George Pati

BIOGRAPHY

George Pati (PhD, Religious Studies and South Asian Languages and Cultures, University Professors Program, Boston University) joined Valparaiso University in 2006. He holds the Surjit S. Patheja Chair in World Religions and Ethics and is a Professor of South Asian religions and cultures. His commitment to excellence in education was recognized with numerous teaching awards, including the Valparaiso University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016-17. He was later nominated for the Valparaiso University Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020.

He is interested in the history and anthropology of South Asian religions and cultures, Hinduism, religion and the body, Malayalam language and literature, rituals, and performances. He is interested in exploring embodiments of devotion in texts, rituals, and performances in Kerala, South India. He is fluent in several languages, including the Indian languages of Malayalam, Hindi, and Tamil. His first monograph, Religious Devotion and the Poetics of Reform: Love and Liberation in Malayalam Poetry(2019), is a study of Kumāran Āśān’s Malayalam poetry (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. He has several other publications, including the co-edited Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions: Spatial Bodies, Subtle Bodies (with Katherine Zubko, 2020), and The Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body (with Yudit Greenberg,2023). George’s second monograph in preparation, Corporeality, Spatiality, and Materiality: The Dynamics of Devotion in Kerala, India, is an ethnography that explores performance, procession, and place and the production of sacredness in Kerala. He curated an exhibition called Sacred Spaces and Objects at the Brauer Museum of Arts, Valparaiso University, Indiana.

He is the Vice President of the Association for Asian Studies-Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs and the Chair of the Arts, Literature, and Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Body and Religion journal and the Board of Directors for Opportunity Enterprises, a non-profit organization serving 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; History of religions;
Hinduism; Devotional traditions of India; Religion and the body; Rituals and
performances; Kerala history and culture; Malayalam language and literature

SELECT COURSES TAUGHT

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

MEMBERSHIPS

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