Promising Voices - The Voices of Promise, an ERC VOICES working seminar organized in collaboration with the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, will take place at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków from 9-11 July 2026.

• 09:30 -10:15 C. Galewicz, E. Mucciarelli | Introduction
• 10:15- 11:00 Ute Huesken | Ritual as performed promise
• 11:00-11:15 Coffee break
• 11:15 -12:00 Cezary Galewicz | The Engine of Anti-promise: on Cultural Economy of Curse in Indulekha
• 12:00 -12:45 Talia Ariav (online) | Reading Promises along the contours of poetry
• 12:45–14:15 Lunch break
• 14:15 -15:00 C. Rajendran | What does a Song Promise? Assumptions, Expectations and Outcomes
• 15:45-16:00 Coffee break
• 16:00-16:45 Elizabeth Cecil (online) | Vows in Stone: The Futurity of Lithic Media
• 16:45-17:30 Joanna Gruszewska | The Promise of nibbana – Voices of Transformation in Therigāthā

• 09:30 - 10:15 Paolo Pacciolla | The people of Śiva and the promise of the drum
• 10:15 - 11:00 Mateusz Kowalski | The 17th century Jean Rousseau’s ‘Traité de la Viole’ and the Promise of the Sweetest Voice
• 11:00 -11:45 SAS Sarma (online) | Promissory Practices in Ritual Traditions: With Special Reference to Bharaṇippāṭṭu
• 11:45-12:00 Coffee Break
• 12:00 - 12:45 Mundoli Narayanan (online) | Satire as Promise of a Potential Public Sphere: Kunchan Nambiar's Revolutionary Poetics in 18th Century Keralam
• 12:45 -13:30 Pablo Valdivia-Orozco | Promise and Power: Critical perspectives on linguistic and literary approaches
• 13:30 -14:30 Lunch break
• 14:30 -15:15 Praveen Vijayakumar (online) | Performing Vernacular Musicalized Oratory: Kirupāṉanta Vāriyār (1906-1993) and a Vēḷāḷarized Tamil Śaivism
• 15:15 -16:00 Abhilash Malayil | The promise of a certain death. Mother's revenge and the legend of Payyannur
• 16:00 -16:15 Coffee Break
• 16:15 -17:00 Sivan Goren (online) | The Narrative Mechanism of curse: readings from Unniyaticaritam and Candrolsavam
• 17:00 -17:45 Camillo Formigatti | More than a colophon? How to transfer merit in Buddhist written artefacts: examples from 17th-century Nepal

• 09:00 -09:45 Elena Mucciarelli | On the Art of Fugue: Embodying promises in the performative genres of the Lady of the Hills 
• 09:45 -10:30 Stefania Cavaliere (online) | Seascapes of Promise: return, futurity, and oceanic temporalities in the Language of the Lascars
• 10:30 -10:45 Coffee Break
• 10:45 - 11:00 Binesh Balan | A Vow for the Dead: Possession Practices and Mortuary Obligations in the Kola Songs of North Malabar
• 11:00 -11:45 Luisa Spagna | The Speaking Body: Dancer as Oracle and the Timing of the Space
• 11:45 -12:00 Coffee Break
• 12:45 -12:45 Cristina Bignami | Spatializing Time: A Karnataka Nāyaka Temple as Site of Promise
• 12:45-13:30 Devahar Vijayan (online) | A promise of a digital archive: notes on the recording of Pudiyur Uccabali ritual
• CONCLUSION: Promises for future