Sheridan Institute of Higher Education and our sponsors wish to announce the third biennial Indian Ocean Studies Conference, Pathways and Passages: Faith and Migration in the Indian Ocean Region, to be held in Perth, Western Australia at the WA Maritime Museum on Friday, 17 November 2023 and Saturday, 18 November 2023.

The Indian Ocean Region is the birthplace of three of the world's major religions - Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism - and the avenue for propelling the two other major religions born nearby - Judaism and Christianity - to the East. Many lesser-known religions such as Zoroastrianism and Jainism also originated in and spread throughout this region, carries across its waters in trading ships or across its land formations in trading caravans. These religions were propagated by both traders and scholars, missionaries and migrants.

At this year's biennial Indian Ocean Studies Conference, we will be focussing on the movements of people across the Indian Ocean Region - broadly defined as 'migration' - and how this has and continues to impact the spread, reception and adaptation of faith in various contexts throughout the region. Further, we will explore how faith may also impact the movement of people, including the destinations they move towards, the livelihoods they engage in, and the social connections they retain, reshape and develop.

We would like to invite scholars to consider the inter-relation of faith and movement of people throughout the Indian Ocean Region. We also welcome scholars interested in exploring faith and migration in the region as separate topics. Through individual presentations and panels, we encourage participants to reflect upon the historical and contemporary roles of faith and migration in mutually propelling and influencing each other across the Indian Ocean Region and/or the ways in which faith and people have spread across the region in general.

We welcome scholars with a research interest in the above topics to submit abstracts for individual papers and/or panel proposals for the conference (please refer to the Abstract Submission tab).

Please note that, with the relative decline of the pandemic, we are encouraging in-person presentations and attendance. As with the 2021 conference, we anticipate producing a publication following the 2023 conference, and welcome your expression of interest in contributing to this publication if you are able to participate in the conference. Please view the book based on the 2021 conference here.

This conference is organised by the Indian Ocean Research Centre at the Sheridan Institute of Higher Education.

Organising Committee

Associate Professor Him Chung
Associate Professor, Humanities, Sheridan Institute of Higher Education

Dr Joshua Esler
Director, Indian Ocean Research Centre
Lecturer, Humanities (Asian Studies), Sheridan Institute of Higher Education

Dr Mark Fielding
Director, Indian Ocean Research Centre
Senior Lecturer, Education, Sheridan Institute of Higher Education

Mr Peter Ridgway
Past President, Australian Association for Maritime History