Thank you for this update, Patricia.

I am saddened by the problems in the organizing of this round of the World 
Sanskrit Conference.  For the same reason cited by your co-panelists—no clear 
indication of any plans for the conference—I too withdrew from the proceedings 
some weeks ago.  It's a shame, and I hope they put my registration fee to use, 
such that it will support the conference in its future, I hope better, 
iterations.

Sincerely, and all best to those who attend in that wonderful host city,
John


___________________________________________
John Nemec, Ph.D.
Professor of Indian Religions and South Asian Studies
Department of Religious Studies
323 Gibson Hall, 1540 Jefferson Park Avenue
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904
+1 (434) 924-6716
[email protected]
https://virginia.academia.edu/JNemec

Take a look at my new book:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/brahmins-and-kings-9780197791998?cc=us&lang=en&;
________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> on behalf of Patricia 
SAUTHOFF <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2025 2:20 AM
To: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] WSC Kathmandu

Dear all,

I am just writing to let those of you who are participating know that the 
schedule (which was supposed to be emailed to participants but has not been) is 
available on the WSC website. You may also notice that the venue has been 
quietly changed from a college to a primary school!

I have just written a long email to them regarding the absolute lack of 
professionalism in the organization of this conference. I had a special panel 
accepted in April of 2024. I registered in February of 2025. Since then my 
co-panelists have dropped out because of the lack of communication by the 
organizers.

I myself wrote to the organizers at least a half dozen times to find out how 
much time my panel would be allotted and received zero response. A draft 
schedule leaked last week and I alerted members to the fact that my panel was 
not included. Again, this issue was not addressed by organizers.

The conference begins in a few days and the schedule online still claims to be 
preliminary: This is a preliminary program schedule and is still under review. 
If you notice any discrepancies or if anything has been missed,
please inform Mr. Prashant Kashyap (Local Scientific Coordinator) at 
[email protected]

I hope those of you who do attend have a wonderful time. Despite preparing for 
a full presentation, I will be using my valuable time in Kathmandu to do other 
things but do hope to see some of you anyway.

Best,
Patricia
________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> on behalf of Patricia 
SAUTHOFF <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2025 2:29 PM
To: Indology <[email protected]>; Dominik Wujastyk 
<[email protected]>
Subject: [IMPERSONATED EMAIL] Re: [INDOLOGY] WSC Kathmandu

** This email has been identified by ITO as Impersonated/Fake email – the 
sender address [Patricia SAUTHOFF 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>] of this email is NOT 
authorised by the HKBU email system. **

Dear Dominik,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us all. Yours seems like a simple 
request and an easily solved problem.

I had a special panel accepted for this conference in April 2024.

>From the outset there were rumours that the conference would be delayed or 
>cancelled, and of course a delay did occur. Now it seems that nearly half my 
>panel will be unable to attend the conference due to registration, timing, 
>expense, and lack of communication issues.

I myself have written the organizers several times over the last year and have 
received almost no response. The most recent circular on the website refers to 
the extended submission deadline of August 2024.

If my panel does indeed fall apart, I too will be out several hundred dollars.

Best of luck to everyone!

Patricia
________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> on behalf of Dominik 
Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2025 9:46 PM
To: Indology <[email protected]>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] WSC Kathmandu

CAUTION! EXTERNAL EMAIL (not being sent from @hkbu email system): Do not click 
links, open attachments, or respond to it unless you trust the email 
source/verify the identity of the sender by other means.



I wish to share my experience about registering for the Kathmandu WSC.

Because of the early registration deadline, I paid the fee of about C$400 last 
year out of my own pocket.  Subsequently, my university said they would not pay 
me back until after the conference, but that I could transfer the payment to a 
university credit card.  I wrote to the WSC organizers asking them to let me 
switch the payment to a different card and eventually got an answer.  They said 
no, they would not help and that if I wanted to cancel I would get only 25% of 
the fee back.

This is a startlingly greedy policy.

I have written to the organizers to cancel my attendance and I have asked for a 
refund.  This experience has been unpleasant and expensive for me.

Best wishes to everyone, and I hope that for those who are able to attend that 
it will be an exciting and enriching experience.

Best,
Dominik


--
Dominik Wujastyk, Professor Emeritus,
University of Alberta

"The University of Alberta is committed to the pursuit of truth,
the advancement of learning, and the dissemination of knowledge
through teaching, research and other scholarly and creative activities and 
service."
-- Collective 
Agreement<https://www.ualberta.ca/human-resources-health-safety-environment/media-library/my-employment/agreements/2020-2024-collective-agreement---working-version.pdf>
 3.01

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