Shubha Pathak Associate Professor Department of Philosophy and Religion
- Degrees
- AM (divinity), PhD (history of religions), University of Chicago Divinity School; PhD (social and behavioral sciences), Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health; AB (religion), Princeton University
- Bio
- Shubha Pathak is a historian of religions who studies the mythological literatures of India, Greece, and Rome. In addition to teaching courses on comparative philosophy and comparative religion, she is researching Greco-Roman and Indian epics in their original and later literary forms, focusing on their theological and narratological dimensions. Her monograph, Divine Yet Human Epics: Reflections of Poetic Rulers from Ancient Greece and India (Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University, 2014), reveals the similar ways in which the primary Greek and Sanskrit epics address their respective audiences' existential needs. Her edited volume, Figuring Religions: Comparing Ideas, Images, and Activities (State University of New York Press, 2013), shows how metaphor and metonymy theories can be used in comparative religious studies.
- See Also
- Department of Philosophy and Religion
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Partnerships & Affiliations
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American Academy of Religion
Chair (with Professor Patton Burchett, College of William & Mary), Hinduism Unit -
Society for Classical Studies
Member, Committee on Public Information and Media Relations, Outreach Division; Past Member, Committee on the Classical Tradition and Reception, Outreach Division -
American Oriental Society
Member
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Research Interests
The philosophical, psychological, and religious aspects of epic poetry and literary creativity; comparative philosophy and comparative religion; literary criticism; and contemporary psychological theories.
Grants and Sponsored Research
2016–17 College of Arts and Sciences Mellon Faculty Development Fund Grant, American University.
2010–11 Faculty Research Award, Office of Academic Affairs, American University.
2008–9 College of Arts and Sciences Mellon Faculty Development Fund Grant, American University.
Selected Publications
- Divine Yet Human Epics: Reflections of Poetic Rulers from Ancient Greece and India. Washington: Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University; Cambridge: distributed by Harvard University Press, 2014.
- Figuring Religions: Comparing Ideas, Images, and Activities (edited volume). Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013.
- "The Divine Character of Poetic Creativity in Rājaśekhara's Kāvyamīmāṃsā." In Poetry, Drama and Aesthetics, edited by Mandakranta Bose, David Gitomer, and David Smith. Vol. 6 of Papers of the 13th World Sanskrit Conference. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, forthcoming.
- "Shubha Pathak on 'What does philosophy of religion offer to the modern university?'" Philosophy of Religion: big question philosophy for scholars and students (Web log). March 15, 2016.
- "Why People Need Epics: Terming and Learning from the Divine Yet Human." Classics@ 12 (2015).
- "Why Do Displaced Kings Become Poets in the Sanskrit Epics? Modeling Dharma in the Affirmative Rāmāyaṇa and the Interrogative Mahābhārata." International Journal of Hindu Studies 10, no. 2 (2006): 127–49.