Curriculum Vitae
Education
2002 Ph.D. in the History of Religions, University of Chicago
“Explaining Mantras: Rhetoric, the Dream of a Natural Language, and the Efficacy of Ritual”
Advisor: Frank Reynolds
1993 J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley
Order of the Coif (class rank: 8 out of 300 (top 3%)
1988 A.B. in Philosophy, Harvard University, cum laude in General Studies
1984 Phillips Academy, Andover, MA (Cum Laude Society)
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Professional Experience
August 2014- Chair and Professor for the Theory and Method of Religious Studies,
Chair of the Interfaculty Program in Religious Studies,
Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich
2013-14 Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Memphis
2008-13 Assistant Professor, Department of History
and the Helen Hardin Honors Program, University of Memphis
2010-13 Program Advisor, Minor in Religious Studies, University of Memphis
2006-08 Research Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Memphis
2005-06 Postdoctoral Fellow, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and
Visiting Assistant Professor, Program for the Study of Religion, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign
2003-05 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, University of Toronto
2001-03 Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
1993-94 Corporate Attorney, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Los Angeles
1989-90 Legal Assistant, Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, San Francisco
Academic Awards
2021 Harris Fellow, Department of Religion, Dartmouth College (September 2021)
2019 Finalist, AAR Award for Excellence in Constructive-Reflective Studies for Sovereignty
and the Sacred (see Publications)
2017 Visiting Scholar, Department of Philosophy and Education, University of Turin
2013-14 Joint Tikvah/Senior Emile Noël Fellow, Tikvah Center for Law & Jewish Civilization
and Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law & Justice,
New York University School of Law
2013-14 Faculty Research Grant, University of Memphis
2012 Professional Development Assignment (sabbatical leave award), Fall Semester 2012,
University of Memphis College of Arts and Sciences
2006-07 Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
2003 Participant, Erasmus Institute Summer Faculty Workshop on
“Religious Hermeneutics and Secular Interpretation,” College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
2001-02 Committee on Southern Asian Studies Dissertation Fellow, University of Chicago
2000-01 Martin Marty Center Junior Fellow, University of Chicago Divinity School
1999-00 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow, Calcutta, India
1998 Social Science Research Council Predissertation Fellow, Dhaka, Bangladesh
1996-98 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow in Bengali
1992-93 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow in German
1992 Scholarship to the Hague Academy of International Law from the Ford Foundation Program
in Public International Law at Boalt Hall School of Law
1990-93 Jurisprudence Awards (1st in class or section): Civil Procedure, Contracts, Comparative Law,
International Law, International Trade Law, Law and Modern Social Thought, Professional Responsibility
1990-93 Prosser Prizes (2nd in class or section): Conceptions of Punishment, Jurisprudence
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Grants and Grant Proposals
(individual fellowships and time-release grants are covered under Academic Awards)
“EuroBlas.” Co-PI of HERA grant proposal for an unfunded project on blasphemy in Europe. Project one of 35 recommended for funding (top 5-6% of those submitted in first round); only 18 projects were funded. Other PIs were from the Netherlands, the UK, and Denmark. (1.2 million euros; not funded)
Collaborative Research Grant, American Academy of Religion, for “The Sacred/Secular Divide: The Legal Story II” conference, under Project Director Winnifred Sullivan, 2008-09. ($4,500)
Research Areas
general history of religions; history and theory of secularism; religion and politics; South Asian religions; semiotics of religion
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Academic Service (Non-Departmental)
currently peer reviewer for national scientific research funding agencies in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium,
the Netherlands, and Israel
2018 Member, external peer review committee for the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the
University of Groningen
2012-22 Editor, Religion, Culture, and History book series, American Academy of Religion/
Oxford University Press; member, AAR Publications Committee
2016- Editorial Board, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
2017- Co-editor, Semiotics of Religion book series, Walter de Gruyter publishers
2012-17 Steering Committee, Secularism and Secularity Group, American Academy of Religion
2011-13 Editorial Board, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses
2010-13 Steering Committee, Religion, Colonialism, and Postcolonialism Group, American Academy of Religion
2007-11 Executive Secretary and Treasurer, North American Association for the Study of Religion
2005-07 Executive Council, North American Association for the Study of Religion
2005-08 Chair, Law, Religion, and Culture Group, American Academy of Religion
2002-05 Steering Committee, Law, Religion, and Culture Group, American Academy of Religion
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Association Memberships
American Academy of Religion; European Association for the Study of Religion; Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft; North American Association for the Study of Religion