She holds a PhD in Sanskrit from the University of Cambridge, a Master's degree in Sanskrit Studies from the University of Edinburgh and a Bachelor's degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Her doctoral dissertation received the D. K. Award for the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation on Sanskrit, granted by the International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS). She is currently a researcher at the Center for Classical Studies of the Institute of Philological Research (IIFL-UNAM), where she is dedicated to the study of classical India. Since January 2012, she has served as IASS Regional Director for Latin America. In 2014 she received the National University Distinction Award for Young Scholars (RDUNJA) for her teaching work. Her main areas of research are Sanskrit epics, textual criticism and compared literature.
Cariños y recuerdos de una pandemia reúne los escritos de 15 integrantes del Programa Universitario de Estudios sobre Asia y África (PUEAA), quienes recurren al género epistolario a fin de plasmar sus vivencias durante la pandemia por Covid-19.
Como escribe Alicia Girón, los integrantes del PUEAA "soñábamos con realizar actividades en diferentes lugares, como Corea, China, Japón, India, Marruecos, Senegal, Sudáfrica y España [...] pero todo cambió el 16 de marzo, cuando se decretó el cierre de todas las actividades". Así, las cartas contenidas en este libro están dirigidas en su mayoría a seres queridos o admirados que viven fuera de México. De este modo, los autores nos permiten vislumbrar no sólo su propio mundo privado e intereses de estudio sino también el de sus interlocutores, dándonos por ende una muestra de su sensibilidad ante un evento que ha afectado a todo el mundo. En efecto, la variedad de termas expuestos en las cartas van desde la nostalgia del encuentro físico, hasta la angustia debido al número de muertos y contagiados, pasando por los avatares de la vida cotidiana.
Acompañado de las ilustraciones de Yussef A. Galicia, Cariños y recuerdos de una pandemia revela con delicadeza el "compromiso de cada autor [...] tuvo para transmitir sus vivencias durante la pandemia de Covid-19 en el 2020".
More than a linear, chronological development, the reader will appreciate that this volume was built around an idea, or a set of ideas, about what India represents. It is, of course, a limited space, an invention, and for this reason the title itself shows a conscious effort, hopelessly incomplete, to organize a series of knowledge around a topic that overflows in all aspects: studies on India.
It is common that - from an academic point of view - modern India, classical India and all the other Indies are studied separately. There is usually little communication between the different types of specialists, some closer to social disciplines, others to the humanities and the arts.
However, this frequent disconnection exists only in the formal sphere, since a glance at any of the works that make up this book is enough to realize that there is a constant dialogue between them through which there is a kind of coming and going throughout history and academic disciplines.
The chant of the Eight-humped Boy (Aṣṭāvakragītā) is a text belonging to the Advaita Vedānta school, one of the best known non-dualistic thought forms in India. The work presents the dialogue between King Janaka and Aṣṭāvakra (from Sanskrit aṣṭa "eight" and vakra "deformities, malformations, humps"), a deformed boy who comes to his court and amazes everyone with his wisdom.
The text is simple but devastating; systematically, in no more than 300 verses, it proceeds to invalidate all the paths, orthodox and heterodox, that the Indian tradition has pointed towards transcendence. There is no practice or school of thought that is not refuted by the simple truth that Aṣṭāvakra holds: there is no path to liberation, liberation is already — and has always been — our natural state. All you need is to become aware of it.