The fall term starts today. I’m excited to teach Epic Epics again and my new Religion, Representation, and Avatar course! I’ll be using Avatar to teach about Asian and Indigenous American religious traditions, cultural appropriation, Orientalism, imperialism, racism, and more.

I hope everybody is noticing that public and private universities all over the country are dismantling religious studies programs as white christian nationalists are ascendant in all levels of our government

Ep 328: Dr. Tess Starman joins me to discuss “A Corrupted Faith” — exploring Christian disaffiliation, power, and the rise of #ReligiousNones. Listen: linktr.ee/classicalideas @sacredwrites.bsky.social @tessstarman.bsky.social

Episode 329 with Dr. Swasti Bhattacharya discusses the Brahma Vidya Mandir ashram, a spiritually-focused women’s community in rural central India! Listen: linktr.ee/classicalideas @swastib.bsky.social @sacredwrites.bsky.social

Episode 327 of Classical Ideas features Dr. Rebecca Wolfe discussing dieting and religious shame! Listen: linktr.ee/classicalideas Thank you to @rebeccathewolfe.bsky.social and @sacredwrites.bsky.social!

One of Urdu’s Greatest Scholars, C.M. Naim, Passes Away thewire.in/culture/cm-n...

Very grateful to @mpgphd.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to publish this piece on the absence of caste and casteism in American TV for @religiondispatches.org! And to @sacredwrites.bsky.social for training me to be a public scholar! religiondispatches.org/erasing-cast...

the latest from RD: @sohinipillai.bsky.social on why American TV needs to be talking more about caste religiondispatches.org/erasing-cast...

Ep 326 of Classical Ideas features a conversation with Dr. Celene Ibrahim about fertility, abortion, reproductive care and its relation to Islam! Listen: linktr.ee/classicalideas @sacredwrites.bsky.social

Ep 325 of Classical Ideas features Dr. Amanda Hernandez on her academic journey and her 2024 book Intersectional Identities of Christian Women in the United States: Faith, Race, and Feminism. 📢 @sacredwrites.bsky.social 👤 Follow: @uhmanduhdawn.bsky.social 🎧 Listen: linktr.ee/classicalideas

Are you a scholar of religion with a passion for public scholarship? Want to share your work with an enthusiastic, global audience hungry for deeper learning? We’re inviting scholars to give lectures in a live Zoom series hosted by Religion for Breakfast. More here! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Dr. Sohini Sarah Pillai joined me on episode 324 to discuss her project "Epic Bollywood: Religion and Representation in Modern Indian Cinema." Thanks so much to @sohinipillai.bsky.social and @sacredwrites.bsky.social! Listen: linktr.ee/classicalideas

New episode about about cinematic adaptations of Indian epics with @sohinipillai.bsky.social this Thursday, June 12 at Classical Ideas Podcast! We had a lot of fun with this episode! Follow along: linktr.ee/classicalideas

EP 323 of Classical Ideas Podcast features a chat with Dr. Lucas Wilson @lukeslamdunkwilson.bsky.social about the new book "Shame-Sex Attraction: : Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy" from Jessica Kingsley Publishers! Thank you to @sacredwrites.bsky.social Listen: linktr.ee/classicalideas

Celebrated Star Wars Day today by hosting a dinner for my 2021 Epic Epics first year seminar, which was the first @kalamazoocollege.bsky.social class I ever taught. 9/15 students came, including one who transferred! I’m going to ugly crying HARD during their graduation in June #MayTheFourthBeWithYou

We’ve had some good @kalamazoocollege.bsky.social Religion Department sweatshirts before, but this one is my favorite.

what a lineup!! honored to be included with so many brilliant thinkers (also if y'all don't know, you need to pick up *Lifeblood of the Parish*, which we just featured on #KeepingIt101, and *Vodou in Vogue*, written by @xroadproj.bsky.social 2025-6 fellow Dr. Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha!!)

First day of the @kalamazoocollege.bsky.social spring term! This term I’m teaching Princesses, Demonesses, and Warriors: The Women of the South Asian Epics and the Junior Seminar in Religion. Super excited to read these books with our juniors! @profirmf.bsky.social @mpgphd.bsky.social

Looking forward to returning to my beloved alma mater today and giving a talk on my new book project for members of the @wellesley.edu community!

The Religion and Computer Science departments hosted an Iftar dinner for Ramadan for K’s Muslim students last night and we had a wonderful time. I love our K College community! @taylorpetrey.bsky.social

One of my favorite Kalamazoo College events was last night: the Religion Senior Integrated Project (SIP) Symposium! So proud of all our Religion seniors, especially our three SIP students 🧡 @taylorpetrey.bsky.social

So excited to be part of the 2025 @sacredwrites.bsky.social spring public scholarship cohort for scholars of religion, gender, and sexuality!

Happy Major Declaration Day to all the new Religion majors and minors and Film and Media Studies concentrators at K! And to my adorable godson Zephyr who looks a bit scared of his godmother. @taylorpetrey.bsky.social @trisfaulkner.bsky.social

Taj Mahal and Itmad-ud-Daula with @matthewsutter.bsky.social

So happy to be in India again after 5 years with my husband @matthewsutter.bsky.social even if it is just for 6 more days!

What a Beauty! I'm delighted to share the cover for my forthcoming book on Indian history... all of it. 5,000 years, dozens of languages and cultures, 1 author. Coming from @princetonupress.bsky.social to wherever you buy books on June 3, 2025. Preorder: princeton.press/8r8idcye

First day of the K College Winter term! Teaching my Star Wars class again and a new Religion/Theatre Studies course called Dance, Drama, and Devotion in South Asia!

My department is hiring a Lecturer in Religions of Premodern South Asia and we’re working with several programs at the university on longer-term plans for a permanent position. This is renewable up to 3 years. puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

One can never have too many Star Wars ugly Christmas sweaters.

Two-year Postdoctoral Researcher Position in Critical Caste Studies, University of Chicago. Applications welcome until the post is filled -- apply.interfolio.com/157701 #postdoc #academia #highered #caste

Today is the last day of OUP’s #SBLAAR24 sale! You can purchase #KrishnasMahabharatas at 40% off until the end of today here: oxford.ly/4gh7mcQ

I shouldn’t be surprised because Arun, John, Aalekhya, Sowparnika, and Emilia are incredible scholars, but our “Retelling Hindu Narratives Outside the Epics” panel was the bee’s knees. Organizing/presiding at a panel and getting to listen to amazing papers by amazing people is lit. #AARSBL24 #AAR

Obligatory book at exhibit hall photo at AAR/SBL! PS Krishna’s Mahabharatas is 40% off at the Oxford University Press website with the code EXAAR24! #AARSBL24 #SBLAAR24 #SBLAAR #AARSBL

We're all set up and ready to meet you at #AAR & #SBL in San Diego! Visit us at booth 404 in the exhibit hall and save 30% on all orders!

Friends attending #AARSBL24: come check out the panels and roundtables for the Hinduism Unit this year! The first ones start tomorrow!

okay, the second starter pack i want to create is folks attending + presenting + advertising panels at #SBLAAR24. like this skeet if, and only if, that’s you. we’ll get a good running commentary going in anticipation of and during the conference! please reskeet to signal boost.

Hope you’ll join @dillivali.bsky.social, Steven Lindquist, and Anna Seastrand and I at the New Books in Hindu Studies roundtable at #AARSBL24 on Sunday!

I wrote a review of Singham Again for The Polis Project a few weeks ago. So far, this film is the highest grossing Hindi movie of 2024... www.thepolisproject.com/read/singham...

Apologies for not writing up a more formal review to publish in some online paper or magazine, but I just got home and I have to say something right now. I’m going to be thinking about Heretic Movie for a long, long time. 1/

I made a feed for #SBL and #AAR discussion ahead of the annual meeting next week. It grabs a bunch of related tags and gives us all one place to look. Check it out and share it! Tags are not case-sensitive, including: #sbl #aar #aarsbl #sblaar #aarsbl24 #sblaar24

Gearing up for #AARSBL24? My one piece of advice: Everyone is smart. Distinguish yourself by being kind.

Friends going to AAR: I’m honored that Krishna’s Mahabharatas will be discussed alongside the incredible new books of Steven Lindquist, Anna Seastrand, and Divya Cherian at the New Books in Hindu Studies roundtable on Sunday, November 24th from 9:00-10:30 AM. I hope you can join us!

"Singham Again therefore presents the events of Valmiki’s Ramayana as historical facts rather than mythological stories. This is very much in line with the message of the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign." from @sohinipillai.bsky.social's article. #DesiWatch + #IndianPolitics

I WROTE A BOOK! E-book versions of Krishna’s Mahabharatas (AAR Religion in Translation Series at Oxford University Press) are available now and the book will be available in print very soon. Leia and I hope some of you will want to read it!

So excited to hold The Epic World! I’m grateful to Pam Lothspeich for inviting me to be a part of this. Also, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that a book about epics from a press like Routledge has an essay about the Tamil epic, the Cilappatikaram, by my dear friend Morgan!

I had so much fun talking with Meatball on The Rocker Morning Show on Kalamazoo’s Rock Station 107.7 WRKR about my Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians: Religion and Star Wars class! wrkr.com/podcast/popu...

@matthewsutter.bsky.social and I saw #TheMarvels last night with its fantastic cast led by three wonderful women two of whom are women of color and it made me so happy. I wish I had had Kamala Khan (a sweet, hilarious, kickass Muslim South Asian American superhero) when I was growing up!

This is the best week ever because in my Epic Epics class we are reading The Odyssey of Star Wars AND my other class this term is Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians: The Religion of Star Wars, so that means that this week I’M ONLY TEACHING STAR WARS. #goals

Friends attending AAR in San Antonio this year: I hope you’ll join us for the New Books in Hindu Studies panel on Sunday, November 19 from 12:30-2:30 PM. We are featuring four FANTASTIC books by @jennortegren.bsky.social, Emilia Bachrach, Rumya Sree Putcha, and Joel Lee!