ON-LINE DISCUSSION GROUPS

The following is in no way a complete list of available discussion groups, but rather is a list of those most active and important to my field of study. For a complete listing of relevant discussion lists please see: http:coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/AsianPages/Bedell-SthAsia.html#Index

a. Asian Religions Discussion List:

This is an interesting list maintained at Cornell University which has been established mainly to facilitate discussion between teachers of South Asian studies classes. As such, most of the material focuses upon teaching techniques and issues relevant to introductory level classes. There is a webpage which contains the discussion archives and a basic elaboration of the group which can be located through the South Asia Gopher. This is also the way to subscribe as the discussion group is closed and they require extensive biographic information before one is allowed to participate in the discussions.

b. Dalit and Tribal Peoples:

This group is primarily concerned with news and discussion related to or directly concerning the tribal peoples of India. Subscriptions be obtained by contacting datpers@yorku.ca can.

c. H-ASIA:

H-Asia is a discussion group established in 1994 and is maintained by Michigan State University. The primary focus is upon the geographic areas of South Asia, Southeast Asia, East and Northeast Asia, and Central Asia. The primary focus is to provide a forum for historians and other scholars in the field to discuss currents trends in the field, methodological issues, current books and articles, and to share teaching tips. They can be contacted for subscriptions at H-ASIA@MSU.EDU or at their home page: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia.htm.

d. Indology:

Indology is an e-mail discussion group which brings together Indological scholars from all across the globe to discuss current issues relevant to the field. The founder of the group can be reached at d.wujastyk@ucl.ac.uk. Some of the recent discussion has included debate over the role of Hindi and Sanskrit within South Asian studies and the need for scholars to broaden their horizons from just Sanskrit textual studies (even though all that is done here to further that goal is to suggest it!). Most of the time there are numerous streams of conversation at any given moment.

e. Religion in South Asia:

This is the South Asian section of the American Academy of Religion. Its members include virtually every important scholar working within the field at this point. The editor is Lance Nelson and is very helpful facilitating discussion and posting important documents and bibliographies on the RISA web page. To subscribe, simply send a message to listproc@acusd.edu which says in the body of the text: subscribe RISA-l First name Last Name. The discussion on this bulletin board is always very lively with important scholars, including Diana Eck, Harold Coward and Jack Hawley regularly contributing. The recent discussion has focused mainly around the debate surrounding the Aryans in early Indian Culture; however, there are always little side notes of interest.

f. South Asian Literature:

This list is a discussion of the contemporary literature of South Asia. There is discussion of works by authors of South Asian origin throughout the world. Subscription can be obtained by contacting listserv@saisa@rice.edu.

g. Vaisnava Scholars:

This group is primarily a forum for scholars of Vaisnava studies. They can be contacted for subscriptions through the listserv. The group's location is at vaisnavaAvm.utcc.utoronto.ca.