Bard College Religion Professor Richard H. Davis Awarded $91,328 National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Richard H. Davis, professor of religion at Bard College, a $91,328 grant to conduct a summer seminar, “The Bhagavad Gita: Ancient Poem, Modern Readers,” for college and university professors next July. The three-week seminar will bring together teachers in many humanities disciplines to explore the interpretation and pedagogy of this ancient text, focusing both on the work in its original historical context and on how it has continued to live for modern readers. Seminar participants will consider also how best to integrate this Indian work into general humanities courses in modern American colleges and universities.Richard H. Davis is professor of religion and Asian studies at Bard College. He has B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago and an M.A. degree from the University of Toronto. Formerly, Davis taught as assistant and associate professor at Yale University. His most recent publication is The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2014). Davis is author of four other books: Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshiping Siva in Medieval India (Princeton, 1991), Lives of Indian Images (Princeton, 1997), Global India, circa 100 CE: South Asia in Early World History (AAS, 2010), and A Priest's Guide for the Great Festival (Oxford, 2010). He has edited two volumes, and also wrote the text for a catalogue of Indian religious prints, Gods in Print: Masterpieces of India’s Mythological Art (Mandala, 2012). He is continuing work on the reception history of the Bhagavad Gita, and on a history of religions in early South Asia.
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
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(8/4/17)
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