My academic research explored the development of modern Hinduism in colonial and pre-colonial South Asia. I was awarded a PhD in Religion by Columbia University in 2011. I still hope to revise my dissertation for publication. My dissertation focuses on Nābhādās’ Bhaktamāl (Garland of Devotees). This late sixteenth- or early seventeenth-century collection of hagiographies praises the qualities of hundreds of devotees and thereby sets the boundaries of a devotional community far exceeding the sectarian context of its author. By closely examining the Bhaktamāl, along with its commentaries, manuscripts, and print editions, my dissertation traces crucial aspects of how modern Hinduism developed from the early seventeenth century until the beginning of the twentieth. The Bhaktamāl has, since the time of its composition, remained a prominent locus of dispute over the boundaries and logic of the broad-based devotional community that we now know as Hinduism.
Scholarly Publications
“Nābhādās’ Bhaktamāl and Manuscript Culture,” Bhakti Beyond the Forest: Current Research on Early Modern Literatures in North India, 2003-2009, Ed. Imre Bangha, Delhi: Manohar, 2012.
“Contested Communities and the Re-imagination of Nabhadas’ Bhaktamāl,” Time, History, and the Religious Imaginary in South Asia, Ed. Anne Murphy, New York: Routledge, 2011.
“A Contested Community: Priyādās and the Re-imagining of Nābhādās’s Bhaktamāl,” Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory 3.2 (2007): 185-198.