Peter Valdina

Chair and Associate Professor

E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (517) 629-035Peter Valdina1
Office: 209 Vulgamore Hall

Dr. Valdina is a scholar in the history of yoga in nineteenth-century India,
nineteenth-century print translations of yoga
texts and how they relate to the question of
yoga’s commodification/commercialization
in the modern world.

 

Courses

  • RS 102: Introduction to Eastern Religions
  • RS 104: Introduction to Islam
  • RS 211: Hinduism
  • RS 212: Introduction to Buddhism
  • RS 206: Women, Gender, Islam
  • RS 251: Yogis and Ascetics
  • RS 261: Death & Dying

Education

  • Ph.D., West and South Asian Religions Program, Graduate Division of Religion Dissertation: Reading the Yoga Sūtra in Colonial India: 2013 Emory University
  •  M.S.Sc., Psychoanalytic Studies: 2000 The New School for Social Research
  • M.A., Religion: 1999 Columbia University
  • B.A., Religious Studies: 1997 Hamilton College

Career

  • Associate Professor, Albion College, Department of Religious Studies, 2012-pres.
  • Visiting Instructor, Furman University, Department of Religion, 2010-2012

Publications

Articles

  • “Yoga and Xenophilia: Ambiguity Now and Then.” Common Knowledge: 23:2  (April 2017)

Works in Progress

  • In Progress. Translation and Community: Reading the Yoga Sūtra in Colonial India 

Conference Presentations

  • 2021 “Elements of the Past’s Return: Establishing the Place of Translation,” Annual  Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Textual Terriorialities”  panel. October 23, 2019.
  • 2018 “Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra and the Legacies of Colonial Translation,” Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Symposium: “Art for Our Sake: The  Aesthetics of Decolonization in Postcolonial South Asia.” October 11, 2018.
  • 2017 “Sanskrit Commentary and Vernacular Translation in Nineteenth-Century Bengal.”  Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Deep  Vernaculars: Literary Cultures in History from South Asia” panel. October 28, 2017.
  • 2016 “Seeking Information from a Ghost: The Lively Decay of Sanskrit in Colonial Bengal.”  Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Literary  Preconference: “Margins and Marginalia.” October 20, 2016.
  • 2015 “Binding Knowledge: Paratext and a Colonial Translation of the Yoga Sūtra.” Annual  Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Panel: “South Asian  Religions in the Age of Print.” October 25, 2015.
  • 2015 “Text, Commentary, and Community: Translating the Yoga Sūtra in colonial Bengal.”  XXI World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions,  Erfurt, Germany, August 28, 2015.
  • 2014 “Translation Communities and Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra.” Annual Meeting of the  American Academy of Religion, Religion in South Asia Section. San Diego, November  24, 2014.
  • 2012 “Patañjali in Print: the Value of Nineteenth-Century Translations.” Annual Meeting of  the American Academy of Religion, Yoga in Theory and Practice Consultation.  Chicago, November 17, 2012.
  • 2011 “The Mother of Yoga? Print, Patañjali, and Colonial Calcutta.” Presentation, Annual  Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Religion in South Asia Section: The  Impact of Print Technology in the Nineteenth Century. San Francisco, November 22,  2011.
  • 2011 “Translating the Yoga Sūtra and Theorizing Religion.” Presentation, Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, American Academy of Religion, Religions of  Asia: Multiple Models of Translation: Texts, Theory, and Theology. Louisville, KY,  March 6, 2011.
  • 2009 “Rajendralal Mitra and Modern Yoga.” Presentation, American Academy of Religion,  Religion in South Asia Section: New Directions in the Study of Religion in South Asia.  Montreal, November 7, 2009.
  • 2009 “Reading the Yoga Sūtra in Colonial India.” Presentation, Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, American Academy of Religion, Religions of Asia: Negotiations of Religious Identity in South Asia. Greensboro, NC, March 15, 2009.

Undergraduate Research Projects Directed

  • Desiree Comer, “Mainstream Tensions and Alternative Spiritualities: Making Sense of NRMs.” Senior  Thesis. Fall 2020-Spring 2021.
  • Mickey Benson, “Pastel Spirituality: Finding Religion in the Online Spiritual Marketplace” Senior  Thesis. Fall 2020-Spring 2021.
  • Leaha Sinneave, “The Greek Orthodox and Hindu Diasporas in the United States.” Senior  Thesis. Fall 2018-Spring 2019.
  • Binderya Munkhjargal, “Iran’s Regional Politics,” Directed Study (S19) and Interdisciplinary Senior  Thesis. Fall 2018—Spring 2019.
  • Leaha Sinnaeve, “Greek Orthodox and Hindu Diaspora Communities in the United States.” Prentiss  M. Brown Honors Program Senior Thesis. Fall 2018—Spring 2019.
  • Madison Kase, “Killing the Sacred Cow: Ecology and Religion in South Asia.” Directed Study, and  Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program Senior Thesis. Fall 2017—Spring 2018.
  • Kenton McCosh, “Buddhism and Medicine,” Directed Study, Fall 2016.
  • Laxmi Kotha, “Ayurveda: the Classical and the Contemporary,” Directed Study, and Prentiss M.  Brown Honors Program Senior Thesis. Fall 2014—Spring 2015.
  • Dustin Moretz, “Of Contact and Conflict: An Analysis of Cross-Communal Relationships in Indian  Communal Violence,” Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program Senior Thesis. Fall 2013—Spring  2014. Winner of Outstanding Thesis Award, 2014.