Richard H. Davis

Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Religion

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Interdisciplinary Study of Religions, Theology

Biography: Professor Davis’s primary research and teaching interests include classical and medieval Hinduism, Indian history, South Asian visual arts, and Sanskrit. He is the author of The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2014); A Priest’s Guide to the Great Festival: Aghorasiva's Mahotsavavidhi (2009); Lives of Indian Images (1997; winner of the 1999 A. K. Coomaraswamy Prize); and Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshiping Siva in Medieval India (1991). He has edited two volumes, Picturing the Nation: Iconographies of Modern India (2007) and Images, Miracles, and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions (1998), and he also wrote the text for a catalog of Indian religious prints, Gods in Print: Masterpieces of India’s Mythological Art (Mandala, 2012). Currently he is continuing work on the reception history of the Bhagavad Gita and on a history of religions in early South Asia. Fellowships include Guggenheim, Fulbright-Hays, Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He previously taught at Yale University. BA, University of Chicago; MA, University of Toronto; PhD, University of Chicago. At Bard since 1997.
Phone: 845-758-7364
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Location: Hopson
Office: 201