ISSJS - Summer School 2006

The second summer school for Jain studies is planned for June 1st to July 31st 2006 in India. Admissions for students to enroll for studies, scholars to teach as faculty specialist subjects and volunteers to serve the school are open. Please see respective announcements or contact Prof. Cromwell Crawford for student enrollment and Shugan Jain for others.

This year we expect 20 students and professors from USA, Canada and Europe to join the school. They will arrive in India before 1st June 2006 for two months intensive course in Jainism. This fast track, two-tiered program is open to students and professors in American and European universities. Its purpose is to impart advanced grounding/skills in the Jain religion (for an understanding of the many facets of Jainism including its history, culture, politics, philosophy, ethics and practice). The teaching will include:

• Interactive classroom lectures using modern teaching aides and tools by eminent scholars.

• Live interaction by visits to Jain homes, family ceremonies, temple worship, rituals, festivals, pilgrimage and visual and performing arts.

• Interactions with Jain monks and nuns

• Access to Jain libraries, literature and interaction with prominent Jains.

This program will be conducted each summer for a period of two months (June, July). The program is open to all full-time graduate students (enrolled in an American or European universities), post-graduate students and to all full-time professors / lecturers employed in an American or European university, regardless of religion, race, or citizenship. The most important qualification for the professor / lecturers is to be personally and professionally committed to the promotion of Jain studies in his or her university, through recruiting students, and seeing to it that Jainism is made a part of the department's curriculum. The eminent lecturers selected to teach in India will be well versed in their subject and for communications in English. Our partner Jain institutions in India also stand to benefit by the exchange of knowledge, academic exchanges and affiliations and giving the academicians international exposure to the Jain way of life. At the initiative taken by the ASJNA, Prof. Cromwell Crawford of University of Hawaii and the group of concerned Jains in North America and Europe have developed the concept of this project which is implemented in India by Shugan Jain and the Indian Academic council.

The course provides an introduction to Jainism in the widest sense, covering Jain doctrine, the social history of the Jains, Jain heritage, rituals and their importance in the life of the people, Jain way of life, place of Jainism in modern society, and contemporary religious practice. At the end of the course a student will become familiar with principal issues of Jain research, and able to identify both the philosophical, ritual and organizational differences between the main Jain sects, and the role of synergetic imports from other religious and cultural traditions. On successful completion of the course the World Council of Jain Academies will issue a certificate of competence. The course requires no knowledge of Indian Languages.

The Programme: 2006 Summer School in Jain Studies will be held as follows: