School of Liberal Arts

Education

Ph.D., Rice University (2010); Graduate Certificate in the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Rice University (2010); M.A., Rice University (2009); B.A., Southern Methodist University (2004)

Biography

Andrea R. Jain is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Editor of the Journal of American Academy of Religion, and author of Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her areas of interest include contemporary spirituality and the history of modern yoga; the yoga industry’s relationship to neoliberalism, market capitalism, and consumer culture; the intersections of gender, sexuality, and yoga; religion and politics in contemporary society; and methods and theories in the study of religion. She is a regular contributor to Religion Dispatches on topics related to yoga in contemporary culture and Co-Chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Group of the American Academy of Religion.

Academic interests

Contemporary spirituality and the history of modern yoga; the yoga industry’s relationship to neoliberalism, market capitalism, and consumer culture; the intersections of gender, sexuality, and yoga; religion and politics in contemporary society; and methods and theories in the study of religion.

Teaching

Course offerings include Hinduism and Buddhism, Yoga Traditions, Yuppie Yogis and Global Gurus, Theories of Religion, and Comparative Religions

Awards

IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute Internal Grant (2016); Summer Research, Creative Activity, and Scholarship Grant (School of Liberal Arts, IUPUI, 2016); New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Exploratory Travel Fellowship (Indiana University, 2014); Crovetto Award for Excellence in the Study of New Religious Movements with Ties to South Asia (Nova Religio, 2012); Shipps Travel Award (School of Liberal Arts, IUPUI, 2012); Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion Summer Research Fellowship (2012); Summer Research Grant (School of Liberal Arts, IUPUI, 2012); Outstanding Advisor to a Student Organization (IUPUI for service to the Religious Studies Student Association, 2012)

Publications

Peace, Love, Yoga: Mainstreaming Dissent in Pop Spirituality (Oxford, forthcoming) “Subversive Spiritualities: Yoga’s Complex Role in the Narrative of Sex and Religion in the Twentieth Century U.S.” Devotions and Desires: Religion and Sexuality in the Twentieth Century United States (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, in press). Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014). “Jain Modern Yoga: The Case of Preksha Dhyana.” Jain Yoga (New York: Rutledge, 2015). “Who Is to Say Modern Yoga Practitioners Have It All Wrong?: On Hindu Origins and Yogaphobia.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 82(2) (2014): 427-471. “Conversion to Jain Traditions.” The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). “Muktananda: Entrepreneurial Godman, Tantric Hero.” Gurus of Modern Yoga (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). “Branding Yoga: The Cases of Iyengar Yoga, Siddha Yoga, and Anusara Yoga.” Approaching Religion 2(2) (2012): 3-17. “The Malleability of Yoga: A Response to Christian and Hindu Opponents of the Popularization of Yoga.” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 25 (2012): 3-10. “The Dual-Ideal of the Ascetic and Healthy Body: The Jain Terapanth and Modern Yoga in the Context of Late Capitalism.” Nova Religio 15(3) (February 2012): 29-50. “Erotic Motherhood and the Ideal Son: Mythology as Psychotherapy in the Krishna-Bhakti Tradition. Pastoral Psychology 59(1) (February 2010): 53-64. “Quietism and Karma: Non-Action as Non-Ethics in Jain Asceticism.” Common Knowledge, Symposium: Apology for Quietism, Part 2 15(2) (Spring 2009): 197-207. “The Varieties of Religious Development in Adulthood: A Longitudinal Investigation of Religion and Rational Choice.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89(1) (August 2005): 78-89.

Service

Editor, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Editorial Board, Nova Religio Co-Chair, Yoga in Theory and Practice Group, American Academy of Religion