George Pati

BIOGRAPHY

Professor George Pati joined the Valparaiso University faculty in 2006 after earning his Ph.D. in Religious Studies and South Asian Languages and Cultures, focusing on the anthropology and history of religions and Malayalam language and literature of South Asia from the University Professors Program at Boston University Boston, MA. He was named the Surjit S. Patheja Endowed Chair in World Religions and Ethics in 2011. He received the Valparaiso University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016-17 and several other awards for his excellence in teaching and mentoring. He was also nominated for the Valparaiso University Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020.

He is trained in various methods, including the history of religions, ethnographic fieldwork, and comparative religions. He is especially interested in the embodiment of devotion through texts, rituals, and performances in Hinduism and Christianity in Malayalam. His research interests come together in his publications. His first book, Religious Devotion and the Poetics of Reform: Love and Liberation in Malayalam Poetry (Routledge, 2019), is a study of Malayalam poetry authored by Kumāran Āśān (1873-1924) emphasizing the importance of bhakti as both passionate expressions toward the deity and resistance and reform movement during the colonial period in Kerala. His second book, Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions: Subtle Bodies, Spatial Bodies (with Katherine C. Zubko, 2020), discusses transformational embodiment in different Asian religions, regions, and historical periods, problematizing the study of the body. His third book, The Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body (with Yudit Greenberg, 2023,) is the first comprehensive volume examining multireligious cross-cultural perspectives on the body and embodiment, featuring multidisciplinary approaches and methodologies from the humanities and the social sciences. Currently, he is working on a monograph: Corporeality, Spatiality, and Materiality: The Dynamics of Devotion in Kerala, South India, which is an ethnography that explores ritual performance and space and demonstrates the production of sacredness and transformation of cityscape to religioscape in Thiruvalla, Kerala.

He has been the Co-Chair of the Arts, Literature, and Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion since 2021 and the Body and Religion Unit Chair from 2012 to 2017. He also serves on the editorial board of Body and Religion and has served on the Board of Directors for the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. Currently, he sits on the Board of Directors for Opportunity Enterprises, a nonprofit organization that works to maximize self-sufficiency and enrich the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

Select Publications

Books:

Religious Devotion and the Poetics of Reform: Love and Liberation in Malayalam Poetry (Routledge, 2019)

Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions: Subtle Bodies, Spatial Bodies (co-edited with Katherine C. Zubko) (Routledge, 2020)

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body (co-edited with Yudit Greenberg) (Routledge, 2023)

Articles, Chapters, and Entries:

Kaḷarippayaṭṭu. In Knut A. Jacobsen, ed., Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Volume 7. Leiden, Netherlands; Boston, MA: E. J. Brill, 2023, 299-305.

Performing Kṛṣṇa’s Body in Kerala. In Yudit Greenberg and George Pati, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body. London and New York: Routledge, 2023: 333-344.

Sree Narayana Guru. In Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism. Ed. Tracy Coleman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195399318-0234

Movements, Miracles, and Mysticism: Apotheosis of Sree Narayana Guru of Early Twentieth Century Kerala. In Diana Dimitrova and Tatiana Oranskaia, eds., Divinization in South Asian Traditions. London and New York: Routledge, 2018: pp.115-130. 

Sacred Spaces and Objects: The Visual, Material and Tangible. Valparaiso: Valparaiso University, 2016 (Curated exhibit).

Feet like Lotus Powder. In Wendy Doniger, ed., Hinduism: Norton Anthology of World Religion. Vol.1. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2015: pp.370-372.         

Nambūtiris and Ayyappan Devotees in Kerala. In P. Pratap Kumar, ed., Contemporary Hinduism. London and New York: Routledge, 2014: pp.204-216.

Narayana Guru. In Knut A. Jacobsen, ed., Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism: Symbolism, Diaspora, Modern Issues. Volume 5. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2013: pp. 559-565.

Kerala Hinduism. In Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism. Ed. Alf Hiltebeitel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195399318-0126 

Temple and Human Bodies: Representing Hinduism. International Journal of Hindu Studies. Vol.15, No.2, 2011: pp. 191-207. 

Kaḷari and Kaḷarippayaṭṭu of Kerala, South India: Nexus of the Celestial, the Corporeal, and the Terrestrial. Contemporary South Asia. Vol.18, No.2, 2010: pp.175-189. 

Regional Tradition, Kerala. In Knut A. Jacobsen, ed., Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism: Texts, Rituals, Arts, Concepts. Volume 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2010: pp.606-114.

Mohiniyāṭṭam: An Embodiment of the Aesthetic and the Religious. Journal of Hindu Studies. Vol.3, 2010: pp. 91-113.

Body as Sacred Space in Kaḷaricikitsā of Kerala, South India. Religions of South Asia. Vol. 3, No.2, 2009: pp. 235-250.

Kerala. In Knut A. Jacobsen, ed., Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism: Regions, Pilgrimage, and Deities. Volume 1. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2009: pp. 221-231.

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Boston University, MA

INTERESTS 

Anthropology of South Asian religions and cultures; ethnography, Hinduism, and Christianity; comparative theology/religions and literature; religion and the body; Kerala history and culture; and Malayalam and Sanskrit Languages.

SELECT COURSES TAUGHT

• Senior Seminar and Thesis
• Research and Writing in the Discipline
• Theories and Methods in Religious Studies
• Anthropology of the Body
• Sacred Spaces, Bodies, and Rituals
• Disabilities, Race, and Healing
• Religion, Film, and Body
• Religion, Rituals, and Performances
• Narratives of Love in South Asian Literature
• Indian Religions and Cultures
• Hinduism
• Hindu Sacred Texts and Motifs
• Asian Christianities
• Comparative TheologyReading Devotional Poetry
• Religions of South Asia
• Religions of China and Japan
• Perspectives on Religious Quest
• CORE: The Human Experience
• Goddess, Saints, and Women of India
• Contemporary India and Beyond: Religions, Cultures, and Identity
• History of South Asian Civilization
• Buddhism
• Sanskrit Language
• Hindi Language
• Chinese Culture and Civilization

MEMBERSHIPS

• American Academy of Religion
• Association for Asian Studies
• European Association for South Asian Studies
• European Academy of Religion
• Kerala Council for Historical Research
• Society for Hindu-Christian Studies