Arvind-Pal Mandair

Research Interests

Though grounded in the study of Sikhism and South Asian religions, my research interests are located at the intersections of various disciplines such as: Modern European Philosophy; Comparative Philosophy; Postcolonial theory; Critical Theories of Religion and the Secular; Political Theology; Theories of Cultural Encounter and Translation theory and practice. My first monograph Religion and the Specter of the West (2009) looked at the colonial and postcolonial encounter between India and the West, specifically through the lens of Sikhism.  A more recent book publication is Sikhism: A Guide For the Perplexed (2013). Currently I am working on three further book projects. The first, Untimely Logics (initially delivered as the Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion, SOAS, 2009), explores the question of time in Sikh literature and culture. The second project, Thinking Between Cultures, looks at the ethics of cultural encounter by deploying key categories of Sikh thought and praxis to engage related themes in figures like Deleuze, Nancy and Heidegger. These two book projects allow me to return to my intellectual roots which are in comparative philosophy and religion. The third project, Mourning Sovereignties, combines sociological/anthropological and discourse analysis to look at various Sikh discourses in relation to public space and moves in a directions that were signaled in my earlier work.  I am also working on two further edited volumes.  I am interested in supervising graduate students in all aspects of Sikh Studies, particularly those students who are able and willing to combine solid empirical and textual work and with an openness to questioning the categories and frameworks within which scholarship is produced.

Recent Publications

• Secularism and Religion-Making, Oxford University Press, (with Markus Dressler), 2011
  http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/CulturalStudies/?view=usa&ci=9780199782925
• Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality and the Politics of Translation, Columbia University Press, 2009.
  http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14724-8/religion-and-the-specter-of-the-west
• Sikhism: A Guide For the Perplexed, Continuum-Bloomsbury Press, 2013  http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sikhism-a-guide-for-the-perplexed-9781441102317/
• Teachings of the Sikh Gurus: Selections From Sikh Scripture (co-authored with Christopher Shackle), Routledge, 2005.
  http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415266048/
• Sikh Culture, Religion and Ethnicity, (with Christopher Shackle and Gurharpal Singh), Curzon
  http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Culture-Ethnicity-Arvind-Pal-Mandair/dp/0700713891
• “Dis-Locations: Language, Autobiography and Identity in Dialogue With Jacques Derrida” (with Pal Ahluwalia), journal special issue, in Social Identities: Journal For the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, Vol. 13, No. 3 May 2007.
• “Dialogue as the Inscription of ‘the West’”, journal special issue published in Social Identities: Journal For the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2005

Journals

• Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture and Theory (founding co-editor)
  http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17448727.asp
• Culture and Religion (Editorial Board)
  http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rcar
• Religions of South Asia (Editorial Board)
  http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ROSA/about/editorialTeam

Courses Taught
Undergraduate Courses

• Religion and Violence in a Secular World (Asian 305)
• Warrior Saints: Introduction to Sikhism (Asian 219)
• What is Religion? (AS 306)
• Theorizing Postcoloniality (Asian 382)
• Ethics: Asian and Western (forthcoming, AS 229)

Graduate Courses

• Secularism and Religion-Making ((forthcoming)
• Indian Religions and Western Thought (Asian 400)
• Sikhism and Modernity (ASIAN 480)
• Philosophy of the Sikh Gurus (Asian 430)

Literature, Language and Teachings of the Sikh Scriptures (Gurbani Vichar) graduate level independent study only.

Research Areas(s)

• Current research interests focus on exploring the intersections between religion and comparative cultural theory and rethinking the relationship between mysticism and politics in Indic religions

Affiliation(s)

• Asian Languages & Cultures
• Center for South Asian Studies