Antoinette DeNapoli, Ph.D.

• Books
  • DeNapoli, Antoinette E. 2014. Real Sadhus Sing to God: Gender, Asceticism, and Vernacular Religion in Rajasthan. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Edited Volumes
  • Women and Representation in Buddhist Asia: Innovative Pedagogies, Alternative Narratives, and Reimagined Philosophies. Co-edited with Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox and Kevin Curtis Taylor. SUNY Press, Asian Studies Development Series, Forthcoming.
  • Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as 'Influencers' in Hindu Culture.  Co-edited with June McDaniel. Religions: MDPI, ISSN 2077-1444, Forthcoming. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/Hindu_Culture
• Articles & Essays
  • “Everyone drinks from the same well”: Charismatic Female Gurus as “Religious Feminist Influencers” in South Asian Hinduism,” Special Issue Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture Religions 2023, 14(6), 785; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060785.
  • “Can a Woman be a True Guru?: Female Gurus’ Grassroots Religious Gender Activism, and the Performativity of Saintliness at the Kumbh Mela,” in Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, Special Issue on Gender Activism in South Asia, edited by Munira Cheema,Volume 7, no. 1 (Spring 2023): https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/12884.
  • “‘I will be the Shankaracharya for women’: Gender, Agency, and a Guru’s Quest for Equality in Hinduism,” in Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance: Female Agency in Hinduism and Buddhism, 75-102, edited by Ute Hüsken. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2022).
  • “How does someone become a Guru?” In Hinduism in Five Minutes, edited by Steven Ramey, Equinox Publishers (2022).
  • “Is the Hindu Goddess a Feminist?” In Hinduism in Five Minutes, edited by Steven Ramey, Equinox Publishers (2022).
  • “Do men and women have equality in Hinduism?” In Hinduism in Five Minutes, edited by Steven Ramey, Equinox (2022).
  • “I am the one who will change the direction of the world”: A Female Guru’s Response to Gender-Motivated Sexual Abuse and Inequality in Hinduism.” Chapter 12 in The Rowman and Littlefield Handbook on Women’s Studies in Religion, edited by Helen Boursier, Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 169-182 (Summer 2021).
  • “‘Dharma is not a Dinosaur’: Religion and Modern Identity in the Storytelling of an Indian Guru,” in Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies. Volume 15, Issue 2 (Fall 2020).
  • “A Female Shankaracharya? The Alternative Authority of a Feminist Hindu Guru in North India,” Religion and Gender 9.1 (2019): 27-49.
  • “Earning God through the One-Hundre Rupee Note: Nirguna Bhakti and Religious Experience among Hindu Renouncers in North India,” Religions 9.2 (2018).
  • “A Mandal of Their Own: Gender and the Reimagining of Community by Hindu Renouncers in Northern India,” in Modern Hinduism in Text and Context, edited by Lavanya Vemsani (Bloomsbury, 2018), 163-192.
  • “Rhetoric of Technoscience in North Indian Vernacular Asceticism,” in The Changing World Languages Map, edited by Stanley Brunn and Roland Kehrein (Springer, 2018), 1-23.

For a complete bibliography, please see my CV.

• “Becoming Durga: How a Female Religious Leader Embodies the Goddess to Script Feminist History and Mobilize a Women’s Liberation Movement in India,” Paper presented at the Inaugural Weatherly/Oxford Consortium Symposium, April 19^th, 2024, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX.
• John F. Weatherly Inaugural Symposium on ‘Women, Religion, and Human Rights,” in collaboration with the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights. Symposium organized by the Women, Religion, and Human Rights Collective (Antoinette DeNapoli; Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox [Quinnipiac University], and Lisa Battaglia [Samford Univresity]), April 19-20, 2024, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas.
• Asia Connections-Asian Studies Development Program, Book Launch Roundtable, Organizer and Panelist: Women and Representation in Buddhist Asia: Innovative Pedagogies, Alternative Narratives, and Reimagined Philosophies," Organized with Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox and Kevin Curtis Taylor, Asian Studies Development Program 31^st National Conference. March 7, 2024, Omni Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Asia Connections-Asian Studies Development Program, Pedagogy Panel, Presider. Asian Studies Development Program 31^st National Conference. March 7, 2024, Omni Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts.
• "Women as Spiritual Influencers,” Invited Panel Presentation, March 5, 2024, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas.
• “The Status of Women in the Profession Roundtable 2.0: Religion Matters at Work and at Play,” Organizer, American Academy of Religion-South West (AAR-SW); Southwest Commission on Religious Studies [SWCRS]) Regional Meeting, Dallas Las Colinas, Irving, TX, March 3-5, 2024.
• “Gender Equality as a Human Birthright: A Hindu Female Guru’s Grassroots Religious Feminism in India.” Cosponsored Practical Theology Unit and Religion and Human Rights Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 19, 2023, San Antonio, Texas.
• “Feminist Research and Engaged Community Action with Female Hindu Religious Leaders in India.” Invited Public Lecture. Oxford Community Action Summit, October 13, 2023, Albert Schweitzer Institute, Quinnipiac University, Connecticut. 
• “When Feminine Religious Symbolism becomes an Embodied Reality: A Female Hindu Guru's Use of the Durga Myth to Mobilize a Women's Monastic Order in India.” Religion and Symbolism panel, organized by Professor Upala Barua, Professor of Sociology, Assam Down Town University, World Anthropology Conference 2023, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, INDIA, August 14, 2023.
• “Gender and Women’s Monastic Authority in Hindu Society: The Role of Charismatic Female Gurus in South Asia.” Invited Public Lecture on Zoom, Flame University, Pune, India, April 28, 2023, Organized by Pankaj Jain, Director of Humanities, Flame University.
• “Sacred Objects in Hinduism,” XDM Talk, Religion Department, TCU, April 24, 2023.
• “The Importance of Research and Creative Activities for the Humanities and Social Sciences: Opening Remarks, AddRan Student Research and Creative Activities Symposium Award Ceremony, AddRan College Debate Chamber, April 13, 2023.
• Women Influencers in Hindu Religions Asian Studies International Zoom Symposium, Organizer, Panelist, Moderator. A Research Symposium with the editors (DeNapoli & McDaniel) and contributors to the Religions (MDPI) Special Issue Volume, Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums, and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture. Asian Studies Research Symposium, Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 7-9 p.m., Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas.
• “Women in the Profession: The state of the Field—How Far Forward Have We Come, How Far Back Have We Gone?,” American Academy of Religion Southwest regional Meeting, The Profession Roundtable Program Unit, Organizer/Moderator, Sunday, March 5, 2023, Marriott Dallas Las Colinas, Irving, Texas.
• American Academy South West Plenary Talk: Hopeful Futures and the Future of SWCRS—A Cross Disciplinary Community Conversation, Presidential Plenary Address Speaker and Organizer, March 5, 2023, Marriot Dallas Las Colinas, Irving, Texas.
• “Everyone Drinks from the Same Well: Charismatic Authority and Female Gurus’ Struggle for Gender Equality in South Asian Hinduism,” American Academy of Religion Southwest, Regional Meeting, Comparative and Asian Studies in Religion Program Unit, March 5, 2023, Marriott Dallas Las Colinas, Irving Texas.
• American Academy of Religion, Southwest, Presider/Respondent, The Role of Embodiment in Religious Hermeneutics, AAR: Religion, Gender, Sexualty Program Unit, Saturday, March 5, 2023, Marriott Dallas Las Colinas, Irving, Texas.
• Muslim Women in the age of ‘Woman, Life, Freedom.” Panel Presider/Respondent, Study of Islam/Religion, Gender, Sexuality Program Unit, American Academy of Religion Southwest regional meeting, March 4, 2023, Marriott Dallas Las Colinas, Irving, Texas.
• World Anthropology Congress 2023, Pre-Congress Theme, Rescripting the Anthropocene: Health, Happiness, and Hope—“Messengers of the Goddess: How Female Gurus are changing religious cultures of misogyny and creating hopeful futures for women in South Asia,”  Friday, January 13, 2023, Invited Public Lecture on Zoom, organized by the Anthropology Department, University of Delhi, India.
• “Women Influencers in Asian Religions,” Invited Presentation, Asia@Noon Presentation, Texas Christian University, Ft Worth, December 12, 2022.
• "What can Indigenous Religious Feminism Teach Religion Scholars about Gender Ethics? (Part 1)” and “How ‘Feminist’ is Indigenous Religious Feminist Responses to Sexual Misconduct and Abuse (Part 2)?” Invited Public Lecture, Third Biennial Buddhist Ethics Symposium, University of Vancouver, British Columbia, September 30-October 1, 2022.
• “Rethinking Religious Feminisms through the Religious and Ritual Lives of Buddhist and Hindu Women in Asia and the Diaspora: New Directions in Gender Theory and Comparative Studies of Religion, Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Unit, panel co-organizer with Caroline Starkey, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA, 2019.
• “The Fight for Women’s Equal Rights is Dharma: Rethinking Religious Feminism through the New Leadership of the Female Shankaracharya,” Rethinking Religious Feminisms Panel, Feminist Theory and Reflection Unit, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA, 2019.
• “What the Government Won’t Give us, God and the Courts Will!: How a Woman Guru’s Religious Politics of Gender Equality is Transforming Hinduism through the Indian Legal System,” The Politics of Religion Panel, Theology and Religious Reflection Unit, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA, 2019.
• "Can a Woman be a Shankaracharya? A Guru’s Quest for Gender Equality in Contemporary Hinduism,” Presentation for the Gender and Women’s Studies Claudia V. Camp Research Award, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, September 4, 2019.
• "The Satis are Rising!: A Guru’s Quest for Gender Equality in India—Feminism, Agency, and Female Spiritual Leadership in Contemporary South Asia,” Invited Research Presentation for the International Workshop on “The Dynamics of Female Agency in Hinduism and Buddhism,” organized by Ute Huesken, Chair, Department of Religion, South Asian Religions, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, July 1-5, 2018.
• “Being Aware While Being Abroad: Pedagogical Strategies for International Fieldcourses in India,” Asia_Net Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, April 8, 2018.
• “Women Gurus and the Good Life: Constructing Asceticism as the Dharma of Flourishing in India,” Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2018.
• “God Enters Women’s Bodies to Change the World: A Female Hindu Guru’s Vision of Freedom in North India.” AAR Regional Southwest Conference (SWCRS), Irving, TX, March 11, 2018.
• “‘A Female Shankaracarya?: The Feminism and Alternative Religious Leadership of a Controversial Female Hindu Guru in a North Indian Pilgrimage Town,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, November 2017.
• “The Power a Woman’s Story Creates: Stories, Lives, and Female Renunciation in Contemporary India,” Invited Keynote Lecture, Southern Methodist University’s Annual South Asia Conference, co-sponsored with the South Asia Research and Information Institute, Dallas, TX, September 16, 2017.
• “Stories and Lives: Oral History and Female Renunciation in India,” Invited Public Lecture, The College of Lewis and Clark, Portland, OR, March 2, 2017.
• “Leave Everything and Sing to God: Hindu Holy Women in India,” Invited Public Lecture, Saturday University, University of Wyoming, Gillette, WY, February 9, 2017.

• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Residential Institute on Women in Buddhism: Religion, Politics, and the Arts, East-West Center for Asian Studies Development, University of Hawaii, Honolulu (June 5-June 30, 2023)
• American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Short-term Fellowship 2019-2020 https://www.indiastudies.org/research-fellowship-programs/current-aiis-fellows/
• Claudia V. Camp Research and Creative Activity Award, 2019
• Book Leave Fellowship, Global Religion Research Initiative of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, in 2018-2019
• American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grant, 2017
• American Academy of Religion Independent Research Grant, 2012
• Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Teaching Fellowship, 2007-2008
• American Institute of Indian Studies Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2004-2006
• American Institute of Indian Studies Hindi Language Fellowship, 2002-2003
• John Fenton Award for the Comparative Study of Religion, Emory University, 2004
• Best Hindi Language Student, Emory University, 2002
• Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, Sanskrit Studies Grant, 2000

• American Academy of Indic Studies
• American Academy of Religion
• Southwest Commission on Religious Studies (SWCRS)
• American Academy of Religion--Southwest
• Asian Studies Connections (ASDP)
• ASIA-NET
• Association for Asian Studies
• International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture
• South Asian Studies Association
• Society for the Anthropology of Religion
• Association for the Sociology of Religion