Deepak Sarma
Professor of South Asian Religions
Department of Religious Studies
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7107
Tel: 216-368-4790
July 10, 2015
EMPLOYMENT
2012 – Professor, Religious Studies, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH.
2007-2012 Associate Professor, Religious Studies Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
OH.
2004-2007 Assistant Professor, Religious Studies Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
OH.
2003 – 04 Lecturer in Religious Studies, Department of Religion, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
2002 – 03 Course Instructor Graham School of General Studies, University of Chicago,
Chicago, IL.
2001 - 02 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Salisbury University,
Salisbury, MD.
2000 – 01 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Connecticut College, New London, CT.
2000 Adjunct Professor, Department of Religion, DePaul University, Chicago, IL.
1998 – 99 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, TN.
1994 - 99 Course Instructor Graham School of General Studies, University of Chicago,
Chicago, IL.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2013 – Curatorial Consultant, Department of Asian Art, Cleveland Museum of Art,
Cleveland, OH.
2010 – 2011 Guest Curator, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
EDUCATION
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1998 Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religions (Comparative)
1993 M.A. in Religious Studies
Reed College, Portland, OR
1991 B.A. in Religious Studies
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
2011 Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader. New York, NY. Columbia University Press.
2009 Authority and Its Challenges in Hindu Texts, Translations, and Transnational
Communities. Editor. Hampton, Virginia, Deepak Heritage Books.
2008 Hinduism: A Reader. Oxford, U.K. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
2004 Epistemologies and the Limitations of Philosophical Inquiry: Doctrine in Madhva
Vedanta. New York, NY, Routledge Curzon Press.
2003 An Introduction to Madhva Vedanta. Aldershot, England, Ashgate Publishers Ltd.
ARTICLES IN REFEREED BOOKS AND CHAPTERS
2016 “Madhva Vedanta: Distinctive Regional Vaisnavism.” In Many Vaisnavisms: Histories of the Worship of Visnu. Edited by Archana Venkatesan, Oxford University Press. Contracted
2016 “Assisted dying in India/south Asian culture and thought.” In Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, Praeger. Edited by Michael Cholbi. Contracted.
2016 “Postcolonial Religion.” In Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks: Religion. Edited by Jeffrey Kripal. Forthcoming.
2015 “Under the Gaze of Kali: Exhibitionism in the Kalighat painting Exhibit at the Cleveland
Museum of Art.” In Sacred Objects in Secular Spaces:Exhibiting Asian Religions in Museums. Edited by Bruce Sullivan, Bloomsbury Press. Forthcoming.
2015 “The Aptaguru.” In International Journal of Hindu Studies. 19:2.
2015 “Religious perspectives on human suffering: Implications for medicine and bioethics,” Hinduism section, co-authored. In the Journal of Religion and Health. Feb. 2015 10.1007/s10943-015-0014-9
2014 “The Doniger Difficulty: Colonial Cotton and Swadeshi Sensibilities,” India Review,
13:3, 287-289.
2014 “Hinduism and the Other: A Madhva Position” in The Crisis of the Holy: Challenges and
Transformations in World Religions, edited by Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Lexington.
2014 "Religious Perspectives On The Use Of Psychopharmaceuticals As An Enhancement
Technology," co-authored. Hinduism section, Journal of Religion and Health, 53:5,
1440-1455.
2013 “Bhashya, Samvada, and Sadhana: Commentary, Debate, Attainment and Other Takeaways from a Monastery in India,” Invited Blog for the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, (http://wabashcenter.typepad.com/12_surprises_when_lecturi/page/2/)
2013 “Category Formation and “Eastern” Religions,” Invited Blog for Bulletin for the Study of Religion, Equinox Pub. (http://www.equinoxpub.com/blog/2013/06/7171/)
2013 “Yoga and the First Amendment” with M. Moriarity and C. Mikula, in The Federal Lawyer, Aug., 69-76.
2013 "Asian Religious Context: Focus on Hinduism," in Religious Leadership: A Reference Handbook. Edited by Sharon Henderson Callahan, Sage.
2013 "Livre Arbitrio, Capacidade para a Accao. Personalidade. Assassinos Natos: Karma e
Predestinacao numa Tradicao Hindu. Um Exercicio em Etica “Hindu” in Ética: Teoria e
Prática (Edited and transalted by Cristina Beckert), Centro de Filosofia, Universidade de Lisboa.
2011 “Madhva Vedanta,” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism.
2011 “Madhva” in Oxford Bibliographies On-line.
2011 “Madhvacarya as Prophetic Witness,” Journal of Inter-religious Dialogue, 7.
2010 “Madhva Exclusivity: An Instance of Vaisnava Sectarianism,” Journal of Vaisnava
Studies, 19:1, 109-116.
2009 “Madhva Dialogue and Discernment” in Criteria of Discernment in Interreligious
Dialogue. Edited by Catherine Cornille, Cascade Books.
2008 “Hindu Bioethics?,” Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, 36:1, 51-58.
2007 “Maya” Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Routledge-Curzon.
2007 “The Final Sacrifice: A Dead “Hindu,” A Missing Body, and a $7 Million Dollar Life- Insurance Policy?,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 19:1-2, 58-71.
2007 “Madhvacarya and Vyasatirtha: Biographical sketches of a Systematizer and his Successors,” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 15:2, 145-168.
2007 “Madhva Vedanta and Krishna” in Primary Sources in the Krishna Tradition edited by
E. Bryant, Oxford University Press.
2006 “Rejoinder to Zydenbos” Philosophy East and West, 56:4.
2006 “Hindu Leaders in North America?” in Teaching Theology and Religion, 9:2, 115- 120.
2005 “A Brief Note on Madhvacarya, Yoga, and Inappropriate Appropriation” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 14:1, 173-180.
2005 “Teaching Inside–Out: Demographic Changes and Methodological Challenges in Teaching the Religions of South Asia” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 17:3,
227-230.
2005 “Modernity and Madhva Vedanta: The Beginning or End of an Esoteric Traditions?,” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 13:2, 5-21.
2004 “Hanuman qua Madhvacarya and Sita qua Laksmi: Traces of the Ramayana in Madhva Doctrine,” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 12:2, 117-127.
2003 “Viewpoint: Fostering Interreligious Dialogue and Conversation,” Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin, 16, 58-59.
2003 “Madhva Vedanta Beyond India” Tatvavada: A Bimonthly Journal of Madhva Vedanta, 3, 90-93.
2001 “When is a Brahmin a brahmabandhu, an excluded Brahmin?,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 13, 82-90.
2000 “Madhva Virtue Ethics and the Aptaguru, Reliable Teacher,” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 9:1, 69-90.
2000 “Let the Apta, Trustworthy, Hindu Speak!,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 68:4, 781-790.
2000 “Is Jesus a Hindu? S. C. Vasu and Multiple Madhva Misrepresentations,” Hindu-
Christian Studies Bulletin, 13, 19-25.
1999 “Regulating Religious Reading: Access to Texts in Madhva Vedanta,” Journal of Indian Philosophy, 27:6, 583-635.
1997 “After What? Vyasatirtha's Arguments Regarding Eligibility and Theological Inquiry,” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 5:3, 65-106.
UNREFEREED SHORT ARTICLES
2011 “Indian Kalighat Paintings: A Delightfully Subversive Poke at British Colonialism” Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 51:4.
2007 “On Teaching Sensitive Topics and Sensitive Students” in Asceticsm, Identity, and Pedagogy in Dharma Traditions. Dharma Association of North America.
2005 “The Creation and Transformation of Hinduism: A Crisis of the Holy” in The Crisis of the Holy. Elijah Interfaith Institute.
2004 “On Madhva Vedanta” World Kannada Conference Commemoration Volume.
2004 “Sri Laksmi in Madhva Vedanta” NAMARUPA: Categories of Indian Thought.
2003 “Madhvacarya’s Tattvaviveka: a Translation and Annotated Commentary” NAMARUPA:
Categories of Indian Thought.
EXHIBITIONS AND MUSEUM EXPERIENCE
2014 “Deepak Sarma on the Death of Personality.” Soundcloud recording included in DIRGE: Reflections on [Life and] Death (March 7 – June 8 2014), Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH. (https://soundcloud.com/moca-cleveland/deepak-sarma-on-the-death-of)
2014 “Simon Says “Nothing”: Deepak Sarma on Simon Evans,” Simon Evans: Only Words Eaten by Experience (Nov. 1, 2013 – Feb. 16, 2014), Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, Jan. 16, 2014.
2013 Commentator for ArtLens, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
2011 Indian Kalighat Paintings, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH guest curator, organizer and author, May 1, 2011-Sept. 18, 2011.
Reviewed in the Plain Dealer by Steve Litt. July 17, 2011, “Everyday Exoticism” Sunday
Arts, E1, E8.
Opening talk, May 22, 2011. Tours and presentations.
2010 Moderator for “Ritual and Pilgrimage in World Religions,” Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe Exhibition Program, (October 24, 2010), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
2009 Consultant for “Matter of Faith” Symposium, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
RESEARCH GRANTS
2014-15 co-PI: “Immigrant Religions in Southern California: Global Religious Festivals in
Secular Cityscapes: Immigration, Politics, and Religious Performance in California.”
PI Jennifer Hughes, Associate Professor, Department of History, UC Riverside
Grant from Religions in Diaspora and Global Affairs Humanities Lab,
University of California
ARTICLES UNDER REVIEW
2015 “Cutting Off The Rights to an Open Future: The Case of an Unwanted Circumcision of a
Hindu Boy.” Submitted to Body and Religion
BOOK REVIEWS
2005 “Deutsch and Dalvi: The Essential Vedanta: A New Source Book of Advaita Vedanta,” Religious Studies Review, 31.
2005 “Brown’s Who Owns Native Culture?,”Religious Studies Review, 31.
2005 “Reuter’s My Life as a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing,” Religious Studies Review, 31.
2005 “Mohanty's Classical Indian Philosophy,” International Journal of Hindu Studies, 9.
2005 “Malkovsky’s Role of Divine Grace in the Soteriology of Sankaracarya,” International
Journal of Hindu Studies, 8.
2004 “Dhavamony's Hindu Spirituality,” International Journal of Hindu Studies, 7.
2004 “Fowler’s Perspectives of Reality,” International Journal of Hindu Studies, 7.
2004 “Sugirtharajah’s Imagining Hinduism: A Postcolonial Perspective,” Hindu-Christian
Studies Bulletin 17:4.
2004 “Michaels’ Hinduism Past and Present,” Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith
Studies 6:1.
2002 “Ganeri’s Philosophy in Classical India,” Religious Studies Review, 28.
2002 “Mohanty’s Explorations in Philosophy: Indian Philosophy,” Religious Studies Review,
28.
2001 “Rangaswamy’s Namaste America: Indian Immigrants in an American Metropolis,”
Religious Studies Review, 27.
2001 “Charisma and Canon: Essays on the Religious History of the Indian Subcontinent,” Indian Review of Books, 10:9.
2001 “Bhattacharji’s The Indian Theogony: Brahma, Visnu & Siva,” Indian Review of Books,
10:3.
2001 “van Voorst’s Anthology of World Scriptures,” Religious Studies Review, 25.
2000 “Sharma's Classical Hindu Thought: an Introduction,” Indian Review of Books, 9:12.
2000 “Davis' The Path of Light,” Religious Studies Review, 26.
2000 “Lipner's The Bhagavadgita for Our Times,” Indian Review of Books, 9:10.
2000 “Jivanmukti in Transformation: Embodied Liberation in Advaita and Neo-Vedanta by Andrew Fort,” South Asia Newsletter: The University of Chicago, 24:1.
2000 “Gupta's Emerging Voices: South Asian American Women Redefine Self, Family, and Community,” Indian Review of Books, 9:1.
1999 “S. M. Srinivasa Chari's The Philosophy of the Vedantasutra,” Religious Studies Review, 25.
1998 “Clooney's Hindu Wisdom for All God's Children,” Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin, 11.
1997 “Hatcher's Idioms of Improvement: Vidyasagar and Cultural Encounter in Bengal,” International Journal of Hindu Studies, 1:3.
1997 “Singh's Women Reborn: An Exploration of the Spirituality of Urban Indian Women,” Indian Review of Books, 6:12.
1997 “Laid Bare: Ramaswamy's Women's Spirituality in South India,” Indian Review of Books, 6:11.
1997 “Brockington's The Sacred Thread: A Short History of Hinduism,” Indian Review of Books, 6:10.
1997 “Maxwell's The Gods of Asia: Image, Text, and Meaning,” Indian Review of Books, 6:9.
1997 “In Valhalla: Relativism, Suffering and Beyond: Essays in Memory of Bimal K. Matilal,”
Indian Review of Books, 6:8.
1997 “Idol Threats: Joshi's Critique of Hinduism and Other Religions,” Indian Review of Books, 6:5.
1996 “Beyond Redemption: Ratnakar's Hinduism,” Indian Review of Books, 6:2.
1996 “Peddling Easy Answers: Sharma's Hinduism For Our Times,” Indian Review of Books, 6:1.
1996 “Goodall's Hindu Scriptures,” South Asia Newsletter: The University of Chicago, 20:3.
1996 “Daya Krishna's The Problematic and Conceptual Structure of Classical Indian Thought about Man, Society and Polity: a critique,” Indian Review of Books, 5:11.
1996 “New Age Environmentalism: Sarma on Hinduism and Ecology: Seeds of Truth,” Indian Review of Books, 5:9.
1996 “Silken Ties” book review on Silk and Religion for The Hindu, Magazine Literary Review (May 5, 1996).
1996 “Silk and Religion,” Indian Review of Books, 5:8.
JOURNAL AND EDITING EXPERIENCE
2009 - Religion & Education. Editorial Board.
2008 - Journal of Hindu Studies. Editorial Board.
2008 – 2012 South Asia Book Review Editor for Journal of Asian Studies.
2011 – 2012 Nidan: Journal of Hinduism, Editorial Board.
2007 – 2009 Book Notes Editor for Religious Studies Review.
2007 – 2008 Associate Editor for Journal of Hindu Studies.
2005 – 2007 Section Editor for Blackwell Religion Compass.
2005 Guest editor of Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. For articles generated from “Teaching Inside–Out: Demographic Changes and Methodological Challenges in Teaching the Religions of South Asia,” a 2004 American Academy of Religion panel. 17:3.
2001-2003 Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics. Reviews Editor.
1999 – 2002 Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin. Editorial Advisory Board.
2000 Coeditor, Journal of Vaisnava Studies, Focus on the Madhva Sampradaya II, 9.
1997 Coeditor, Journal of Vaisnava Studies, Focus on the Madhva Sampradaya, 5.
1997 Editor and transcriber, “The Dvaita School of Vedanta: A Trilogy,” by Prof.
B.N.K. Sharma, Journal of Vaisnava Studies 5,17-34.
1997 Editor and transcriber, “Jiva and the brahman,” by Prof. D. Prahladacarya,
Journal of Vaisnava Studies 5, 107-124.
REVIEWER OF PROPOSALS FOR
Blackwell Press
Bloomsbury Press
Cambridge University Press
Columbia University Press
International Journal of Hinduism
Philosophy East and West
RoutledgeCurzon Press
Rowman and Littlefield Press
Stanford University Press
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED LECTURES
2015 “Circumcision: Balancing Religious and Cultural Mandates with Ethical, Legal, and Medical Imperatives.” American Society for Bioethics and Humanities 2015 Annual Meeting. Oct. 25, 2015.
2014 Exhibition Seminar: Dharma and Darshan, Yoga and the Art of Transformation (June 22, 2014 – Sept. 7, 2014), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, (July 8, 15, 22, and 29, 2014).
2014 “Devising Yoga/ Yoga as a Device,” Exhibition Tour, Yoga and the Art of Transformation (June 22, 2014 – Sept. 7, 2014), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, (July 11, 2014).
2014 Speaker in the Yoga and the Art of Transformation audio guide, (June 22, 2014 – Sept. 7, 2014), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
2014 “Circumstantial Evidence: Identity, Ritual, & the Case of the Unwanted Circumcision of a Hindu Boy,” Princeton University, Hindu Life Program, (March 6, 2014)
2014 “Censorship and Hinduism,” Princeton University, Hindu Life Program, (March 6, 2014)
2013 “DARE: Diversity; Articulating Race and Ethnicity,” Case Western Reserve University, Power of Diversity Lecture Series, (April 9, 2013).
2012 Keynote speaker for the Salt Lake City Public Library’s annual Cultural and Religious Pluralism Conference, (Dec. 1, 2012).
2012 “Diversity and the December Dilemma,” Case Western Reserve University, Train the Champions, (April 17, 2012).