Dr. Tanisha Ramachandran

Tanisha Ramachandran earned her Ph.D from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She has published in various journals including Canadian Women’s Studies/ les Cahiers de la Femme, and Material Religion and has given numerous talks on issues pertaining to race, sexuality, colonialism, feminism as it relates to religion. Her current research examines how material objects and visual markers – hijabs, turbans, and bindies—are deployed or function in the racialization of religions in the US and Canada by examining acts of violence/vandalism perpetuated against Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs and their houses of worship: temples, mosques, and gurdwaras, respectively.

Ph.D., Concordia University (Hinduism) 2008

M.A., Concordia University (Hinduism and Buddhism) 2000

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

2017 (Forthcoming) “Mūrti, Idol, Art, and Commodity: The Multiple Identities of Hindu Images” in Modern Hinduism. Ed. Torkel Brekke. London and New York: Oxford University
Press.

2016 “Racializing Religion” Feminism and Interreligious Dialogue. @theTable, Feminism in Religion (the online incarnation of the Journal for Feminism in Religion).

2014 “A Call to Multiple Arms! Protesting the Commoditization of Hind Imagery in Western Society” In Material Religion. 10/1: 54-75

2009. “ No Woman Left Covered: Unveiling and the Politics of Liberation in Multi/interculturalism” In Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme: Women, Citizenship and Canadian Multiculturalism. Vol. 27/2,3. Spring/Summer: 33-39.

2007. “Endangering the Safety of Canadian Values: The Case of A Hijab, An Eleven Year Old Girl and a Soccer Ball in RACE Link. (Spring): 6-7

2004“Abusing Ganga Ma: How the Ganges Continues to Purify” in Voices Across Boundaries Vol. 2/1: 50-51.

1999. “Constructing Sita, Deconstructing the Ideal Wife: The Uses of Text and (Con)text.” In The Journal of Religion and Culture. Volume13:169-174.

PUBLICATIONS Peer Reviewed (2018 to present)
2022 FCHS Collective(Gandhi, Shreena Niketa, Sailaja Krishnamurti, Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, Tanisha Ramachandran, and Shana Sippy) “Auntylectuals: A nonce taxonomy of Aunty Power” Text and Performance Quarterly 42:3 (June): 1-12.
2021. FCHS Collective(Gandhi, Shreena Niketa, Sailaja Krishnamurti, Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, Tanisha Ramachandran, and Shana Sippy). “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation.” Religion Compass: e12392. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12392
2019 “Mūrti, Idol, Art, and Commodity: The Multiple Identities of Hindu Images” in Modern Hinduism. Ed. Torkel Brekke. London and New York: Oxford University Press.

BLOG Posts
2020. “A Letter to Nikki Haley” Medium.com. 08/25/2020. https://medium.com/@ramacht/a-letter-to-nikki-haley-1a2bfa1738ca
2020. (Co-written with Shreena Gandhi, Sailaja Krishna Murthy, Harshita Kamath Mruthinti & Shanna Sippy aka the Auntylectuals) “More than a Reading List: Challenging Anti-Black Racism in the Field of South Asian Religions” Down With Brown. https://downwithbrownblog.com/2020/06/18/more-than-a-reading-list-challenging-anti-black-racism-in-the-field-of-south-asian-religions/

Op-Eds
2021 “Hinduphobia is a Smokescreen,” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective (Shreena Gandhi, Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, Sailaja Krishnamurti. Tanisha Ramachandran, Shana Sippy, w/ Dheepa Sundaram), Religion News Service and Washington Post, September 10, 2021.

• REL 104: Introduction to Asian Traditions
• REL 108: Introduction to Hindu Traditions
• REL 361: The Buddhist World of Thought and Practice
• REL 361: Politics and Social Engaged Buddhism
• REL 385: Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims in North America
• REL 388: South Asian Women: Religion, Culture and Politics
• REL 390: Hindu Myth and Iconography
• REL 700: Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
• REL 701: Politics of Religion and Secularism
• REL 702: Media, Religion and the Periphery