Dr. Seema Chauhan

• Seema K. Chauhan, Jaina Narrative Refutations of Kumarila: Relative Chronology and the History of Jaina-Mimamsa dialogues, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 51, 2023, p239 - 261Journal Article, 2023, DOI , URL
• Seema K. Chauhan, Knowing Me, Knowing You: Hindu Goddess Traditions according to Jinasena's Harivamsapurana, International Journal of Hindu Studies, forthcoming, 2024Journal Article, 2024

• Seema K. Chauhan, Review of "Jain Ramayana Narratives Moral Vision and Literary Innovation", Review of Jain Ramyana Narratives Moral Vision and Literary Innovation, by Gregory M. Clines , Reading Religion, 2022Review
• Seema K. Chauhan, (Mis)Understanding Hinduism: Representations of Hinduism in Jaina Puranas, University of Chicago, 2021Thesis
• Seema K. Chauhan, Peter Flügel, Renate Söhnen-Thieme and Heleen De Jonckheere, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 87, (2), 2024Review Article
• Seema K. Chauhan, Review of In Dialogue with the Mah"bh"rata, by Brian Black , Nid"n: International Journal for Indian Studies, 2024Review

My research expertise lies in premodern Hinduism and Jainism through Sanskrit and Prakrit sources. This often means adopting a text-historical approach that examines how religious ideologies emerge and change across various textual genres such as narrative, philosophy and ritual treatises. I am especially interested in the ways in which we can recover the perspective of the minority in South Asia. Put simply, I ask, what happens when we narrate the history of South Asia between 0 CE -1000 CE through the eyes of a community who were silenced, ignored, or mocked by others? My current book project, "The Story of Hinduism: Religion and Identity in Jaina Narratives" therefore centres the perspective of Jainism, a minority religion often stereotyped by their adherence to naked asceticism and their vows of non-violence. It demonstrates the ways in which Jainas engage in deep, often provocative, examinations of religious identity and genre through parodies of Hindu literature. On the one hand, "The Story of Hinduism" is a story about religious identity. It recovers how followers of the Jina, Jainas, began to examine and represent Hinduism as a unified religion as a way of making sense of the multifarious identity of those who silenced them. On the other hand, "The Story of Hinduism" is story about story. It reconstructs the emergence of Jaina narrative genres in first millennium South Asia. More precisely, it demonstrates how Jaina storytellers rejected the genre boundaries that Hindu writers were imposing between scripture, narrative, and philosophy. Taken together, the two interconnected stories that my book tells--one of religious identity and another of genre-- reposition the study of minority religions as central to the study of Hinduism and South Asian history. Outside this book, my research on South Asian philosophical dialogues, goddess traditions, caste and society, gender and sexuality, and Jaina biographies collectively work together to reveal voices that have been marginalised in Premodern Asia.

• T.H Robinson Prize for Excellence in a Classical Language, Cardiff University 2013
• Highest Overall Degree Mark in Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University 2013
• The Committee on Southern Asian Studies Summer Research Fellowship, University of Chicago 2021
• Gupta Dan Bursary, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2014
• Okita Bursary, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2015
• Asoke Kumar Sarkar Early Career Fellowship in Classical Indology, University of Oxford 2021-2022
• Martin Marty Center Junior Research Fellowship for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, University of Chicago 2020-2021
• Prize for Excellence in Teaching, University of Chicago Divinity School 2020

• International Association for Jaina Studies present
• American Oriental Society 2022
• Association for Asian Studies present
• American Academy of Religion present

• Steering Committee Member, Jainism Unit AAR 2021
• Steering Committee Member, South Asian Religions Unit AAR 2023