2003 Visitors - Philosophy, Theology, and Cultural Traditions

St FX’s Centre for Philosophy, Theology, and Cultural Traditions is pleased to welcome a visiting scholar from India, sponsored by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.

Prof Sreekala M. Nair, a Professor in the Department of Philosophy from the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, in Kerala, India, will be visiting St Francis Xavier from September 13 until October 14, and working with Dr William Sweet, Director of the Centre.

Prof. Nair is the recipient of an Sastri Indo-Canadian Institute Fellowship to come to Antigonish in order to work on a project entitled “Tradition and Values in the Politics of Recognition: Canadian Diversity and its Impact on the Contemporary World (an inter-disciplinary approach)”. Dr Nair will also work on the development of an M.A. level course on this theme.

During her stay at StFX, she will meet with faculty and students, visit classes, give a public lecture, and participate in workshops or seminars on such topics as “Indian Theories of Consciousness” and the “Epistemological Underpinnings of Cultural Disparities.”

Dr Nair has previously participated in research seminars throughout India on a range of themes. She has also been the recipient of Research Fellowships from the Indian Council for Philosophical Research (ICPR) on “The philosophy of consciousness and its implication: A Dialogue Between the East and the West” (2002) and on “Modeling the Dynamics of Epistemic and Doxastic States: Interplay between Epistemology and Epistemic Logic” (2009).

Dr Nair received her PhD in 1993 (with a thesis on “Analysis of Knowledge: Classical & Contemporary Approaches”) from the University of Madras, and her BA and MA (with a thesis on “Brand Blanshard on Necessities”) from the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. For the past 17 Years she has taught Western and Indian epistemology.

She is a coeditor of The Great Philosophers of India (2009), and the author of many articles in Indian philosophy and in Western and Indian epistemology.

Established in 2002, the aim of the Centre for Philosophy, Theology, and Cultural Traditions is to enable scholars and students to pursue research that involves understanding and assessing reciprocal influences and intellectual claims of philosophy, religion, and cultural traditions.

It also publishes (electronically) a ‘working papers’ series—a set of ‘pre-publication’ discussion papers, usually based on texts presented at the Centre's workshops and colloquia—providing additional opportunities for the exchange of ideas and research results.