Vijaya Nagarajan
Vijaya Nagarajan is an Associate Professor and recent Chair of the Department of Theology/Religious Studies and in the Program of Environmental Studies at the University of San Francisco. She writes and teaches on Hinduism, gender, ritual, ecology, climate, the commons, energy, and ethics. She is active in the American Academy of Religion and in environmental movements in the United States and in India. Her book, Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in India— An Exploration of the Kolam, is a deep exploration of a popular women’s ritual art, the kolam, and the multiple ways in which beauty embodies ethics.
She can be reached at feedingathousandsouls@gmail.com.
Articles available online:
“Yoga History 101.” Yoga Journal, August 2007
“Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kolams.” Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition: ., by Tracy Pintchman, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 85–107.
“The Earth as Goddess Bhu Devi: Toward a Theory of ‘Embedded Ecologies’ in Folk Hinduism.” Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India, by Lance E. Nelson, D.K. Printworld, 2002, pp. 269–295.
“Rituals of Embedded Ecologies: Drawing Kōlams, Marrying Trees, and Generating Auspiciousness.” Hinduism and Ecology: the Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water, by Mary Evelyn. Tucker, Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2000
Publications:
Twins in Hindu Mythology and Everyday Life in the California Diaspora. Twins in Mythology, edited by Kimberly Patton. London: I. B. Taurius. (forthcoming)
2018. Feeding A Thousand Souls, Women, Ritual and Ecology in India, an Exploration of the Kōlam. New York: Oxford University Press.
2017. On the Multiple Languages of the Commons. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology: 2 (1): 41-60. In Special Issue: Wicked Problems in a Warming World: Religion and Environmental Ethics.
2013. Rangōli and Kōlam entry. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Netherlands), Editor, Jean- Louise Ruijters. (selected and republished on Sahapedia in India with the permission of Brill, Leiden, Netherlands)
2007. Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kōlam, 85-105. Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, edited by Tracy Pinchman. New York: Oxford University Press.
2006. The Thinning and Thickening of Places, Relations and Ideas, in “Post-Field Positioning”. Guest Editor, Susan Seizer, Indian Folklife, Serial No. 23, National Folklore Support Centre, 10-13, Chennai, India. Aug.’06
2003. Floor Designs. In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret Mills, Peter Claus and Sarah Diamond. New York: Routledge Press, pp. 197-198.
2003. Kōlam. In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret Mills, Peter Claus and Sarah Diamond. New York: Routledge , pp. 340-343.
2001. (In) Corporating Threshold Art: Kōlam Competitions, Patronage and Colgate. In Religions/Globalization: Theories and Cases, edited by Lois Lorentzen, Dwight Hopkins, David Batstone and Eduardo Mandieta. Duke University Press, pp. 161-186.
2000. Rituals of Embedded Ecologies: Drawing Kōlam, Marrying Trees and Generating Auspiciousness. In Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water, edited by Christopher Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Harvard University Press, pp. 453-468.
1998. The Earth as Goddess Bhudevi: Towards a Theory of Embedded Ecologies in Folk Hinduism. In Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India, edited by Lance Nelson. New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 269-298.
1993. Hosting the Divine: The Kōlam in Tamil Nadu. In Mud, Mirror and Thread: Folk Traditions of Rural India, edited by Nora Fisher. Middletown, New Jersey: Grantha Corporation and Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, pp. 192-204.
To request a full length CV, please email feedingathousandsouls@gmail.com