Caleb Simmons

Associate Professor, Religious Studies

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Dr. Caleb Simmons (Ph.D. in Religion, University of Florida) specializes in religion in South Asia, especially Hinduism. His research specialties span religion and state-formation in medieval and colonial India to contemporary transnational aspects of Hinduism. His book Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India (Oxford University Press, 2020), examines how the late early modern/early colonial court of Mysore reenvisioned notions of kingship, territory, and religion, especially its articulations through devotion. His second monograph, Singing the Goddess into Place: Locality, Myth, and Social Change in Chamundi of the Hill, a Kannada Folk Ballad (SUNY Press 2022), examines popular local folksongs that tell the mythology of Mysore's Chamundeshwari and her consort Nanjundeshwara. He also edited (with Moumita Sen and Hillary Rodrigues) and contributed to Nine Nights of the Goddess: The Navarātri Festival in South Asia (SUNY Press 2018) a collected volume that focuses on various aspects of the important festival of Navaratri. He also has publications and continuing research interests related to a broad range of contemporary topics, including ecological issues and sacred geography in India; South Asian diaspora communities; and material and popular cultures that arise as a result of globalization—especially South Asian religions as portrayed in comic books and graphic novels. He teaches courses on Hinduism, Indian religions, and method and theory of Religious Studies. He also currently serves as the Book Review editor for Religion (Routledge) and the website/listserv manager for the American Academy of Religion Religion in South Asia Unit.

Awards & Fellowships

Selected Publications

Books

Articles and Chapters

-----------translated into Kannada “Dēvate Vaiṣṇavadharma mata Prādēśika Oḍetana: Maisūru Oḍeyar Bhakti Parampareya Svarūpa-Rāja Oḍeyar (1583-1617) Kālāvadhiyalli Āda Badalāvaṇe” in Itihāsa Darpaṇa: A Peer Reviewed Journal of Historical Research in Kannada Vol. 28 (Winter 2016), pp. 43-62.