Peter Gottschalk

Peter Gottschalk (B.A. in History, The College of the Holy Cross; M.A. in South Asia Studies, The University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ph.D. in the History of Religions, The University of Chicago) is Associate Professor of Religion.  His research and teaching concentrate on the confluence of religious cultures in South Asia , with a particular focus on Muslims and Hindus in contemporary rural India .  His work investigates issues of identity, social memory, modernity, and epistemology.  Among other works, he has written Beyond Hindu and Muslim: Multiple Identity in Narratives from Village India (2000), co-written Islamophobia:  Making Muslims the Enemy (2007), and co-designed the interactive website "A Virtual Village"(2001). He has seldom encountered anything with wings that he hasn't liked.

Contact Information

Department of Religion

Wesleyan University

Middletown , CT 06459

Email: pgottschalk@wesleyan.edu

Telephone: (860) 685-2293

Fax: (860) 685-2821

Courses

Islam and Muslim Cultures

Religions Resisting Modernity

Constructing Hinduism and Islam

Religion and Film

Religion and Nation in India Pakistan
    

Curriculum Vitae

Education

Ph.D.  University of Chicago , 1997  (History of Religions).

M.A.  University of Wisconsin–Madison , 1989  (South Asian Studies).

B.A.  College of the Holy Cross, 1985  (History) – cum laude with Honors.

Academic Appointments

Associate Professor:  Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (2004-present).

Assistant Professor: Wesleyan University , Middletown , Connecticut (2003-2004).

Visiting Assistant Professor: Wesleyan University , Middletown , Connecticut (2002-2003).

Assistant Professor: Southwestern University, Georgetown , Texas (Fall 1997 to 2002).

Adjunct Assistant Professor: Asian Studies Department, University of Texas at Austin (Fall 1999 to 2002).

Other Courses Taught

Introduction to Islam; Theories of Religion; Time and Space in Religion; Seminar on Islam:

Nationalisms, Revivalisms, and Feminisms; Introduction to Judaism; Dimensions of Religion;

Mysticism; Religion in Media; World Religions; Myth, Modernity and Star Trek; Islam and Modernity (seminar); 

Village, Nation, and Religion in Contemporary India; Mysticism; Nature, Religion, and Science; Department of Religion Capstone.

Books

Beyond Hindu and Muslim: Multiple Identity in Narratives from Village India (Oxford University Press, New York and Delhi, 2000 and 2001).

Islamophobia:  Muslims and Islam in American Political Cartoons, Co-authored with Gabriel Greenberg (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).

"Muslim Traditions" in Religions of South Asia, Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, eds. (Routledge, 2006).

"Visions of Incompatibility:  Categorizing Islam and  Hinduism in Scholarship" in Incompatible Visions:  South Asian Religion in History and Culture, James Blumenthal, ed. (Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006).

"Foreword" for Building Communities in Gujarat:  Architecture and Society during the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries, Alka Patel (E.J. Brill, 2004).

"Mapping Muslims:  Categories of Evolutionary Difference and Interaction in South Asia" in Lived Islam:  Liminality, Accommodation, and Adaptation, Imtiaz Ahmad and Helmut Reifeld, ed. (Social Science Press, 2003).

Entries for The ( Oxford ) Dictionary of Islam, John Esposito, ed. ( Oxford University Press, 2003).  Including: Hinduism & Islam, Zorastrianism & Islam, Abu al-Fath Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar I, Delhi Sultans, Ghaznavids, Jahangir, Nadwat al-Ulama, Nizaris, Nur Jahan, and Ashraf Ali Thanawi.

Introduction to Surprising Bedfellows: Hindus and Muslims in Medieval India ( Lexington Books, 2003).

 “Dead Healers and Living Identities: Narratives of a Hindu Ghost and a Muslim Sufi in a Shared Village”  in The Living and the Dead: The Social Dimensions of Death in South Asian Religions, Elizabeth Wilson, ed.  (SUNY Press, 2003).

“It Is My Privilege to Say…” in Justice for All, Jake B. Schrum, ed. Georgetown : Southwestern University, 2001. pp. 20-28.

Electronic and Visual Publications

"A Virtual Village" version 2.0:http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu (launched fall 2004).

“A Virtual Village. ” A virtual Indian village on the world wide web: http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu (2001).

“History of Religion Timeline.”  Encyclopedia Britannica CD-ROM (1998).

“Living Together and Apart: Hindus and Muslims in South Asia .”  Script-writer, photographer, and narrator for still-image video produced by the University of Wisconsin–Madison South Asian Outreach Center (1993).

“Living with Geography: Everyday Life in Pakistan .” Script-writer, photographer, and narrator for still-image video produced by the University of Wisconsin–Madison South Asian Outreach Center (1992).  

Recent Papers

"Muslim Voices from South Asia" and "A Virtual Village."  Invited lectures - Islam in Asia workshop, USC United States and China Institute (May 2007).

"The Problem with Religion in India."  Invited lecture - The University of Connecticut (April 2007).

"Classified Information:  The Science of Religion in British India."  Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University (December 2006).

"The Science of Communalism:  Epistemologies of Difference in British India."  Yale University (November 2006).

"South Asia:  One of the Largest Communities of Muslims Defy the Stereotypes."  Symposium on Asia in the Curriculum, UCLA (November 2006).

"Questioning How Things Are (in South Asia) through a Liberal Arts Education."  Invited lecture - University of the Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (March 2005).

"Between Imagination and Experience:  Muslims in American Political Cartoons."  Invited lecture - Bath Spa University College (November 2004).

"The type of difference and the difference of the type:  British categories of religion and society in an Indian village."  South Asia History Seminar - School of Oriental and African Studies (October 2004).

"Knowing the Difference:  Indian Religious Identity in Popular and State Discourse."  "Comparative Perspectives on Religious Coexistence:  The State and the Everyday" seminar - Duke University (April 2004).

"In a Class of Their Own:  Categorizing Difference in the Processions of a North Indian Village."  "'Drawing a line in water':  Religious Boundaries in South Asia" conference - Syracuse University (April 2004).

“Through the Historiographic Lens: Religion in Arampur.” American Academy of Religions Conference— San Francisco (November 2003).

 “Knowing Arampur: Western Epistemologies in Colonial Knowledge of Village Religions.” Association of Asian Studies Conference – New York City (March 2003).

“Mapping Muslims: Categories of Evolutionary Difference and Interaction in South Asia .” Workshop on “Lived Islam: Liminality, Accommodation, and Adaptation” – Goa , India (December 2002).

“Making Place with Religion in a Village and Making a Place for a Religion in Taxonomy.” Department of Asian Studies Seminar, University of Austin at Texas (September 2002).

“Globalization and A Virtual Village.” Colloquium on Transnational Religion, Washington & Lee University (July 2002).

“Representation, Reciprocity and Concealment in the Virtual Village.” Co-presented with Mathew Schmalz at Association of Asian Studies Conference – Washington , D.C. (March 2002).

“Hinduism and Islam in the Virtual Village.”  Co-presented with Mathew Schmalz at American Academy of Religion Conference – Denver (November 2001).

“The Raj that Memory Forgot: Local Forgetting During National Remembering. ” South Asia Conference – University of Wisconsin–Madison (October 2001).

“Mahatma in Memory: Gandhi in Myth, History, and Group Memory. ” American Academy of Religion Conference – Nashville , Tennessee (November 2000).

“Challenging Identities: Muslims and Hindus in ‘A Vitual Village .’” South Asia Conference – University of Wisconsin–Madison (October 2000).

“Hinduism: Teaching Religion or Culture?” Faith, Culture and Identity: Teaching About Religion Today institute at the University of Texas at Austin (June 2000).

“As Brothers and Others: Multiple Identities among Hindus and Muslims in India .”  South Asia Conference – University of Wisconsin–Madison (October 1999).

“Reluctant to Leave the Beach.” Going Native: Recruitment, Conversion and Identification in Cultural Research conference at The Ohio State University  (May 1999).

Teaching Workshops

Facilitator – Associated Colleges of the South Teachers' Workshop: Rollins College (June 2002).

Participant – Associated Colleges of the South Teachers' Workshop: Rollins College (June 1998).

Languages

Speaking, reading, and writing fluency: Urdu, Hindi.

Reading ability: Sanskrit, German, French.