A Colby College professor delivers a hybrid lecture in Camden on September 23

The Camden Conference, in partnership with the Camden Public Library, presents Nikki Guninder Kaur Singh, Crawford Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Colby College, to lecture on the role of Indian art, literature and cinema as the glue for global communication.

The event is scheduled to be held at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 23 at the Camden Library, 55 Main Street, in anticipation of the 37th annual Camden Conference, “India: Growing Ambitions, Challenges at Home,” which will be held February 16-16 February. 18 from Camden Opera House.

“Our world is dangerously divided and polarized. Economic disparities, political divisions, environmental devastation, religious wars, and fear of immigrants appear to be getting worse,” Singh said, according to a press release from Julia Sagasser, the library’s director of programs.

In her talk, Singh will discuss whether aesthetics – the opposite of anesthesia – can serve as an antidote to modern crises. By heightening sensitivities, visual and literary creations connect people to themselves, to their fellow human beings, and to nature. Singh will illustrate this discussion with Sikh and Sufi poetry, contemporary Indian art, and Bollywood film clips, the press release said.

This is a hybrid event and will be held in the library’s selector room as well as on Zoom. To find the Zoom registration link to attend virtually, visit the “What’s Happening” adult events calendar at librarycamden.org.

Singh was born in India and went to Stuart Hall, a girls’ preparatory school in the USA. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Religion from Wellesley College, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate from Temple University.

She is department chair and the Crawford Family Professor of Religion at Colby College. Her interests focus on poetics and feminist issues.

Singh has published widely in the field of Sikhism, including The Feminine Principle in the Sikh View of the Transcendent, The Name of My Beloved: Verses of the Sikh Gurus, and The Metaphysics and Physics of the Guru Granth Sahib. She has lectured widely in North America, England, France, India and Singapore, and her views have been broadcast on television and radio in America, Canada, Bangladesh, Australia, Ireland and India.

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