In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

This presentation begins with a brief analysis of three distinct constructions of Vedic mantras: the epistemology of cognition of the Vedic mantras in the Ṛg-Veda Saṃhitā; the cosmogonic function of the Vedic mantras in the Brāhmaṇas’ discourse of sacrifice; and the soteriological function of root mantras such as Om in the Upaniṣads’ discourse of knowledge. I will then turn to a consideration of Purāṇic traditions and will focus more specifically on constructions of mantra and nāman in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the consummate textual monument to Kṛṣṇa bhakti. Finally, I will discuss the ontology of the divine name and the practice of nāma-saṃkīrtana within the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava discourse of bhakti, and in the associated regimen of sādhana-bhakti that defines the distinctive tradition of the Gauḍīya community of devotees inspired by the Bengali leader Caitanya in the sixteenth century.

This presentation examines the concept of nāda, or divine sound, in Sanskrit sources, specifically focusing on the literature of the early Śaiva Tantras and systematic works on music (saṅgītaśāstra), noting how this semantically “resonant” term is indexed to discussions of metaphysics, linguistics, cosmogony, and yogic practice. Adopting the methodological approach of conceptual and intellectual history, I chart the usages of nāda, or Resonance, as it is deployed across Śaiva metaphysics and music theory, focusing particularly on its role as a value-laden concept in the cosmogonies and metaphysical frameworks of both disciplines. This will lead to a consideration of how this term illuminates certain “adjacencies” and cross-pollinations between religious speculation and classical Indian performing arts in pre-modern India.  

This presentation examines the liminal space between music, vibration, and Naad Yog, an ancient yogic practice of using the entire body as a vibratory soundboard. Naad Yog begins with the audible, external sound followed by discerning and familiarizing oneself with internal sounds. The rationale is that the mind rules the senses, and the breath is in charge of the mind. Concentration rules the breath, and concentration, in turn, depends on the sound. Thus, Naad Yog uses breath, concentration, and sound-based exercises to prepare the mind to enter a state conducive to meditation. The discussion will unfold in three parts, beginning with Indian sound concepts that relate to and elucidate the practice of Naad Yog, followed by a detailed description of the practices and exercises within the Naad Yog tradition.

Gurani Anjali (1935-2001) arrived in the United States in the 1950s before the major influx of immigration from India that would follow in the 1960s. She eventually established Yoga Anand Ashram in Amityville on Long Island, New York, where she taught Sāṃkhya-Yoga philosophy within the context of the United States’ countercultural and post-countercultural periods. Central to Anjali's repertoire of yoga techniques were music and mantra practices. This presentation shows how Anjali's universal ideas about Sāṃkhya-Yoga became entangled in this new sonic environment as her yogic lyrics merged with her students’ acoustic folk ensemble, but also how Anjali intended for her music and lyrics to lead students toward a transcendent experience of yoga’s higher Self, puruṣa, thus transcending their social environment altogether. 

Decolonial scholarship often overlooks the constitutive role of theology in shaping coloniality, framing it as a precursor to secular modernity. This paper challenges that narrative, arguing that seemingly "secular" economic and political systems are structured by theological logics in disguise. Specifically, I examine how the concept of debt, central to both Christian soteriology and capitalist economics, functions as a key mechanism of colonial power. This theological-economic logic shapes not only economic exploitation, but also racial, gendered, and epistemic hierarchies. By exposing this logic, I challenge the assumed opposition between theology and economics, demonstrating that a deeper engagement with colonial theology is essential for dismantling colonial legacies. Crucially, this analysis interrogates dominant understandings of "freedom," revealing how they are often predicated on the unfreedom of others. This calls for reimaging of freedom beyond the confines of colonial power.

Despite being framed as a safeguard against religious authoritarianism, secularism has failed to prevent the resurgence of Christian nationalism in the United States. This paper interrogates why secularism has proven inadequate, by reading Perry and Whitehead’s Taking America Back for God through the lens of An Yountae’s The Coloniality of the Secular. The secular is not a neutral space, but a colonial theological formation that has shaped religion, governance, and race in ways that have enabled—rather than resisted—the rise of Christian nationalism.

In response, I argue for the need for a "theology of the secular"—a translation of the secular into theological terms for the purposes of explicit theological discourse. An’s work uncovers the decolonial potential in making the implicit theology of decolonial poets explicit. I build on his work to argue that explicit theological discourse is essential for constructing a space of ethical and political resistance to Christian nationalism.

This paper explores the emergence and gradual ascendence of a particular formulation of secularity within the jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court. Beginning with the Court’s first overt reference to secularity as a legal principle, this paper then traces the near-simultaneous emergence of a discourse of “cruel” secularity – a characterization of the secular legal aspirations of the 1960s as both a symptom of growing American hostility to particular religious worldviews and a subtle endeavor to establish a system of values that reflects the sensibilities of political liberals. This “cruel” counterpart to the legal secularity of the 1960s hearkens back to longstanding conservative anxieties about modernity, but this paper will focus upon the way in which, beginning in the 1980s, it became framed as a legal problem to be addressed by U.S. courts. 

This paper argues that scholars of religion should treat the secular tradition and its cognate concepts, like secularism and secularity, like we treat other “religious” traditions, i.e., as a mix of good and bad and a source of both help and harm. This paper pushes back against the current trend of treating “secularism” as a catch-all name for the harms of liberalism, colonialism, technocracy, and even Christianity (such as when scholars elide the differences between Protestant and secular ways of life). Hopefully by treating the secular as an internally diverse tradition we can help resolve some glaring tensions among scholars of religion, who are wary of Christian nationalism, worried about the use and abuse of religious discourse, defensive of religious ways of life, dissatisfied with liberalism, and anxious about the erosion of the separation of church and state. Hopefully we can also have a more productive conversation about out differences.

This paper offers the first-ever translation and close reading of two poignant scenes of joy and grief in the autobiography (rang rnam) of the nineteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist master Do Khyentsé Yeshé Dorjé. These scenes stage the dramatic reunion and inevitable separation between Do Khyentsé and his root guru Dodrupchen. By tending closely to Do Khyentsé’s description of the karmic connection these men share—one that continually draws them into the intense closeness of guru and disciple lifetime after lifetime—this paper offers a larger provocation to the field of Buddhist Studies, suggesting that scholarship on Buddhist men’s lives must account for them as men. By tending to the emotionally charged cycles of (re)union and parting, death and rebirth, this paper argues for broadening our understanding of religious masculinity beyond the Euro-American horizon of Abrahamic traditions by looking to religiously saturated relationships between men that propel emotional encounters across space and time.

Monastic "idols" in Thai Buddhism embody divergent ideals of masculinity and monastic aesthetics. Monks attain the status of idols as followers circulate their images in photographs, portraits, and statues. When these depictions spread beyond the home temple, a monk can gain national recognition. This presentation examines two types of Thai male monastics: those in the forest lineage and monks with the title kruba. These lineages reflect distinct forms of masculinity—the forest lineage emphasizing ascetic autonomy, while the kruba monks incorporate a more androgynous aesthetic. Through diverse methodologies of media analysis, focus group discussions, and participant-observation at distinct Thai Buddhist temples, this paper engages the audience with images and videos from media and fieldwork. These visual representations highlight the varied models for monastic masculinity.

This paper examines how Anagarika Dharmapala navigated the racialized and gendered constructions of masculinity in the late 19th- and early 20th-century U.S., with a particular focus on the overlooked intersection of disability, religion, and race. Western discourse often framed the “Oriental” man as both emasculated and hypersexualized, but this process was also deeply embedded in notions of bodily debility. The racialized construction of Asian masculinity relied on tropes of physical weakness, degeneration, and effeminacy—marking the non-Christian religious body as disabled in opposition to an idealized, able-bodied Western masculinity. This paper brings disability studies into conversation with religious studies and gender history to argue that the religious othering of Buddhism in the U.S. was inseparable from ableist narratives of bodily deficiency. By examining Dharmapala’s self-representation and his engagement with these tropes, the paper offers new insights into the enduring entanglements of race, gender, religion, and disability.