Laurie L. Patton | |
|---|---|
 Patton in 2004 | |
| 17th President of Middlebury College | |
| Assumed office July 1, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Ronald D. Liebowitz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 14,1961 |
| Spouse | Shalom Goldman |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) University of Chicago (PhD) |
Laurie L. Patton (born November 14,1961) is an American academic,author,and poet who serves as the 17th president of Middlebury College. [1]
Patton was raised in Danvers,Massachusetts,and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford,Connecticut. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University,a doctorate from the University of Chicago,and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 2000.
She was the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Early Indian Religions at Emory University before assuming the role of Robert F. Durden Professor of Religion and Dean of Arts and Sciences at Duke University. [2] She was named Middlebury's 17th president on November 18,2014,and became Middlebury's first woman president upon taking office on July 1,2015. [3]
Patton regularly teaches in public venues nationally and internationally on interfaith issues,comparative religion,and religion and conflict. In 2008 and 2009 she co-hosted a TV series on "Faith and Feminism" for Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting. She served as chair of the department from 2000 to 2007,as conveyor of the Religions and the Human Spirit Strategic Plan from 2005 to 2007,and as the Winship Distinguished Research Professor from 2003 to 2006. She was the recipient of Emory’s highest award for teaching,the Emory Williams Award,in 2006.
She focuses her research on early Indian rituals,narrative and mythology,literary theory in religious studies,and Hinduism in modern India. She has published on the interpretation of early Indian ritual and narrative,comparative mythology,literary theory in the study of religion,women and Hinduism in contemporary India,and religion and conflict.
Her early Indological work applies literary theory and theory of canon to the texts of early India,particularly Vedic texts. Later,she used a theory of metonymy to rethink the application of mantras in early Indian ritual. Her first edited work,Authority,Anxiety,and Canon (1994) surveyed the larger field of Vedic interpretation as it existed in various intellectual contexts throughout India. [4]
She was co-editor on Myth and Method an assessment of the state of the field in comparative mythology. Her co-edited work with Edwin Bryant (2005) brings together for the first time a variety of differing perspectives on the problem of Aryan origins.
Patton has also worked on gender questions,beginning with her edited volume,Jewels of Authority (2002),which examined early feminist stereotypes about women in Indian textual traditions as well as contemporary life. Her recent articles on gender are derived from her present project,the first ethnography of women Sanskritists ever to be undertaken in India.[ citation needed ]
Her translation of the Bhagavad Gita in the Penguin Classics Series follows a free verse style constrained by eight line stanzas. [5]
She has also published three books of poetry,including House Crossing,which was published in May 2018. [2]
Hindu mythology is the body of myths attributed to,and espoused by,the adherents of the Hindu religion,found in Sanskrit texts such as the Vedic literature,epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana,the Puranas,and mythological stories specific to a particular ethnolinguistic group like the Tamil Periya Puranam and Divya Prabandham,and the Mangal Kavya of Bengal. Hindu myths are also found in widely translated popular texts such as the fables of the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesha,as well as in Southeast Asian texts.
Asuras are a class of beings in Indic religions. They are described as power-seeking demons related to the more benevolent Devas in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context,the word is sometimes translated "titan","demigod",or "antigod".
Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. The terms and epithets for deities within the diverse traditions of Hinduism vary,and include Deva,Devi,Ishvara,Ishvari,Bhagavān and Bhagavati.
In the Vedic tradition,sóma is a ritual drink of importance among the early Vedic Indo-Aryans. The Rigveda mentions it,particularly in the Soma Mandala. Gita mentions the drink in chapter 9. It is equivalent to the Iranian haoma.
The historical Vedic religion constituted the religious ideas and practices among some of the Indo-Aryan peoples of the northwest Indian subcontinent during the Vedic period. These ideas and practices are found in the Vedic texts,and some Vedic rituals are still practiced today. It is one of the major traditions which shaped Hinduism,though present-day Hinduism is markedly different from the historical Vedic religion.
Deva means "shiny","exalted","heavenly being","divine being","anything of excellence",and is also one of the Sanskrit terms used to indicate a deity in Hinduism. Deva is a masculine term;the feminine equivalent is Devi. The word is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus.
Prayer is considered to be an integral part of the Hindu religion;it is practiced during Hindu worship (puja) and is an expression of devotion (Bhakti). The chanting of mantras is the most popular form of worship in Hinduism. The Vedas are liturgical texts. Stuti is an umbrella term for religious literary creations,but it literally means "praise."
Karma yoga,also called Karma marga,is one of the four classical spiritual paths in Hinduism,one based on the "yoga of action",the others being Jnana yoga,Rāja yoga and Bhakti yoga. To a karma yogi,right action is a form of prayer. The three paths are not mutually exclusive in Hinduism,but the relative emphasis between Karma yoga,Jnana yoga and Bhakti yoga varies by the individual.
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions,her major works include The Hindus:An Alternative History;Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva;Hindu Myths:A Sourcebook;The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology;Women,Androgynes,and Other Mythical Beasts;and The Rig Veda:An Anthology,108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit. She is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions at the University of Chicago,and has taught there since 1978. She served as president of the Association for Asian Studies in 1998.
The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit,the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.
Michael Witzel is a German-American philologist,comparative mythologist and Indologist. Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series.
Edwin Francis Bryant is an American Indologist. Currently,he is professor of religions of India at Rutgers University. He published seven books and authored a number of articles on Vedic history,yoga,and the Krishna tradition. In his research engagements,he lived several years in India where he studied Sanskrit and was trained with several Indian pundits.
Kurukshetra is a city and administrative headquarters of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita".
The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Hindu culture and associated cultures traditions,which are expressed as words in Sanskrit or other Indic languages and Dravidian languages. The main purpose of this list is to disambiguate multiple spellings,to make note of spellings no longer in use for these concepts,to define the concept in one or two lines,to make it easy for one to find and pin down specific concepts,and to provide a guide to unique concepts of Hinduism all in one place.
The Markandeya Purana is a Sanskrit text of Hinduism,and one of the eighteen major Puranas. The text's title Markandeya refers to a sage in Hindu History,who is the central character in two legends,one linked to Shiva and other to Vishnu. The Markandeya text is one of the Puranas that lacks a sectarian presentation of ideas in favor of any particular god,and it is rare to read any deity being invoked or deity prayers in the entire text.
Dhyāna in Hinduism means contemplation and meditation. Dhyana is taken up in Yoga practices,and is a means to samadhi and self-knowledge.
In Hinduism,Brahman connotes the highest universal principle,the ultimate reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy,it is the immaterial,efficient,formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive,infinite,eternal truth,consciousness and bliss which does not change,yet is the cause of all changes. Brahman as a metaphysical concept refers to the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists in the universe.
The Bhagavad Gita,often referred to as the Gita,is a 700-verse Hindu scripture,which is part of the epic Mahabharata. It forms the chapters 23–40 of book 6 of the Mahabharata called the Bhishma Parva. The work is dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE.
The practice of Hindu animal sacrifice is in recent times mostly associated with Shaktism,and in currents of folk Hinduism strongly rooted in local popular or tribal traditions. Animal sacrifices were part of the ancient Non-Vedic Era in India,and are mentioned in scriptures such as the Puranas. The Hindu scripture Brahma Vaivarta Purana forbids the Asvamedha Horse sacrifice in this Kali Yuga. However,the perception that animal sacrifice was only practiced in ancient Non-Vedic Era is opposed by instances like Ashvamedha and other rituals that are rooted in Vedas. Both the Itihasas and the Puranas like the Devi Bhagavata Purana and the Kalika Purana as well as the Saiva and Sakta Agamas prescribe animal sacrifices.
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