The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences (SOLAS), Presidency University, Bengaluru, in collaboration with the Journal of Dharma Studies: Asian and Transcultural Religion, Philosophy & Ethics, will host a student conference titled “Deciphering Knowledge, Culture and Society: Tradition and Contemporary Inquiry” on 22 October 2026. The conference will bring together students, researchers and scholars to critically examine how knowledge is produced, preserved, transmitted, interpreted and contested across historical, cultural and social contexts.

The interdisciplinary conference will explore themes spanning literature, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology, history, political science, law and media studies. Discussions will address questions of cultural memory, identity, tradition and modernity, knowledge and power, caste and gender, oral traditions, customary practices, digital cultures, artificial intelligence and the politics of authenticity. The event will feature keynote addresses by Ms Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran, author, poet and microbiologist, and Lt Col Ankita Srivastava, veteran Army officer, author and TEDx speaker. Designed to encourage critical thinking, scholarly dialogue and student-led research, the conference will also provide opportunities for selected papers to be considered for publication through peer-reviewed academic channels.

The conference will be conducted in hybrid mode, enabling participants from outside Bengaluru to present their research online. With a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary inquiry, academic rigour and the plurality of Indian knowledge traditions, the event aims to strengthen students’ research, analytical, writing and presentation skills while fostering meaningful dialogue on knowledge, culture and contemporary society.