Lectures

Keynote Addresses:

  • Marquette University. Pere Marquette Lecture in Theology (2023). “Philosophical Reflections on Śabad (Word)”., WI. April 30th
  • Spalding Symposium 2022. Keynote Address: “A Sikh Perspective on Consciousness, Death and Immortality”, April 22-24, 2022
  • University of California (Irvine). Dhan Kaur Sahota Presidential Chair of Sikh Studies / Inaugural Lecture in Sikh Studies.  “Exploring Logics of (Non)Violence in Sikh Thought”
  • University of California (Riverside) – “Guru Nanak in the Arena of Global Thought”, for conference:  Guru Nanak in a Global Age (May 2nd to 5th 2019)
  • University of Edinburgh, for Conference:  Translation and Religion: Interrogating Concepts, Methods and Practices, “Complicating Contact Zones”, University of Edinburgh, September 1-3 2016
  • Northwestern University, Keynote Address for Conference:  “Specters, Hauntings, Presences, Sikhs and Specters of the West”, October 7th to 9th 2016
  • Westminster College, Keynote Address at the Philosophy Graduate Conference,  “Untimely Encounters”, March 23rd-24th 2015
  • University of Manitoba, “Un-inheriting the Religion Secular Dialectic: The Case of the Sikhs”.  Keynote Address for the Symposium on Religion and Popular Practice in South Asia, University of Manitoba, March 7th to 8th
  • University of Michigan (2011). Inaugural Lecture: “Sikh Studies and the Secular University: Past Engagements, Future Orientations”. Rackham Ampitheater,
  • University of London (SOAS).  Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion (2009)
  • University of California (Berkeley): Key note Address for the conference on Translating Cultures: Sikh and Punjab Studies in Global Perspective, November 11th-12th 2005

Invited Lectures

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

  • American History Association (Jan 3rd, 2019), Chicago, USA
  • University of Vienna (November 14th – 15th 2019)
  • Wolverhampton University, “Diasporic Logics” conference presentation at Inaugural Conference for Sikh & Punjab Studies Centre, September 1st to 3rd, 2019.
  • University of California (Riverside) – Keynote Address (May 2nd to 5th 2019)
  • University of Warwick (UK) –  Conference on (April 27th 2019)
  • University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (Dec 6th-8th 2019) – event postponed due to terrorist bombings.
  • Paths to Liberation Conference, Austrian Academy of Science and Arts, November 27-28th, 2019
  • “Sikh Mysticism”, Lecture for Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit, November 29th 2019

2018

  • Detroit Interfaith Lecture Series, November 28th
  • University of Michigan, Introduction to “Reclaiming Diasporicity” Conference, September 29th/30th 2018.
  • University of Michigan, “Talking about Mind” introduction for Mind/Brain/Consciousness Workshop”, April 26th 2018.

2017

  • Loyola Marymount University, “War Machines” an Invited Lecture for Conference: Spiritual Warriors, Loyola Marymount University, Feb 23rd to 24th 2017.
  • University of California, Riverside, Invited Lecture “Untimely Encounters” for Fifth Sikh Studies Conference Sikhs and South Asians in the Public Sphere: Precarious Minorities and the New Global Politics of Religion.  
  • Loyola Marymount, “Introduction to the Feminisms Roundtable”, Los Angeles, Feb 25th 2017.
  • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 10: “Rethinking Violence in Sikhism” August 12th 2017.

2016

2015

  • Westminister College, Keynote Address at the Philosophy Graduate Conference,  “Untimely Encounters”, March 23rd-24th 2015.
  • University of Michigan, “Teaching Sikhism”, Introduction for the Workshop on Teaching Sikhism, December 5th-6th, 2015
  • Public Outreach Lecture Series
    • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 5: “The Khalsa”, Hidden Falls Center, Detroit, Michigan, Jan  2015.
    • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 6: Modernity and Colonialism 1” Hidden Falls Center, Detroit, Michigan, Jan  2015.
    • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 7: Modernity and Colonialism 2” Hidden Falls Center, Detroit, Michigan, Jan  2015.
    • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 8: Modernity and Colonialism 3” Hidden Falls Center, Detroit, Michigan, Jan  2015.
    • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 9: “What is Gurmat?”, Hidden Falls Center, Detroit, Michigan, Jan  2015.

2014

  • University of Manitoba, “Un-inheriting the Religion Secular Dialectic: The Case of the Sikhs”.  Keynote Address for the Symposium on Religion and Popular Practice in South Asia, University of Manitoba, March 7th to 8th.
  • Marygrove College, “Sikhs and Secularism”, Scholars Colloquy, Marygrove College, Detroit. Oct 2014
  • Uppsala University, “Sovereign Contradictions” for the Conference Modern Government, Sovereignty and the Category of Religion  at Uppsala University Conference, May 8th – 10th, 2014.
  • Carleton University, “Framing the Sikhs”, for the conference Deconstructing the Myth of Religious Violence, Carleton University, Canada,  Violence Conference,
  • Hofstra University, “Violence as Event”, Conference on Violence and 1984, October 2014.
  • Virginia Tech, “Violence and Secularism: Rethinking 1984”, invited lecture at Virginia Tech, Nov 4th 2014
  • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 2: “Guru Nanak in History”, first monthly lecture for Detroit Sikh Community, Hidden Falls Community Center, Plymouth, December 15th 2013.
  • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 3: “The Early Sikh Gurus”, Second monthly lecture for Detroit Sikh Community, Hidden Falls Community Center, Plymouth, January, 2014.
  • Detroit Lecture Series, Lecture 4: “The Later Sikh Gurus”, Detroit Sikh Community, Hidden Falls

2013

  • Oxford University, Spalding Symposium, “ Virtual Sovereignty: Violence and Finitude in the Khalsa Myth”, April 5th-7th 2013; Merton College, Oxford.
  • University of California, Riverside, 3rd Sikh Studies Conference. Invited Lecture, “Sikh Philosophy as a Practice of Everyday Life”, May 2013.
  • London, Sikh Educational Conference “Sikh Studies: Bringing Together University and Grassroots Education” – lecture at Sikh Educational Conference, London, July 18th 2013.
  • American of Academy Annual Meeting, “Theorizing Encounter”, AAR Annual Meeting in Baltimore, History of Ideas Group. November 19th, 2013.
  • Hidden Falls Lecture Series, Lecture 1: Plymouth, Michigan December 6th 2013.

2012

  • American Academy of Religion, North American Religions Sections, Panel on Fessenden’s Culture and Redemption, November 2012.
  • University of Michigan, Center For South Asian Studies, “Vulnerable Minorities” Teach In. September 2012.
  • University of British Columbia, Law and Society Lecture Series, “Religion and the Specter of the West: A Conversation With Arvind-pal S. Mandair”, November 14th 2012.
  • University of British Columbia, “reflections on Oak Creek”, Law Building, Nov 15th. 2012.

2011

  • University of Michigan, “Sikh Studies and the Secular University”, Inaugural Lecture for the Endowed Chair in Sikh Studies, Rackham Amphitheater, Dec. 8th 2011.
  • American Academy of Religion Meeting, “Response to Discussion on Religion and the Specter of the West”
  • American Academy of Religion Meeting (DANAM Session), “Sovereignty and the Khalsa”

2010

2009

  • SOAS, University of London, Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion (2009):
    • Lecture 1:  “Frames of Comparison: Nihilism and the Modern Sikh Imaginary” November. 30th
    • Lecture 2: “Beyond Theism and Atheism: Re-interpreting the Creation Myth in Sikh Literature”,  December 1st,
    • Lecture 3: “Guru-as-Word: Language, Music and Subjectivity in the Adi Granth”, December 2nd
    • Lecture 4: “Mourning Sovereignty: Finitude and Sacred Violence in the Myth of the Khalsa” , Dec. 3rd
    • Lecture 5: “Secularism & Political Violence: Rethinking Discourses of Sikh Ethno-nationalism”, Dec. 4th
  • UF, Experts Meeting, presented paper on “Sikhism and karma”, October 31st – 2nd Nov 2009.
  • University of Wisconsin (Madison), Panel Presentation on “Sikh Ethnonationalism”, October 2009.
  • U.C. Berkeley, organized the workshop and presented paper on “Sikhs and 1984”, September 2009.
  • University of Birmingham (UK), “Mourning Sovereignty: Rethinking Sikh Ethno-nationalism”, May 2009.

2002-2006

  • University of California (Berkeley), “Sikhs and Public Space”, May 31st –June 2nd 2007.
  • Lebanon Valley College, “Religion, Secularism and Indian Democracy”, April 18th 2007.
  • Imperial College (University of London), “Sikhs in the UK: Fact Fiction and Future”, April 5th 2006.
  • University of Michigan (Ann Arbor): “The Politics of Non-Duality: Unravelling Modern Sikh Hermeneutics”, South Asian Studies, December 9th 2005.
  • University of California (Berkeley): Key note Address for the conference on Translating Cultures: Sikh and Punjab Studies in Global Perspective, November 11th-12th 2005.
  • University of California (Irvine), “The Repetition of Past Imperialisms”, Centre for Critical Theory.
  • Stony Brook University, “The Ontotheologic of South Asian Studies”, India Studies Center, April, 2004.
  • Oxford University:   27th Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, “Reconstituting Gurmat:  Time and Subjectivity in the Sikh Reformist Discourses”, March 27th-29th 2002.
  • San Diego: Nov. 19th 2007, Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Paper Presented “Repetition Without Origin”.
  • Boston: March 25th 2007 Association of Asian Studies, Annual Meeting.
  • “Repetition Without Origins” in panel on Time and History in South Asian Pasts.
  • Philadelphia: November 2005 Annual Meeting of  the American Academy of Religion, Two separate 1000 word proposals accepted through blind peer review for presentation in:
  • Panel A21 (World)-Religionization: The Politics of Religion Making, jointly sponsored by the Comparative Studies in Religion and the Critical Discourses on Religion Groups;
  • Panel A22: Empire, Globalization and Religion: Interactions With Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, sponsored by the Continental Philosophy and Theology Group.
  • Atlanta: November 2003 Annual Meeting of American Academy of Religion, 1000 word Proposal Accepted through Blind Review for Presentation in Panel A119:  Theology and Religious Reflection Section: Panel theme: Religion and Post-Colonialism.
  • Toronto: November 2002 Annual Meeting of American Academy of Religion.  1000 word Proposal Accepted through Peer Review Process for presentation at Panel A173: Philosophy of Religion, Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Section.
  • Madison: October 2005 “Discursive Formations of Sikhness” presented at The 34th Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin.
  • University of Leeds, “South Asians in Britain”, International Workshop:  17th December 2002.
  • Buxton (UK), Religion and Violence: An International Workshop, “Pathologies of the Modern Sikh Imaginary: Violence, Separatism and the ‘Middle Ground’ of Sikhism”, September 1st –3rd, 2002.
  • University of Lancaster:  Continental Philosophy of Religion, Panel Presentation: “Theorizing Religions”, July 2000.
  • Hofstra University, International Workshop on Sikhism and Critical Theory, “Transcendence and Singh Sabha Theology: Redefining the Terms of the Critical”, September 13th, 2002.
  • Birmingham University October 25th 2003:  Beyond the Politics of Recognition: Rethinking Sikh-Christian Dialogue” Paper to be presented at International Conference on “Sikhism and Inter-religious Relations”.
  • Union Theological Seminary, International Conference on Conflict Resolution: A Dialogue Among Cultures and Religions, “Rhetorics of Conflict and Love in Guru Gobind Singh’s Literature”, April 20-21, 2002.
  • United Nations, Geneva, Plenary Session on Race and Multiculturalism, April 2000.