelters for Vietnamese Migrants in Japan under COVID-19 Conditions - Asia Research Institute, NUS Buddhist Temples as Shelters for Vietnamese Migrants in Japan under COVID-19 Conditions contributed by Yuki Shiozaki, 16 March 2021 Cover image: Relief supplies collected for the Vietnamese in Japan. Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 30 May 2020 When the Japanese economy faced depression in 2020, one of the mos...

A religious ritual or cultural tradition? Find out how the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic raised the stakes on Indonesia's biggest annual event, the Cap Go Meh ritual held in Singkawang.

Read more here:

Is it Culture or Religion? Prohibiting Cap Go Meh while Maintaining Freedom of Religion (1) - Asia Research Institute, NUS Is it Culture or Religion? Prohibiting Cap Go Meh while Maintaining Freedom of Religion (1) contributed by Emily Hertzman, 5 March 2021 As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Indonesia, more and more regulations are being put into place, including regionally. Singkawang, West Kalimantan, is classifie...

"Bandara explained that Kali gave him the recipe for the tonic in a dream; that it derives its healing power from the goddess."

Behind the miracle cure 'Dhammika Paniya', uncover the intersection of religion and politics - as the Sri Lankan government sought to 'prescribe' a variety of solutions to combat fears brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more here: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/20331-77/

Miracle cure for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka: Kali and the politics behind ‘Dhammika Paniya’ - Asia Research Institute, NUS Miracle cure for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka: Kali and the politics behind ‘Dhammika Paniya’ contributed by Catherine West & Kanchana Dodan Godage, 3 March 2021 Figure. 1. Kali takes many forms including Bhadrakali, pictured here at a temple near Kandy, Sri Lanka. Photograph by Yaathavan Arul, Februar...

Take a trip to Bengal with Deepsikha Dasgupta as she traces the everyday life of Sitala devotees- the 'smallpox' goddess - amidst the looming presence of the coronavirus.

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New Diseases, Old Deities: Revisiting Sitala Maa during COVID-19 Pandemic in Bengal - Asia Research Institute, NUS New Diseases, Old Deities: Revisiting Sitala Maa during COVID-19 Pandemic in Bengal contributed by Deepsikha Dasgupta, 11 February 2021 The Goddess Sitala, or the ‘Cool One’(Wadley 1980), is worshipped by Hindus in Bengal and several parts of Northern India, as a controller of illness, protector...

"In this exceptional state of Covidian-age anxiety, Buddhist monks injected their recitations with the intention of staving off and stamping out the virus"

Uncover how Buddhist sound modalities in Sri Lanka are deployed to guard against the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a means to assert notions of national security.

Read more here: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/20331-76/

Sonic Fields of Protection in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Pandemic - Asia Research Institute, NUS Sonic Fields of Protection in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Pandemic contributed by Nalika Gajaweera and Neena Mahadev, 19 February 2021 Cover image: Monks reciting the Ratana Sutta (screenshot from a live telecast found on YouTube) In this reflection on Buddhism and COVID-19, two anthropologists, Nalika G...

"Chanting of Harililamrito passages had helped Matuas get rid of epidemics in the past like Cholera, and this should be use to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well"

Read the article here:

The Sonic and the Somatic: Matua Healing Practices during COVID-19 - Asia Research Institute, NUS The Sonic and the Somatic: Matua Healing Practices during COVID-19 contributed by Dishani Roy, Raka Banerjee, Carola Lorea, Fatema Aarshe, Md. Khaled Bin Oli Bhuiyan & Mukul Pandey, 22 January 2021 The disturbing times of COVID-19 have impacted the relatively unknown Matua religion and its devotees,...

Take a closer look at how Buddhist devotees in Singkawang host and celebrate birthday parties for the Gods during this COVID-19 crisis, amidst strict health protocols put in place by the Indonesian government.

Article written by Emily Hertzman

Hosting a God’s Birthday Party during Covid-19 – Asia Research Institute, NUS Hosting a God’s Birthday Party during Covid-19 contributed by Emily Hertzman, 11 December 2020 Singkawang, West Kalimantan is a small city with a majority Chinese Indonesian population in Borneo. It is a center of Chinese Religion and called the “City of a Thousand Temples''. My ongoing research...

CALL FOR PAPERS!!!

RELIGION AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: MEDIATING PRESENCE AND DISTANCE

Call for papers deadline: 10 January 2021
For more information: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/events/rgc19