My Lecture at the INFORM International Conference

Gender Talk in Neo-Hindu Movements is the research paper presented at the INFORM International Conference (www.inform.ac) / CESNUR (www.cesnur.org), held at London School of Economics, on April 17, 2008.

The groups belonging to the category of neo-Hindu movements promote strong patriarchal structures with conservative gender norms (as those of the world they come from), norms that are better structured than the already existent ones in the outside Western society (the case of ISKCON movement and Sathya Sai Baba’s movement). Still, there are some of these movements that may be considered remarkable in the way they bring to the fore interesting and innovating aspects of gender concern. The study – far from having exhaustive intentions – is focused particularly on underlining certain positive gender orientations of these Asian new religious movements (NRMs). The numerous ways in which women’s spirituality expresses itself in these NRMs (women’s role and status, their representations and their own religious experiences) reveal – in some cases – a paradigm shift that opens perspectives for further investigations.

Read the entire article at: http://www.cesnur.org/2008/london_cyberpro.htm