What colonial complexities and categories persist at Case that reinforce or permit institutional, structural, and systemic racism? In his talk Sarma challenges the Case community to confront time-honored taxonomies that often remain hidden behind gestural subversions, cultural posturing, and performative diversity agendas. Is decolonizing Case possible? Desirable? Or dangerous? Or is it impossible, in this case?
https://community.case.edu/OIDEO/rsvp_boot?id=1383452
Dr. Deepak Sarma, professor of South Asian religions and philosophy at Case Western Reserve University, is the author of Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader (2011), Hinduism: A Reader (2008), Epistemologies and the Limitations of Philosophical Inquiry: Doctrine in Madhva Vedanta (2005) and An Introduction to Madhva Vedanta (2003).
He was a guest curator of Indian Kalighat Paintings, an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He is a curatorial consultant for the Department of Asian Art of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
After earning a BA in religion from Reed College, Sarma attended the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he received a PhD in the philosophy of religions. His current reflections concern cultural theory, racism, and post-colonialism.
