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The 2012 Sri Lanka Graduate Conference will be on November 8th and November 9th at the Center for South Asia, Stanford University, Palo Alto and will be co-funded by the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies and theCenter for South Asia, Stanford. As with the two previous graduate conferences, this workshop will bring together graduate students both in the final writing up stage and pre-research/planning stages from a variety of disciplines and institutions. In 2012, we have switched from the East Coast to the West Coast and we hope to encourage fruitful intellectual as well as geographical crossings. The graduate conference aims to enhance intellectual exchange on Sri Lanka, emphasize the production of empirical and non-sectarian knowledge, focus attention on recent potential transformation of key concepts, and strengthen and build a new cohort of researchers (and research) across disciplines and institutions as well as strengthen relationships between American graduate students and local intellectual circles in Sri Lanka.Accordingly, in 2012 our theme is “Intersections”. To intersect is both to cut across and also to create new meeting points. As with previous conferences, our focus is thus wide-ranging and we welcome panel and paper proposals on Sri Lanka that cross disciplines and bring new or old themes and concepts together in unusual ways.The workshop takes place over 2 days. On November the 8th, the first session will be a small closed pre-dissertation development seminar for selected participants (see below for details). In the afternoon, the Sri Lanka Graduate Conference and the Center for South Asia will present a jointly hosted public event on literature and war with new young South Asian novelists. On November 9th, we will host three student panels.&#160;PROGRAMME&#160;Thursday Nov 8thLucas Conference Center, Room 134ASIEPR-Landau Economics Bldg579 Serra Mall10:00am- 12:00pmClosed Event: Pre-Dissertation Development SeminarCommentators:Jeanne Marecek, William R. Kenan Professor Emerita of Psychology, Swarthmore CollegeKalinga Tudor Silva, Senior Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of PeradeniyaSharika Thiranagama, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, the New School, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Stanford&#160;CENTER FOR SOUTH ASIA EVENT: “WRITERS UNDER SIEGE”4.30pm- 7.30pmAuthors:Basharat PeerV.V. GaneshananthanTsering WangmoPireeni SunderalingamDiscussants:Vilashini Cooppan, Associate Professor of Literature, University of California Santa CruzSaikat Majumdar, Assistant Professor of Literature, Stanford University____________________________________________________________________________&#160;Friday, Nov 9thCISAC Conference RoomEncina Hall Central, 2nd floor616 Serra St.9:30am-10:00amWelcome and Introductory Remarks10:00am-12:00pmPanel 1: Religious Practice and Modernity in Sri LankaDiscussant: Thomas Blom Hansen, Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor in South Asian Studies and Professor in Anthropology, Stanford University“Christian David’s Boarding School and the Origins of Education in Ceylon”Mark Balmforth (Columbia University, Religions of South Asia)“Village Life and City Living: Catholic Interreligious Dialogue, Cultural Crossings, and Different Inhabitations of Modernity in Sri Lanka”Alexander McKinley (Duke University, Religion and Modernity)The Plantation System through Religious Practices and Rituals in the Up-country of Sri LankaSasikumar Balasunderam12:00pm-1:30pm LUNCH1:30pm-3:30pmPanel 2: Literary Politics and Religious Discourse in Sri LankaDiscussant: Paul Harrison, George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University“The Alluring Stylus: Monastic Poets in Medieval Buddhist Sri Lanka”Justin Henry (University of Chicago, History of Religions)“Regional Circulations and the Remaking of the Buddhasāsana at Gampola Courts”Philip Friedrich (University of Pennsylvania, South Asian Studies)“Buried in Dhammic Sands: Contesting Lanka’s History of the Tooth Relic in a Thai Chronicle”Kelly Meister (University of Chicago, History of Religions)3:30-4:00pm TEA AND BREAK4:00-6:00pmPanel 3: Political Formations and TransformationsDiscussant: Amita Shastri, Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State University“Buddhism without Borders?: Dana, Humanitarianism and NGO work in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka”Nalika Gajaweera (University of California, Irvine, Anthropology)“Left Perspectives of the Sri Lankan Conflict”Devaka Gunawardena (UCLA, Anthropology)The Social Legacies of Civil War in Eastern Sri Lanka"Ben Pasquale (NYU, Political Science)6:30pm RECEPTION