In the last four years I was surprisingly glad to attend and participate to three of the first four IIGRS
conferences. The rationale behind it is to give younger researchers the
chance to present their papers in a scientific environment, but the
result was by far much better than that: In fact, the first, second
and fourth IIGRS
(International Indological Graduate Seminar) have been a big success and
we
all enjoyed coming together and discussing for hours before and after
every paper. (I was not there at the third IIGRS, but I guess the same
happened there, too. A participant even told me that the third one was
the best one.)
In most cases, the too vague label
"Indology" did not hinder fruitful discussions and, on the other hand,
the age-group (within 5 years since the end of one's PhD) was well-cut
in order to select people who are (still? :( ) desirous to exchange
ideas, develop new trends of research, welcome challenges and engage in
new approaches.
I wonder why is it so difficult to keep
oneself open towards this kind of
chances? Why do we increasingly tend to close ourselves into our own
studies –only to complain about our isolation later? Whatever the
answer, the IIGRS remains a unique chance to interact, challenge and be
challenged.
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