Center for the study of Hindu Traditions (CHiTra) at the
University of Florida presents
CHiTra Mela V
Research and Pedagogy on South Asia and Global Hindu Traditions
A Symposium for Faculty and Graduate Students in Florida
Hosted by the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions (CHiTra) at the University of Florida.
We are grateful for the generous support from the Office of the Vice President of Research, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Religion at the University of Florida
Names of graduate students are identified with an asterisk next to their names
Friday, February 10th
2:30- 3:30 Professor Gil Ben-Herut, University of South Florida.
Introducing Bhav: the Bhakti Virtual Archive.
Dr. Gil Ben-Herut is an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department, University of South Florida. His research interests include pre-modern religious literature in the Kannada language, South Asian bhakti (devotional) traditions, translation in South Asia, and programming in Digital Humanities.
3:45-4:45 pm
Caleb Simmons, University of Arizona. “More Than Literature: How Online Modalities Help to Broaden Students’ ‘Reading’ of Hindu Mythology”
Bio: Dr. Caleb Simmons (Ph.D. in Religion, University of Florida) is Executive Director of Arizona Online, associate professor of Religious Studies, Faculty Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program, and Center for University Education Scholarship (CUES) Distinguished Fellow at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Singing the Goddess into Place: Locality, Myth, and Social Change in Chamundi of the Hill, a Kannada Folk Ballad (SUNY Press 2022).
List of Presenters and Bios
Arya Adityan
Many lives of Ritual objects: A case study of Bhūtakola Artifacts in American Museums.
Arya Adityan is a PhD student in the Department of Religion at Florida State University. Her research interests include religious and cultural expression in contemporary South India, sacred space and landscape, performance, and rituals.
Gil Ben-Herut, Associate Professor, University of South Florida
A History of Speaking: Scripture, Authority, and Artifact in Kannada Devotional Poems.
Dr. Gil Ben-Herut is an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department, University of South Florida. His research interests include pre-modern religious literature in the Kannada language, South Asian bhakti (devotional) traditions, translation in South Asia, and programming in Digital Humanities.
Leila Chacko, Director of Public Affairs, India Center, University of Central Florida
Introducing the New India Center at UCF.
Leila Chacko is Director of Public Affairs for the India Center at the University of Central Florida, where she oversees and develops programming to broaden the awareness and understanding of contemporary India.
Jonathan Edelmann, Assistant Professor, University of Florida
Reconstructing Order: Toward a Comparative Understanding of Hindu and Christian Texts.
Jonathan Edelmann, PhD, is currently an Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Florida in the Department of Religion. He is the Steering Committee Chair for the Dharma Academy of Religion, Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion, and an Affiliate of UF’s CHiTra and One Health Center of Excellence. His research is on Hindu-Christian Studies, Science and Religion, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism.
Sucheta Kanjilal, Assistant Professor, University of Tampa
Irreverent Readers, Worshipful Viewers: Post-Emergency Epics and Diverging Indian Nationalisms.
Sucheta Kanjilal is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the department of English at the University of Tampa. Her work primarily interrogates colonialism, nationalism and modern Hinduism. Her recent publications examine the impact of the Sanskrit epics and their adaptations on Indian politics.
Varun Khanna, Visiting Assistant Professor, Swarthmore College
[D]evolution of Gender Roles in Sanskrit Grammar.
Varun Khanna did his M.Phil in Sanskrit and PhD in Hinduism at the University of Cambridge, England. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Swarthmore College. His interests include Sanskrit grammar, Advaita Vedanta philosophy, and social justice.
Amy Paris Langenberg, Associate Professor, Eckerd College
Did the Buddha Teach Consent? Translating Sexual Ethics Across Space and Time.
Amy Paris Langenberg is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Eckerd College, where she also teaches in the Women’s and Gender Studies, Animal Studies, and Environmental Studies programs. She is a specialist in South Asian Buddhism with a focus on gender, sexuality, the body, and monastic law. She also conducts research on contemporary Buddhist feminism and female Buddhist monasticism. Her monograph, Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Foetus and Female Freedom was published by Routledge in 2017.
*Rajani Maharjan, Graduate Student, University of Florida
The Decline of Ritual Practices in Response to Pollution in the Vishnumati River, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Rajani Maharjan is a Ph.D. student in the Religion and Nature fields of study at the University of Florida. She has a dual master’s degree in Anthropology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and Environmental Sciences and Policy from Northern Arizona University, USA. She was one of the Doris Duke Conservation Fellows for the year 2010/11. She has extensive work experience as an environmental anthropologist for environmental non-profit organizations in Nepal.
*Prathik Murali, Graduate Student, University of Florida
North, South and Mlecchas: North-South divide in the Śrivaīṣṇava Maṇipravāla commentaries.
Prathik Murali is a PhD student studying Hinduism at the University of Florida. He earned his M.A. in Historical Studies from Madras University and completed a graduate program in Manuscriptology and Palaeography. His primary research interest focuses on pre-modern Vaiṣṇava poetry of the Āḻvārs and Maṇipravāla commentaries on them. He is currently working on a project along with other scholars to translate a 13th-century Maṇipravāla text. He has worked on a manuscript conservation project for the British Library.
Deepa Nair, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
Engaging sensitive topics through the DEI framework – Teaching about Gender and nationalisms in South Asia.
Deepa Nair is an assistant professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a historian of modern South Asia. Her research revolves around politics, religion, education, and identity formation in modern India, particularly the effect of ethno-religious nationalism on minorities and nation-building in secular India.
*Prea Persaud, Visiting Lecturer, Swarthmore College
‘Star boy’ Pundits, Vahaanis, and Director Aunties: Competing Authorities in Hinduism in Trinidad.
Prea Persaud is completing her dissertation in the Department of Religion, UF, and is currently a visiting lecturer in the religion department at Swarthmore College. Her research is on Hinduism in the Caribbean and issues of race and migration in the Americas.
Sasha Restifo, Assistant Professor, Florida International University
Mothers in Jain Literature.
Dr. Sasha Restifo (PhD Yale University) is Assistant Professor at Florida International University. Her research centers on emotion and its role in ritual and social culture in South Asian religions with a focus on Jainism. Her current book project, “The Theater of Renunciation: Aesthetics of Emotion in Medieval Jainism,” examines the ways in which emotion participates in Jain metaphysical theories, ritual practice, devotional expression, and community formation.
*Carol Rodriguez, Graduate Student, University of Florida
Exploring the Voice of a Charismatic Leader: Kanjiswami as a reformer and restorer of the Jain Path.
Carol Rodriguez is a doctoral candidate working on Jainsim at the department of religion in the University of Florida. Carol received her bachelor’s degree (2016) and M.A. (2019) in Religious Studies at Florida International University. Her previous work focuses on the ethics systems operative in medieval Jain didactic literature and, her research interests include: expressions of cultural and religious identity in transnational communities, didactic narrative, Sanskrit studies and gender. Her current work revolves around the preparation, consumption, and reinvention of traditional cuisines as a language through which religiosity and cultural identity is transmitted and continually renewed in transnational communities. Her secondary research topic focuses on the Jain spiritual leader Gurudevshree Kanjiswami and his approach to practiced religiosity. Specifically, she explores how he navigated between the boundaries of religious restoration versus reformation and challenged the attitude with which Jain followers approached self-realization and liberation.
Uma Sarmistha, Adjunct Faculty, University of Florida
Cultural Embeddedness and Gender: The Madhubani painting of Bihar.
Uma Sarmistha is an Adjunct Faculty at University of Florida and Dalhousie University. She is also an Affiliated Faculty with the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies at the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Kansas State University (KSU). She holds a Masters in Sociology from KSU and a Masters in Economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. Her research interests are mainly in the areas of gender studies, migration and transnationalism, urban and regional Development, economic sociology and research methods. Uma has published a book, titled Transnational Immigrants: Redefining Identity and Citizenship with Springer Nature, Singapore in 2019. Apart from this, she has also had her work published in peer-reviewed international journals.
Book Launch:
Caleb Simmons, Associate Professor, University of Arizona (alumnus, University of Florida)
Dr. Caleb Simmons (Ph.D. in Religion, University of Florida) is Executive Director of Arizona Online, associate professor of Religious Studies, Faculty Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program, and Center for University Education Scholarship (CUES) Distinguished Fellow at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Singing the Goddess into Place: Locality, Myth, and Social Change in Chamundi of the Hill, a Kannada Folk Ballad (SUNY Press 2022)
Other Active Participants:
Dr. Vandana Baweja (Architecture, UF).
Dr. Kausalya Hart (Emerita, UC- Berkeley) now in South Florida
Dr. George Hart (Professor Emeritus, UC – Berkeley) now in South Florida
Dr. Vasudha Narayanan, Distinguished Professor, University of Florida (organizer)
Alyssa Peyton (Harn Museum of Art, UF)
*Joe Reader, (Graduate Student) University of Florida