June 24, 2026
Amanda J. Lucia, Ph.D.
Professor | University of California-Riverside (UCR) | Riverside, California 92521
Email: amanda.lucia@ucr.edu | Website: www.amandajeanlucia.com
Curriculum Vitae
EMPLOYMENT
2021-present Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, UCR
2023-present University Honors Faculty Fellow, UCR
2022-2023 Visiting Research Fellow, King’s College London
2015-21 Associate Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, UCR
2011-15 Assistant Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, UCR
2010-11 Visiting Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, Austin College
2005-06 Visiting Lecturer, Hindi/Urdu, University of Illinois at Chicago
2004-05 Lecturer, Hindi, University of Chicago
EDUCATION
9/2004 to 6/2010 Ph.D., History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School
9/2022 to 6/2004 M.A., History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School
8/1994 to 8/1998 B.A., Religious Studies, India Studies, Indiana University
Ph.D. dissertation (University of Chicago, 2010): Darshan in a Hotel Ballroom: Amritanandamayi Ma’s (Amma’s) Communities of Devotees in the United States
ACADEMIC HONORS
2026. Co-PI, “Guru AI” European Research Council (ERC) Horizon Award (€2.4 million)
2020. Professor of the Year Award, University Honors Program, UCR
2019-26. PI, “Religion and Sexual Abuse Project,” Henry Luce Foundation ($550,000)
2018. University of California Women’s Initiative for Professional Development Award (UC WI)
2015. Emory Elliott Book Award for Reflections of Amma, Center for Ideas and Society, UCR
2015. Reflections of Amma, One of “The Best Spiritual Books of 2014,” Spirituality & Practice
2014. Outstanding Mentorship Award, Sisters in Strength undergraduate club, UCR
2013-15. Hellman Fellowship, UCR ($30,000)
2013-15(16). Co-PI, Religion in Diaspora and Global Affairs (RIDAGA) Humanities Studio Award, University of California Humanities Research Initiative/Luce Foundation ($75,000)
2011. ACLS Mellon New Faculty Fellowship (declined)
2009-10. Dissertation Fellowship, Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS)
2008-09. Dissertation Fellowship, COSAS
2005-06. Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) (Title VI) Fellowship, Malayalam
2004-05. FLAS Fellowship (Title VI), Hindi
2003-04. FLAS Fellowship (Title VI), Hindi
2003. American Institute of India Studies (AIIS)/FLAS (Title VI) Fellowship, Hindi, Jaipur, India
1996-97. College Year in India Program Fellowship, (Varanasi), University of Wisconsin, Madison
PUBLICATIONS
(Prior to 4/2013, Amanda J. Huffer)
Books
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals. Oakland: University of California Press.
Reviewed in: High Country News, Ethnic and Racial Studies Journal, Critical Research on
Religion, Reading Religion, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Nova Religio, RLST Review, Religion Watch, Religion, Correspondences
Featured in: Spirit Matters podcast, Sacred Matters Magazine, Canopy Forum, UC Press blog, The Yogic Studies podcast, New Books in Indian Religions podcast, New Books in Religion podcast, Greetings from Somewhere podcast, Burner podcast, Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Workshop, Keen on Yoga Podcast
Lucia, Amanda. 2014. Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Reviewed in: Journal of Contemporary Religion, Nova Religio, Spirituality & Practice, Choice Connect, Commonground Magazine, The Journal of Religion, The Journal of Hindu Studies, RLST Review
Featured in: U.S. Religion Blogspot, New Books in Religion, Asia Research Institute (ARI) Reading Group, Singapore; Spirit Matters Podcasts, Publishers Weekly
Awards: Emory Elliott Book Award Winner, UCR 2013-2014; Named one of “The Best Spiritual Books of 2014” (top 50), Spirituality & Practice
Edited Volumes
Lucia, Amanda and Maya Warrier, (eds). 2024. A Cultural History of Hinduism in the Age of Independence (1947 – 2017). Vol. 6 of A Cultural History of Hinduism, vols. 1-6, edited by Karen Pechilis. London: Bloomsbury.
Edited Special Issues of Journals
Lucia, Amanda, editor. 2025. “The Religion & Sexual Abuse Project.” Religion. Vol. 55. Issue 4. (Oct.)
Articles and Book Chapters: (Peer Reviewed)
Lucia, Amanda. “Guru Futurism: Artificial Intelligence and the Intimacies of the Guru-Disciple Relationship.” In Indian Ascetic Traditions: Organisations, Practices, Representations and Social Manifestations, edited by Daniela Bevilacqua and Anjali Duhan-Gulia, in progress.
Lucia, Amanda. “Charting the Flows of Festival Yoga: Exploring the Margins and Deepening Practice in Pre- and Post-Pandemic Scenes.” In Brill Handbook of Contemporary Yoga, edited by Ella Poutianen, Måns Broo, Janne Kontala, and Kia Andell, in press.
Lucia, Amanda. “Criminality, Globality and the Tactics of Reterritorialization: New Flight Paths for Pilot Baba.” In Born Again Selves: New Religious Movements and the Norms of Belief, edited by Martin Fuchs and Sanjay Srivastava, in press.
Lucia, Amanda. “Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) as ‘Religious Genius,’” In Religious Genius, edited by Alon Goshen-Gottstein. Jerusalem, Israel: Elijah Interfaith Institute, in press.
Lucia, Amanda. “Review Essay: Unforgivable, An Abusive Priest and the Church that Sent Him Abroad by Kevin Lewis O’Neill.” Religious Studies Review, in press.
Lucia, Amanda. “Wonder and Wondertrash: The Impacts of a Maximalist Māha Kuṁbh 2025.” Journal of Hindu Studies, hiag013, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiag013
Lucia, Amanda. 2025. “The Religion & Sexual Abuse Project: An Introduction.” Religion. Vol. 55. Issue 4. (October).
Lucia, Amanda. 2025. “Epilogue: Imagined Futures beyond the Religion & Sexual Abuse Project (R&SAP).” Religion. Vol. 55. Issue 4. (October).
Lucia, Amanda. 2025. “Waging War in Wild Wild Country: Regulating Sex and Nation in Osho’s Rajneeshpuram.” In Mythologizing in South Asian Traditions, edited by Diana Dimitrova. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76830-9_5
Lucia, Amanda. 2024.“Aligning the Good and the Beautiful: Yogic Aesthetics in a Globalized World.” In Embodied Reception: South Asian Spiritualities in Contemporary Contexts, edited by Henriette Hanky, Knut A. Jacobsen, and István Keul. Sheffield: Equinox.
Lucia, Amanda. 2024. “Introduction.” In A Cultural History of Hinduism in the Age of Independence (1947-2017), edited by Amanda Lucia and Maya Warrier, Volume 6 of A Cultural History of Hinduism, vols. 1-6, edited by Karen Pechilis. London: Bloomsbury.
Lucia, Amanda. 2024. “Lineages, Emerging Exemplars, and Movements.” In A Cultural History of Hinduism in the Age of Independence(1947-2017), edited by Amanda Lucia and Maya Warrier, Volume 6 of A Cultural History of Hinduism, vols. 1-6, edited by Karen Pechilis. London: Bloomsbury.
Lucia, Amanda. 2023. “Marking Sacred Space: Altars and Yoga Mats in Transformative Events.” Journal of Festive Studies, Vol. 5: 110—130. https://doi.org/10.33823/jfs.2023.5.1.114
Lucia, Amanda. 2023. “Persistent Fictions: Race and the Global Gurus of the Long Twentieth Century,” pp. 375-395. In Hindu Diasporas, edited by Knut Axel Jacobsen. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lucia, Amanda. 2023. “Economies of Wonder: The Production of Spectacle at the Kumbh Melā,” pp. 197-222. In Wonder in South Asia: Histories, Aesthetics, and Ethics, edited by Tulasi Srinivas. New York: SUNY Press.
Lucia, Amanda. 2023. “Flooding the Web: Absence-Presence and the Media Strategies of Nithyananda’s Digital Empire,” pp. 271-297. In Gurus and Media: Sound, Image, Machine, Text and the Digital, edited by Jacob Copeman, Arkotong Longkumer, and Koonal Duggal. London: KCL Press.
Lucia, Amanda. 2023. “The Kumbh Melā as Hyperobject: Sound, Scale, Nation, Environment.” pp. 386-399. In The Routledge Handbook of Material Religion, edited by S. Brent Plate, Pooyan Arab, and Jennifer Scheper Hughes. New York: Routledge.
Lucia, Amanda. 2022. “Guru Sex: Charisma, Proxemic Desire, and the Haptic Logics of the Guru Disciple Relationship.” (reprint) pp. 209-238 in Religious Authority in South Asia: Generating the Guru, edited by István Keul and Srilata Raman. New York: Routledge.
Lucia, Amanda. 2022. “Gurus and Healing: Amma (Mata Amritanandamyi) at the Intersection of Miracles and Medicine.” pp. 244-257 in The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health, edited by Dorothea Lüddeckens, Philipp Hetmanczyk, Pamela E. Klassen, and Justin B. Stein. London and New York: Routledge.
Lucia, Amanda. 2022. “The Contemporary Guru Field.” Religion Compass, e12427. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12427
Lucia, Amanda and Michael Alexander. 2021. “Aum Shalom: Jews, Gurus, and Religious Hybridity in the City of Angels.” pp.189-203 in Religion in Los Angeles: Religious Activism, Innovation, and Diversity in the Global City, edited by Richard Flory and Diane Winston. New York: Routledge University Press.
Lucia, Amanda. 2021. “The Global Manifestation of the Hindu Guru Phenomenon.” pp. 413-427 in Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions, edited by Knut Axel Jacobsen. New York: Routledge University Press.
Lucia, Amanda. 2021. “Charisma in Hinduism.” pp. 175-185 in Routledge International Handbook of Charisma, edited by José Pedro Zúquete. New York: Routledge University Press.
Lucia, Amanda. 2018. “An Unlikely Tīrtha: Making a Gaudiya Vaishanava Space Sacred among the Mormons.” Journal of Vaishnava Studies. Vol. 27. No. 1: 171-183.
Lucia, Amanda. 2018. “Guru Sex: Charisma, Proxemic Desire, and the Haptic Logics of the Guru Disciple Relationship.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Vol. 86. No. 4: 953-988.
Lucia, Amanda. 2018. “Saving Yogis: Spiritual Nationalism and the Proselytizing Missions of Global Yoga.” pp. 35-70 in Asian Migrations & Global Religion: Studies on Transnational Religious Movements, edited by Brenda Yeoh and Bernardo Brown, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Lucia, Amanda. 2014. “‘Give Me Sevā Overtime:’ Selfless Service and Humanitarianism in Mata Amritanandamayi’s Transnational Guru Movement.” History of Religions. 53: 4: 188-207.
Lucia, Amanda. 2014. “Innovative Gurus: Tradition and Change in Contemporary Hinduism.” International Journal of Hindu Studies. 18. 2: 221-263.
Huffer, Amanda. 2011. “Backdoor Hinduism: A Recoding in the Language of Spirituality.” Nidan: International Journal for the Study of Hinduism. Vol. 23: 53-71.
Huffer, Amanda. 2011. “Hinduism without Religion: Amma’s Movement in America.” CrossCurrents: Special Issue: Religion in Asia Today. Vol. 61. Issue 3: 374-398.
Huffer, Amanda. 2010. “Female Immigration as a Catalyst for Ritual Practice: A Social History of Hinduism in the United States.” Journal of Hindu Studies. 3(2): 189-215.
Articles (Non-Peer Reviewed)
Lucia, Amanda. 2021. “‘White Utopias’: Investigating Spiritual Festivals’ Religious Exoticism with Professor Amanda J. Lucia.” Citta Vritti blog,
https://cittavritti.fr/2021/12/02/white-utopias-spiritual-festivals-religious-exoticism-amanda-lucia
Lucia, Amanda. 2021. “Manufacturing Consent: Creating Hierarchies in the Guru-Disciple Relationship.” Sacred Matters: Religious Currents in Culture. April 4. https://sacredmattersmagazine.com/manufacturing-consent-creating-hierarchies-in-the-guru-disciple-relationship
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. “Why are Yogic and Transformational Festivals – from Wanderlust to Burning Man – So White?” UC Press Blog. November 25. https://www.ucpress.edu/blog/53445/why-are-yogic-and-transformational-festivals-from-wanderlust-to-burning-man-so-white
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. “Religious Exoticism and White Utopias: 7 Questions for Amanda J. Lucia,” Sacred Matters: Religious Currents in Culture. November 1. https://sacredmattersmagazine.com/religious-exoticism-and-white-utopias-7-questions-for-amanda-j-lucia
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. “Representation and Whiteness among the ‘Spiritual but not Religious.’” Canopy Forum: On the Interactions of Law and Religion. September 24.
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. “The Hindu Guru-Disciple Relationship and the Complications of Consent.” The Revealer, March, Special Issue: Religion and Sexual Abuse. https://therevealer.org/the-guru-disciple-relationship-and-the-complications-of-consent/
Awarded “Excellence in Magazine Overall Religion Coverage” by The Religion News Association, the largest professional organization for religion journalism in the U.S, with special mention of the March 2020 special issue on Religion and Sex Abuse.
Lucia, Amanda. 2018. “Desires for power: sex scandals and their proliferation.” Oxford University Press Blog. December 15. https://blog.oup.com/2018/12/desires-power-scandals-proliferation
Lucia, Amanda. 2018. “On the Global Guru Circuit: From India to the West and Back Again.” The RLST Project. November 15. https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/2018/11/15/on-the-global-guru-circuit-from-india-to-the-west-and-back-again/
Lucia, Amanda. 2017. “Divali in the White House?” Oxford University Press Blog. October 18. https://blog.oup.com/2017/10/diwali-white-house
Lucia, Amanda and Jennifer Scheper Hughes, Jim K. Lee, and S. Romi Mukherjee. 2015. “Take It Outside: Practicing Religion in Public.” BOOM: A Journal of California. December 23. http//www.boomcalifornia.com/2016/01/take-it-outside
Lucia, Amanda. 2015. “The Playful Seduction of Colors: Chanting ‘Hare Krishna’ by Accident.” October 24. www.religiousfestivals.ucr.edu (no longer active)
Lucia, Amanda. 2015. “Toward a Theory of Festival.” October 24. http://religiousfestivals.ucr.edu (no longer active)
Lucia, Amanda. 2015. “How ISKCON took Hinduism to the US Heartland.” Scroll.In. January 16. http://scroll.in/article/700557/How-ISKCON-took-Hinduism-to-the-US-heartland
(~23K views, reposted on http://www.utahkrishnas.org/iskcon-took-hinduism-us-heartland)
Lucia, Amanda. 2014. “Who Needs a Hug(ging) Saint?” Religion in American History. September 21. http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2014/09/who-needs-hugging-saint.html
Lucia, Amanda. 2013. “Religious Genius Project – Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) Discourses” Elijah Interfaith Institute, http://elijah-interfaith.org/sharing-wisdom/religious-genius-project-mata-amritanandamayi-amma-discourses
Encyclopedia Entries
Lucia, Amanda. 2018. “Hinduism in America.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Religion in America, (print edition), edited by John Corrigan. New York: Oxford University Press, 105-125.
Lucia, Amanda. 2017. “Hinduism in America.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Religion in America, (online edition), edited by John Corrigan, January 26. http://religion.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-436
Lucia, Amanda. 2016. “Festivals.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism, edited by Tracy Coleman, November 28. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com
Lucia, Amanda. 2013. “Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust/Embracing the World,” BRILL Encyclopedia of Hinduism, vol. V, edited by Knut A. Jacobsen. Leiden: BRILL (2013), 523-30.
Translations
Huffer, Amanda. 2007. Translation of selections from the Sadhvi Shakti Parishad’s (a subsidiary of the VHP) Mātramāhāśakti. (Hindi original.) Available at the Regenstein Library. The University of Chicago.
Book Reviews
Lucia, Amanda. History of Religions. Kati Curts, Assembling Religion: The Ford Motor Company and the Transformation of Religion in America, in progress.
Lucia, Amanda. Journal of Contemporary Religion. Karen Pechilis and Amy-Ruth Holt, eds., Devotional Visualities: Seeing Bhakti in Indic Material Cultures, 40(1): 169–171.
Lucia, Amanda. 2021. American Religion. Megan Goodwin, Abusing Religion: Literary Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions, vol. 2, no. 2, Spring: 148-150.
Lucia, Amanda. 2021. H-ASIA. Luke Whitmore, Mountain, Water, Rock, God: Understanding Kedarnath in the Twenty-First Century, https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=54070 (February) 3.
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. Nova Religio. Richard Weiss, The Emergence of Modern Hinduism: Religions on the Margins of Colonialism, vol. 24, no. 2: 114-116.
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. The Journal of Religion. Angela Rudert, Shakti’s New Voice: Guru Devotion in a Woman-Led Spiritual Movement, 100, No. 1 (January): 152-154.
Lucia, Amanda. 2020. Southern California Quarterly. David J. Neumann, Finding God through Yoga, Vol 102., No. 1: 86-9.
Lucia, Amanda. 2019. International Journal of Hindu Studies. Nanette Spina, Women’s Authority and Leadership in a Hindu Goddess Tradition, 23.1: 97-98.
Lucia, Amanda. 2019. The Journal of Asian Studies. J. Barton Scott, Spiritual Despots: Modern Hinduism and the Genealogies of Self-Rule, Vol. 78, Issue 2: 476-477.
Lucia, Amanda. 2018. Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies. Prema Kurien, Ethnic Church Meets Megachurch: Indian American Christianity in Motion, Vol. 31, Article 37: 132-134.
Lucia, Amanda. 2017. Contributions to Indian Sociology. Karline McLain, The Afterlife of Sai Baba: Competing Visions of a Global Saint, 51, 3: 379-381.
Lucia, Amanda. 2016. Reading Religion. Nicholas Campion, The New Age in the Modern West: Counterculture, Utopia and Prophecy from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, http://readingreligion.org/books/new-age-modern-west
Lucia, Amanda. 2016. Nova Religio. Véronique Altglas, From Yoga to Kabbalah: Religious Exoticism and the Logics of Bricolage, Vol. 20, No. 1, (Aug.): 134-135.
Lucia, Amanda. 2016. The Journal of Religion. Orianne Aymard, When a Goddess Dies: Worshipping Ma Anandamayi after Her Death. Vol. 96, Issue 2 (April 2016): 252-253.
Lucia, Amanda. 2015. RLST Dissertation Reviews. Michael J. Altman, Imagining Hindus: India and Religion in Nineteenth Century America, http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/11459
Lucia, Amanda. 2014. Inscriptions. Vincent Wimbush, ed., MisReading America: Scriptures and Difference, Vol. 9, Spring: 2-4.
Lucia, Amanda. 2014. RLST Review. Jacob Copeman and Aya Ikegame, eds., The Guru in South Asia, Vol. 40 (1): 55-56.
Lucia, Amanda. 2013. Religion and Society: Advances in Research. Jacob Copeman and Aya Ikegame, eds., The Guru in South Asia, 4: 212-213.
Huffer, Amanda. 2011. Journal of Asian Studies. Tulasi Srinivas, Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism Through the Sathya Sai Movement, Vol. 70 (3): 894-896.\
Huffer, Amanda. 2011. Journal of Hindu Studies. Kavita Ramdya, Bollywood Weddings: Dating, Engagement, and Marriage in Hindu America, 4(1): 109-110.
Huffer, Amanda. 2011. History of Religions. Sumathi Ramaswamy, The Goddess and the Nation: Mapping Mother India, Vol. 51, No. 2: 185-188.
INVITED LECTURES, CONFERENCE PAPERS, AND BOOK WORKSHOPS
2026. “Fearful Constructions of the Yogi/Guru: Hypnotism, Mind Control, Coercive Persuasion, and Black Magic,” American Academy of Religions Conference (2026), Denver, CO (November 23)
2026. “Yogic Transformations through Tantric Sex: Sexual Abuse v. ‘Religious Freedom,’” Yoga Darśana Yoga Sadhana (YDYS) Conference, Paris (May 27-29)
2026. “Yoga v. American Secularism: comparing the legal cases against the Maharishi (1971) and the Jois Foundation (2013)” École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris (May 22)
2026. “Troubling Consent: Religious Commitments and Sexual Choice,” UCR-RLST Symposium, UCR (May 13)
2026. “Otherly Ruptures: Theorizing the Religious Encounter in Contexts of Structural Violence,” Respondent. Pan-UC Religious Studies Conference, UC, Davis (April 3)
2026. “Give Everything to the Guru-God: Self-Surrender in the Maharaj Libel Case of 1862.” University of Toronto (March 24)
2026. “Networks of Spiritual Tourism: From Burning Man Outwards” EPHE-PSL, Paris (March 16)
2025. “On Beauty: Text and Context,” AAR Conference (2026), Boston, MA (November 23)
2025. “Archives and Abuse: Boston’s Bishop Accountability as a Case Study in Digital Public Access,” AAR Conference, Boston, MA (November 23)
2025. Respondent, “To Kill a Tiger.” a film on sexual assault in India, by Nisha Pahuja, Loyola Marymount University (November 17)
2025. “Politics and Society,” Ways of Doing Bhakti symposium, Regional Bhakti Scholars Network, Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, (October 22)
2025. “The Crisis of Procreation: Regulating Sex in Contemporary Guru-led Movements,” European Association for South Asian Studies (ECSAS), Heidelberg, Germany (October 1-4)
2025. “Facing Off against University Roadblocks: Protective Librarians and Obstinate IRBs,” Surviving the Law: Legal Advocacy for Survivors and Scholars, R&SAP, UCR (May 30-31)
2025. “Wondertrash 2.0: The Supersized Impacts of Kumbh 2025.” Balliol College, Oxford (May 16)
2025. “Economies of Wonder: The Production of Spectacle at the Kumbh Mela.” Arya Mahila P.G. College, Varanasi, India (cancelled)
2025. “Economies of Wonder: The Production of Spectacle at the Kumbh Mela.” Society for Pilgrimage Studies. Seminar on Sacred Waters, Sacred Places, Kumbh Mela, Prayagraj, India. (February 25)
2024. “Transgression,” AAR Conference, San Diego, California (November 23)
2024. “A Cultural History of Hinduism: Book Roundtable,” AAR Conference, San Diego, California (November 23)
2024. “A Cultural History of Hinduism: Book Roundtable,” Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, (October 31)
2024. “The Power of Persecution.” Keynote, Undergraduate Research Symposium, California State University-Bakersfield (May 3).
2024. “Between Asceticism and Mysticism: Spiritual Yogis in the Festival Scene,” California State University-Northridge (April 23).
2024. “Paradoxes of the Elokeshi Archive (1873): A Heroic Murderer, a Muted Victim, and an Abundance of Necroerotics,” Sexuality in the Archive workshop, sponsored by the Religion and Sexual Abuse Project, UCR (March 1-3)
2023. “Sexual Abuse and the Study of Religion: Where do we go from here?” Roundtable, sponsored by the Contextualizing the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis Seminar, AAR Conference, San Antonio, Texas (November 19)
2023. “Awakening the Third Eye: Hierarchies of Consciousness in the New Age,” Panel with Arun Saldanha. Harvard University (October 26).
2023. “Transgression in the Eye of the Beholder: Revisiting the Maharaj Libel Case of 1862,” Regional Bhakti Scholars Network Symposium on “Transgression,” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin (October 18)
2023. “When Should We Listen to Critics?: Scholarly self-reflexivity in controversial research.” Controversial Topics in Research and Teaching. University of Bergen, Norway (May 31-June 1).
2023. “‘Self-styled Godmen’: lineage versus criminality in media discourse,” Spalding Symposium, King’s College London (April 21-23).
2023. “Criminal Bandits and Nationalist Heroes: Ambiguous Gurus in the Discourses of the Sannyasi and Fakir Rebellion,” University of Vienna. (March 31).
2023. “A Brief History of Modern Yoga.” Yoga: Past and Present. SOAS (February 8).
2022. Keynote, “Denaturalizing White Women’s Agency in Alternative Spiritualities,” Ghent University (December 8).
2022. “Religion and/as Labor.” Respondent. AAR Conference, Denver, Colorado (November 20).
2022. “Women in Publishing.” AAR Conference, Denver, Colorado (November 21).
2022. “Neoliberalism and White Utopias.” AAR Conference. Denver, Colorado (November 21).
2022. Respondent, Yoga in Latin America (YoLA) Project Symposium, El Colegio de México, Mexico City (September 20-22).
2022. “The Reterritorialization of the New Age: Pilot Baba in post-Soviet States and Japan,” Born Again Selves: New Religious Movements and the Norms of Belief. Universistät Erfurt, Germany (June 6-8).
2022. “‘Studying Up’ and Academic Complicities,” Panel: On Ethics and Elephants: The Politics Mediating Yoga Studies, Yoga Darśana, Yoga Sādhana (YDYS), Jagiellonian University, Kraków (May 19).
2022. Keynote, “Returning to the Roots of White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals,” Yoga Darśana, Yoga Sādhana (YDYS), Jagiellonian University, Kraków (May 18).
2022. “Returning to the Roots of White Utopias,” Colloquium, University of Edinburgh (March 23).
2022. “Whose Law? Whose Authority?: Questioning the role of law in adjudicating abuse,” Religion & Sexual Abuse Conference, UCR (March 5).
2022. “The Materiality of Religious Exoticism: Re-reading White Utopias through Objects,” Occidental College (February 23).
2021. White Utopias Keynote, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK (September 15).
2021. “Aspiring for Beauty: Aesthetic ideals and Ascetic Practice in Contemporary Spirituality.” Practices of Embodied Reception. University of Bergen, Norway (September 8-9)
2021. “The Guru and his ‘Invading Army:’ Nativist constructions of Osho’s Rajneeshpuram in ‘Wild Wild Country.’” European Academy of Religion Conference. Muenster, Germany (August 30).
2021. Wonder: Ethnography, Ethics, and Politics. Roundtable Panelist. Society for the Anthropology of Religion (May 14).
2021. “Defining Discourses: Unpacking Gail Tredwell’s Abuse Allegations against Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi),” RLST Seminar, University of Edinburgh (March 24).
2021. “Romanticizing the Premodern: Yoga, Spirituality, and the Practice of Exoticism,” Keynote. Yadunandan Center for India Studies, California State University-Long Beach (March 24).
2020. The Power of Context, Identity, and Capital: Three Books Interrogating Spirituality and Yoga Published in 2020. Roundtable Panelist, responding to White Utopias. AAR Conference (December 9).
2020. Neoliberalism, Hinduism, and Globalized ‘Spirituality’ Discourses in India and America. Respondent. AAR Conference (December 8).
2020. “Between Asceticism and Mysticism: Spiritual Yogis in the Festival Scene,” New Directions in Yoga Studies: Online Weekend School for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS), Oxford University (December 6).
2020. “Romanticizing the Premodern: Yoga, Spirituality, and the Practice of Exoticism,” SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies, University of London (December 2).
2020. “In Conversation: Michael Alexander on Making Peace with the Universe (2020) and Amanda Lucia on White Utopias.” Center for Ideas and Society, UCR (November 17).
2020. “Anxieties over Authenticity: American Yoga and the Problem of Whiteness,” Webinar, Yoga Alliance (November 12).
2020. Amanda Lucia on her new book White Utopias, interviewed by Tulasi Srinivas. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Raising our Voices (November 11)
2020. White Utopias. Colloquium. Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA (October 7).
2020. “Religion and Sexual Abuse,” Respondent. Inform Seminar: Sexual Abuse Framed by Faith or Belief, London, UK (July 22).
2020. “Permeable Bodies and Sexual Abuse in the Guru-Disciple Relationship,” (Lectures I, II, III), Yoga Studies Summer School, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland (July 13-15) (cancelled due to COVID-19).
2020. “Manufacturing Consent: Persuasion, Coercion, and Conformity in Guru-Disciple Relationships,” Yoga and Sexual Abuse Conference, Loyola Marymount University (June 13).
2020. “Rethinking Ethnographic Methodology in the Wake of Writing White Utopias,” Office of Research and Economic Development, UCR (May 19).
2020. “Consent and Empowerment in the Guru-Disciple Relationship,” Evolution of Yoga Summit, Yoga Alliance/Loyola Marymount University (March 22) (cancelled due to COVID-19).
2020. White Utopias. Ratner Family Lecture, Keynote, Case Western Reserve University (March 4).
2019. Authors Meet Critics. Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance, AAR Conference, San Diego, CA (November 25).
2019. Theory and Method 2.0 Roundtable. AAR Conference, San Diego, CA (November 24).
2019. White Utopias. Keynote, Yogascapes 2.0, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan (July 11).
2019. Authors Meet Critics. Tulasi Srinivas, The Cow in the Elevator: An Anthropology of Wonder, Association for Asian Studies Conference, Denver, CO (March 23).
2019. “Temporary Asceticisms: The Embodied Practices of Spiritual Tourism,” Society for Pilgrimage Studies Conference, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India (February 7).
2018. “Box Braids, Buddhist Altars, and Native Headdresses: Radical Self Expression vs. Cultural Property at Burning Man,” Burning Man and Transformational Event Cultures Symposium, University of Fribourg, Switzerland (November 29-20).
2018. “The Ephemeral Field: Ethnographic Research on Nebulous Spirituality,” AAR Conference, Denver, CO (November 18).
2018. “Yogic Spiritual Tourism: A Modern Asceticism?” AAR Conference, Denver, CO (November 20)
2018. “Reflections of Amma”. Colloquium. University of California-Davis (October 29).
2018. “White Bhaktas/White Yogis: Anxieties over Authenticity in Indic Spirituality in the United States” University of Wisconsin-Madison South Asia Conference, Madison, WI (October)
2018. “The Cathartic Freedom of Transformational Festival: Escapes and Entrapments of Neoliberal Modernity,” Colloquium, RLST, UCR (October 4).
2018. “Celebrity, Scandal, and the Godmen of Modern India.” Conference on the Study of Religions of India, University of California-Davis (June 22).
2018. “Representing Yoga: A Book Talk on White Utopias with Amanda Lucia,” Keynote. California State University-Bakersfield (May 4).
2018. “Mediating Charisma: The Rise of the Celebrity Guru,” Rise of New Religions in Asia Workshop, Boston University (March 19-20).
2018. “Touching God: Charisma, Proxemic Desire, and the Haptic Logics of the Guru Disciple Relationship,” Colloquium. Department of Classics and World Religions/Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH.
2017. Authors Meet Critics: David A. Palmer and Elijah Siegler, Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality. Respondent. AAR Conference, Boston, MA (November 21)
2017. “Reconstructing Authority: Female Gurus Today.” Respondent. AAR Conference Boston, MA. (November 19)
2017. “American Multiculturalism: Promises and Actualities,” La Sierra University, Riverside, CA (February 25)
2017. “Illusions of Freedom: Escapism, Exoticism and the Neoliberal Yogi,” Colloquium. University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (April)
2017. “Romanticizing the Premodern: Yoga, Spirituality, and the Practice of Exoticism,” Colloquium. Middlebury College (April 6).
2016. “Transnational Yoga: Translation, Domestification, and Appropriation,” AAR Conference, San Antonio, TX (November 20)
2016. Disseminating Yoga: Teachings and Traditions. Respondent. AAR Conference, San Antonio, TX (November 22)
2015. “Does Ethnicity Trump Religion?” The Returns of Religion, Religion in Diaspora and Global Affairs Conference, UCHRI, Collège d’études mondiales/FMSH/EHESS, Paris, France (December 14-15).
2015. “Feeling Encounters: Understanding the Haptic Logics of Guru Intimacy,” AAR Conference, Atlanta, GA (November 23).
2015. “Postethnic Authenticities: Postural Yoga and American Multiculturalism,” AAR Conference, Atlanta, GA (November 24).
2015. “Saving Yogis: Spiritual Nationalism and the Proselytizing Missions of Global Yoga,” Migrant Communities and Religious Experience in Asia Conference, Asia Research Institute (ARI), Singapore (August 18-19).
2015. “From Healing to Sex Scandal: Understanding the Haptic Logics of Guru Intimacy,” Society for the Anthropology of Religion, San Diego, CA (April 17).
2015. “Saving Yogis: Missionizing Discourses of American Yoga,” Yoga (R)evolution? Interrogating Possibilities and Practices, The Race and Yoga Research Working Group, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
2015. Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace. Keynote. 2014 Emory Elliott Book Award, Center for Ideas and Society, UCR (February 3).
2015. “An Intimate Connection: Devotional Desires and Guru Physicality,” Gurus: Mapping Spirituality in Contemporary India, South Asian Council Annual Conference, Yale University.
2015. “Modern Postural Yoga through Multiple Lenses,” Dueling Disciplines: Critical Dance Studies, RLST, and Political Theory, Center for Ideas and Society, UCR (May 28).
2014. “Mormons Playing Holi at the Hare Krishna Temple: Cultural Representation, Proselytization, and the Productive Spaces of Festival,” American Anthropological Association, Washington DC.
2014. Gods Just Want to Have Fun: Ecstasy, Celebration and Community in Los Angeles Religions. Respondent. American Studies Association, Los Angeles, CA.
2014. “Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace: In conversation with Edward Blum,” Colloquium, RLST Department, UCR.
2014. “The Yoga of Antiquity: American Yoga and Authenticity,” Colloquium. Dance Department, UCR.
2014. “Innovative Yoga Gurus: Charisma, Devotees, and the creation of NRMs,” When New Religious Movements Get Old, Conference in honor of Eileen Barker, UCR.
2014, 2013, 2011. “Ethics of Ethnography” Honors Symposium, UCR.
2014. “Seeking the Sacred: Transformational Festivals and the Search for Spiritual Experience,” Indiana University-Bloomington.
2013. “Textuality, Sexuality, and Embodiment: performing the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra,” AAR Conference, Baltimore, MD (November 25)
2013. “Is Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) a ‘Religious Genius’?” AAR Conference, Baltimore, MD (November 24).
2013. “Vectors of Religious Labor at the Kumbh Mela 2013,” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI (October).
2013. Respondent. MisReading America: Scriptures and Difference, edited by Vincent Wimbush with Lalruatkima and Melissa Renee Reid. Claremont Graduate University.
2013. “Ascetic Discipline and the Kumbh Mela 2013,” Center for Ideas and Society Speaker Series, UCR, Palm Desert Campus (March).
2013. “Ascetic Discipline and the Kumbh Mela,” Society for Pilgrimage Studies Conference, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India (February).
2012. “Reviving the ‘Golden Age of the Vedas’: Gendered Innovations of Hindu Ritual,” AAR Conference, Chicago, IL.
2012. “Exhibit(ing) India: Authenticity and the Politics of Representation in American Yoga,” AAR Conference, Chicago, IL.
2012. “Responses to the Pew Forum Report on Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths.” Religious Studies Colloquium, UCR, Riverside, CA.
2012. “Hunting Exotic India: Freak Show and Festival in America 1894-2012,” South Asian Studies Association (SASA), Claremont, CA.
2011. “Hinduism without Religion: the Rhetoric of ‘Spirituality’ in Amma’s Global Guru Movement,” AAR Conference, San Francisco, CA.
2011. “Spiritual, But Not Hindu: Universalism in a Global Transnational Guru Movement,” Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Santa Fe, NM.
2011. “Hinduism Without Religion: Amma’s Movement in America,” UCR (March).
2011. “Swami Vivekananda and the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions,” Austin College (May).
2011. “Swami Vivekananda and the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions,” The Art Institute of Chicago (May).
2010. “Ordinary Women, Goddesses, and Gurus: Post-1965 Diversification of Vivekananda’s Hinduism.” Hindus in India and America: Hinduizing America; Globalizing India Conference, University of Chicago.
2010. “Like Bees to Honey: Amma and her American devotees through the lens of Devī Bhāva,” Theory and Practice in South Asia (TAPSA) Seminar, University of Chicago.
2010. “Like Bees to Honey: Amma and her American devotees through the lens of Devī Bhāva.” Elon University.
2011. “Performing Authority: Amritanandamayi Ma’s Theater of the Goddess,” Albion College.
2010. “A ‘Feminine’ and Feminist Form of Hindu Religiosity: The Goddess in Amritanandamayi Ma’s Movement,” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI.
2009. “From the Serampore Mission to the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago (HTGC): A History of “American Hinduism,” TAPSA Seminar, University of Chicago.
2009. “Bounded Communities: Ammachi’s Communities of Devotees in the United States.” American Anthropological Association, Philadelphia, PA.
2009. “From the Serampore Mission to the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago (HTGC): A History of “American Hinduism,” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI.
2007. “Surprising Parallels: Rhetoric of Divine Motherhood in the Discourses of the Sadhvi Shakti Parishad and Amritanandamayi Ma,” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI.
White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals (2020)
Book Talk and Class Discussion
2026. École Practique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris (May 28).
2026. University of Toronto (March 25)
2024. Skidmore College (April 23).
2022. University of Notre Dame (November 15).
2021. Skidmore College (December 3).
2021. Eckerd College (April 23).
2021. Indiana University (April 13).
2021. Elon University (March 24).
2021. Cellar Door, Riverside, CA (February 19).
2021. Open Book Sessions, Seattle, WA (February 9).
2020. Otterbein University (November 11).
Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace (2014)
Book Talk and Class Discussions
2020. Whittier College (September 30).
2016. Elijah Interfaith Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel.
LANGUAGES
Hindi: advanced. Urdu: good. Sanskrit and French: reading. German, Spanish, and Malayalam: poor.
TEACHING
Undergraduate Courses
Religious Myth and Ritual
Introduction to Asian Religions
Teaching Religion in US Public Schools
The Problem of Evil
Decolonizing Religion
New Religious Movements
Gurus and Saints
Yoga: From Ancient to Modern
Contemporary Themes in Religion and Theory
Gender, Sexuality, and Religion
Modern Hinduism
Religion, Culture, and Society in Asia
Asian Religions in America
Gurus and Globalization
Hinduism
Buddhism
Senior Seminar
Colloquium
Research and Creative Activity Across the Disciplines (Honors)
Second year Hindi/Urdu
Advanced Readings Hindi/Urdu
Graduate Teaching
Charisma: Advanced Topics in Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
Via Mystica
Advanced Topics in the Study of North American Religion
Ethnographic Methodology
Thinking Religion: Classic Theories in the Study of Religion
Contemporary Methods and Theory in the Study of Religion
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Sexuality and Religion Steering Committee, American Academy of Religion, (2026 – present)
Advisory Board Member, MANTRAMS, ERC Synergy Grant Initiative, (2025 – present)
Yoga Theory and Practice Steering Committee, American Academy of Religion, (2016 – 2021)
Co-Chair: Hinduism Group, American Academy of Religion, (2014 – 2018)
Hinduism Steering Committee, American Academy of Religion, (2011 – 2014)
CONSULTING AND OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Director of Curriculum, Steering Committee, UCR LIFTED Prison Teaching Program (2026 – )
Editor, South Asia Book Reviews, Religious Studies Review (2025 – )
Editorial Board, Psychedelic Cultures (2026 – )
Editorial Board, Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2018 – )
Co-Coordinator, CIMER Mentoring Training Course (2026)
Pedagogy Discussion Group: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian (August 2020)
Working Group, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California (2012-2014)
Alumni Pedagogy Workshop: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Chicago, April 2013
OUTSIDE READER/CONSULTANT/PROGRAM REVIEWER
American Jewish History
American Religion
Anthropology of Work
Asian Women
Bloomsbury Academic Press
Columbia University Press
Critical Research on Religion
External Review Committee: Study of Religion Department, SDSU
Fieldwork in Religion
Gunpowder and Sky Productions
Hellman Fellowship Committee, UCR
History of Religions
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
International Journal of Hindu Studies
International Social Sciences Journal
Journal of Asian and African Studies
Journal of Contemporary Religion
Journal of Dharma Studies
Journal of Hindu Studies
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture
Lexington
New York University Press
Nova Religio
Oxford University Press
Palgrave MacMillan
Pluto Press
Race and Yoga Journal
Religion Compass
Religion
Religions
Routledge
The Journal of Religion
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC)
Societies
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
University of California Press
University of Chicago Press
Recent Media Outreach
Interviewed by Dan Ruetenik, CBS NEWS, on Tulsi Gabbard and The Science of Identity Foundation, January 23, 2025.
Interviewed by Anupreeta Das of The New York Times, “The Divine, the Digital and the Political at Humanity’s Largest Gathering,” Delhi, India, January 18, 2025.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/world/asia/india-maha-kumbh-mela.html
Interviewed by Jamie and Karen Zelermyer, of the I Was Never There, podcast, Season II, https://wondermedianetwork.com/work/i-was-never-there/, forthcoming October 2024.
Interviewed by Deborah Netburn of Los Angeles Times, “‘It’s a lot of UFO stuff and a lot of healing’: Inside L.A.’s wackiest spiritual convention,” https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2024-02-19/la-spiritual-convention-conscious-life-expo-aliens-chakra-energy-healing, February 19, 2024.
Interviewed by Marina Nasi of ValigiaBlu, “Lo Scandalo Bivolaru e la questione degli abusi nel mondo dello yoga” [“The Bivolaru scandal and the issue of abuse in the world of yoga”],
https://www.valigiablu.it/bivolaru-abusi-yoga/, December 23, 2023.
Interviewed by Sushmita Pathak of The Juggernaut, “How Kailasa, A Fake Hindu Nation, Conned Millions,” https://www.thejuggernaut.com/sister-city-scam-fake-hindu-nation-kailasa-nithyananda, March 20, 2023.
Interviewed by Sonia Paul of Vox on Sadhguru, “Sadhguru, the spiritual leader with ties to Will Smith and Modi, explained,” https://www.vox.com/23206916/sadhguru-explained-save-the-soil-modi, July 18, 2022.