Education

• Columbia University, B.A., 1981. magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
  Major: English and Oriental Studies
• Columbia University, M.A., 1984. Indic Studies and Literary Theory
• Columbia University, M.Phil., 1986. Indian Religion and Literature
• Columbia University, Ph.D., 1991. Indian Religion and Literature
  Dissertation: "Language, Love, and Silence: Readings of Separation in the Sanskrit Epic, Poetic, and Puranic Traditions"

Honors and Grants

• Vassar College Abbey Fund Fellowship, 1997
• Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, 1991-93
• Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship, 1987-88
• Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, 1982-86
• Ph.D and M.A. qualifying exams passed with distinction
• Roothbert Fund Fellowship, 1984-1986

Fields of Specialization

• East/West Studies
• Religions of South Asia (Hinduism, Buddhism)
• Indian Languages and Literatures
• Languages: Sanskrit, Hindi, French, German, Italian

Publications

• "The Letter of the Law and the Discourse of Power: Kar_a and Controversy the Mah_ - bh_rata" (Journal of Vai__ava Studies, Vol.7 No.4., October 1999)
• "Freedom in Action: Emerging Paradigms of Right Livelihood" (Conscious Living Magazine), Winter 1999-2000.
• "The p_ra-bhakti of the Gop_s (Journal of Vai__ava Studies, Vol 6 No.1, Jan. 1999)
• "Voyage by the Mind through a Sea of Stars: Hanum_n as a Shamanic Figure in the R_m_ya_a of V_lm_ki" (Hanum_n: Son of the Wind, Boulder: Hanuman Foundation, 1997)
• "A Note on the Multi-Centered Imagination of the Mah_bh_rata (Journal of Vai__ava Studies, June 1996
• "Asia and the Oversoul," A review of A. Versluis' American Transcendentalism and Asian Religion (Journal of the American Oriental Society, Dec. 1994)
• "Who is V_lm_ki? The Generation of the Indian Epic Tradition" (Journal of Vai__ava Studies, November 1994)
• "The Semiotics of Separation: Narratives of Absence in the Bh_gavata-Pur__a" (Journal of Vai__ava Studies, April 1994)
• "The Place of R_dh_ in Caitanya-Vai__avaite Theology," in Vaisnavism: Contemporary Scholars Discourse on the Gaud_ya Tradition (New York, Folk Books, 1993)
• "The History of Sanskrit Poetry," Co-Author, in Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
• In Search of the Sacred: A Pilgrimage to Holy Places (Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1986)

Works Accepted for Publication or in Progress

• Tales for the Dying: The Death Narrative of the Bh_gavata-Pur__a (Albany: SUNY Press, forthcoming)
• "Hanum_n: The Lord of the Monkeys" (in The Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism, Vol II, Animals and Plants, New York: Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, C.G. Jung Foundation, 1999)
• "On the First Five Verses of the Meghad_ta"(revised and under consideration: Journal of Asian Literature))
• "Zen Flesh and Bones: Deconstructing Interreligious Dialogue" (forthcoming in Deconstruction and Buddhism, Northwestern University Press)
• "The Peripatetic Class: Buddhist Traditions and the Human Body" (to be published with papers from the Teaching Buddhism: The State of the Art Conference, McGill University, 1999)
• "On the Paralysis of Academic Discourse: The American Scholar Revisited" (revised in October 1999 for Spring Publications)

Teaching Experience

• Vassar College, Visiting Assistant Professor in History of Religions, 1994-2000
• Barnard College, Visiting Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, 1993-94
• Columbia University, Mellon Fellow in the Humanities, 1991-93

Professional Activities & Academic Service

• Chairperson of Panel on Epics and Puranas, World Sanskrit Conference, Bangalore, 1997
• Carolyn Grant Fay '36 Endowment Faculty Steering Committee, Vassar College
• Co-Leader, International Studies Trip to India, March 2000
• Participant: International Studies Course on Human Rights, 1999
• Member, Asian Studies Program, Vassar College
• Environmental Studies Program, Vassar College
• University Committee on Asia and the Middle East, Columbia University American Academy of Religion
• International Association of Language and Philosophy

Lectures and Presentations

• "The Ripened Fruit of Vedic Wisdom: the Aesthetic Discourse of the Bh_gavata-Pur__a" (Bard College, November 1999, AAR November 1999)
• "Zen Flesh and Bones: Deconstructing Interreligious Dialogue" (International Association of Language and Philosophy, Hartford, Trinity College, May 1999)
• "Kerouac and the Buddha: the Anti-Hero and the Making of a Post-Modern Myth" (Poughkeepsie, Vassar College, Spring 1999)
• "Anya Darshana: The Human Rights of the Other (New Paltz, Asian Studies Association Regional Conference, October 1998
• "Zen and the West: The Meeting of Buddhist Thought with Post Modernity", New York University, Gallatin School, 1998, Woodstock Public Library, 1998
• "New Visions of Vocation" (International Career Development Conference, San Francisco, 1998)
• "Where is Home? Homecoming in the Greek and Indian Epics", Marist College Conference on Indian Civilization, 1997
• "On the Poetics of The Sacred: The Meghad_ta and the R_m_ya_a", Vassar College, 1996
• "Re-Thinking Area Studies: Image and Text in India", Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University, 1993
• "Against Gender, Race, and Ethnicity: The Wisdom of Non-Identity", Barnard College, 1993
• "Structuralism, Deconstruction, and Indian Aesthetics", Colloquium in the Humanities, State University of Albany, New York 1992

References

• Mark Cladis, Professor of Religion and Department Chair, Vassar College
• Irene Bloom, Professor of East Asian Humanities and Department Chair, Barnard College
• John Stratton Hawley, Professor of Religion and Department Chair, Barnard College
• Robert Thurman, Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University
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