As a second-year MA Student in the Religion Department at UIUC, I concentrate on Religions of India in a variety of mediums beyond classical textual sources. 

My particular tradition I focus on is Hinduism in Northwestern India, researching the medieval, post-colonial and modern contexts of the region. I also am taking a number of Jainism courses and am interested in adding the tradition as another focus of study. 

I am especially interested in using various theory and methods in religious studies scholarship in my research questions: How do ritual texts, hagiographic materials, poetry, purāṇic narratives, and visual culture in India change throughout time? Do the modern iterations acknowledge or change past iterations? If so, how do they do so? and why? Because my research questions involve the current flows of ritual cultures, mixed methods, in addition to integrating adherents' perspectives in my research, are key focuses of my research, especially my master's thesis.

I am also interested in examining interreligious interactions in India, especially in relation to minority populations. In particular, Hindus' relationships to Jains, Jews, and Catholics are important to examine. Ritual culture in the public sphere is something that also interests me.

Additionally, a side project I enjoy is exploring how new resources in religious studies scholarship can apply to introduction courses for today's students. 

Languages are also a critical part of my focus at this time. This coming academic year, I will be in Jaipur, India studying advanced level Hindi with the American Institute of Indian Studies. 

As a FLAS (Foreign Language Acquisition Scholarship) fellow with the Center of Global Studies this academic year, I take beginner-level Hindi at my institution, as well as a course in Global Studies this spring.  In my free time, I enjoy watching Bollywood films to increase my Hindi proficiency, as well as learning how India's culture has been transmitted through film. I also have a beginner level amount of Biblical Hebrew, an intermediate level of Sanskrit, and am fluent in Spanish. I studied abroad twice in undergrad: a summer in Jerusalem and a semester in Granada, Spain for language immersion.

See the headings above to browse my CV, courses I have taken, my institutional profile, and my artwork.  Thank you for taking a look around. You can always contact me using my university email at [email protected].