Sikh Aesthetics: Philosophy, Feminism, and Praxis
A public talk with Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh
January 23, 2025 | 11AM-1PM EST
Description
In this talk, Dr. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh focused on Sikh aesthetics as understood through its sacred poetry and art. This approach is multisensory and will go beyond the dualisms of aesthetics/religion, male/female, theory/action, and aural or heard/visual or seen to discuss questions like: How is the singular divine conceptualized? How does the female agent achieve subjectivity? How are Sikh institutions aesthetic exercises? Essentially, what new imaginaries do Sikh aesthetics open up for our 21st-century global society?
About Professor Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh
Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh was born in India and went to Stuart Hall, a girls' preparatory school in the USA. She received her B.A. in philosophy and religion from Wellesley College, her M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and her Ph.D. from Temple University.
Dr. Kaur Singh is a Crawford Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Colby College in the United States Her interests focus on poetics and feminist issues. Nikky Singh has published extensively in the field of Sikhism, including The Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), The Name of My Beloved: Verses of the Sikh Gurus (HarperCollins and Penguin), and Metaphysics and Physics of the Guru Granth Sahib (Sterling). Her book on Sikhism was translated into Japanese. She has lectured widely in North America, England, France, India, and Singapore, and her views have been aired on television and radio in America, Canada, Bangladesh, Australia, Ireland, and India.