Lisa W. Crothers

Department/Affiliation: Religious Studies; Programs: South Asian Studies
Phone: 330-263-2257
Office Address: 003 Kauke
Email: lcrothers@wooster.edu

Degrees

• B.A. Muhlenberg College 1990
• M.A. Indiana University, Bloomington 1998
• Ph.D. Emory University 2013

Courses Taught

• Religions East & West; Comparative Traditions:  South Asia (RELS 110)
• Hinduism (RELS 218)
• Buddhism (RELS 220)
• Silk Road:  Religions, Empires, and Globalization in the Ancient World (IDPT-101)
• Modern Hinduism (RELS 267, Spring 2014)

Expertise and Research

• History of Religions, West and South Asia; Rhetoric and Ideology in Indian Buddhist and Brahmanical Narratives; Scripture as Literature; Religion and Power; Globalization, Formation and Change in Religious Traditions

Scholarship

• "Lies, Tricks and Illusions: Trust and Deception as Means of Religious and Political Success." Joint Conference of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs and the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies.  Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, September 2012

• "Pragmatics of Perfection:  Diversities of the Perfected Man in the Indian Epic, Mahabharata." Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, October, 2011

• "Engaging Modes of Dharma:  Dharma as Method and Dharma as Talisman in Early Indic Texts." Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs.  Ohio State University, Columbus (October, 2010)

• "Duryodhana's Pride and Perception:  The Dynamics of Distrust in the Moment of Counsel at the Kaurava Court." In The Mahābhārata:  What is not here is nowhere else (Yannehāsti na Tadkvacit), ed. T.S. Rukmani.  (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2005) 

• Symbolism of the Seated Pala Buddha Figure." Michael C. Carlos Museum of Art, Emory University, Atlanta (April, 2002)

• "Enriching Discourses on Ways of Knowing" Faculty Workshop South Asia Through Literature and Film.  Triangle South Asia Consortium and the U. S. Department of Education (November, 2000)
• "The Ethics of Error in the Panchatantra and Arthashastra."  Mysticism, Reason, Art and Literature:  East-West Perspectives.  Journal of Indian Philosophy and Religion.  Ferrum College, Virginia (September, 2000)