Third Conference - Mumbai

Our third conference will take place in Mumbai, India, from 11-13 January 2027. We are organising the conference in collaboration with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay.

Our theme will be: Spiritual Realities and the Ends of Humanity: Engaging Indian Philosophy with Contemporary Philosophy of Religion

Details of the application process for travel bursaries can be found here, and a full call for abstracts is available here. Please note the separate deadlines for travel funding applications (August 12) and for speakers not requesting funding (September 15).

For further information contact gpr@contacts.bham.ac.uk. A full website will follow closer to the conference date.

Overview of the Conference Theme

The Global Philosophy of Religion Project 2 is dedicated to transforming the philosophy of religion into a truly global and diverse field of inquiry. We aim to expand the field beyond its usual boundaries by including traditions that are frequently overlooked in contemporary philosophy debates in Anglophone academia, and by addressing contemporary challenges that explore profound questions about the ends of humanity, the shape of a purposeful and meaningful life, what it is to live well, and the role (if any) fundamental spiritual realities like God play in answering such questions.

Our final conference will take place in Mumbai. We believe that India is a critical place for global philosophy of religion and the philosophy of meaning in life. With a longstanding history of multifaith practices, where the co-existence of perspectives includes that of tradition and modernity, India has a unique approach to engaging religious principles, metaphysics, epistemology, transformative technologies of the self, ethics and social values in light of addressing the question of meaning in life.

We welcome papers that address questions concerning the nature and role of spiritual reality, the meaning and purpose in/of human life, and issues of how to live. We are especially open to papers focusing on philosophico-religious traditions that are particularly relevant to the region, that is, traditional South Asian religions such as Hinduism – including but not restricted to Sāṅkhya, Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, Vedānta, Mīmāṃsā, Shaivism and Vaishnavism –, Buddhism, Jainism, Cārvāka, as well as Islam and Christianity in India and Sikhism, and which bring them in dialogue with global traditions