Andrea R. Jain, Ph.D. is professor of religious studies at Indiana University, Indianapolis, editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and author of Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture (Oxford 2014) and Peace Love Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality (Oxford, 2020). She received her doctorate degree in religious studies from Rice University in 2010. She writes about capitalism, religion, sex, and society in our contemporary world.
Jain’s current work, including the book project and documentary film Predation, offers an anti-capitalist critique that centers questions about our current planetary crisis with special attention to the relationships between human and other-than-human animals. She’s a member of the Finite Futures team, which aims to design and implement a new model of generative, public-facing, multidisciplinary engagement at the nexus of religion, technology, and justice in the Anthropocene. Her contributions focus on the capitalocene, that is, the uniquely disastrous changes that are a consequence of the social values and practices of late capitalism. She also works with the Religion & Sexual Abuse Project where her contributions analyze the ways harm toward other-than-human animals and sexual and gendered violence toward humans co-constitute one another in a social context that commodifies both and values them in terms of their productive labor.
Ph.D., Rice University (2010)
Graduate Certificate in the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Rice University (2010)
M.A., Rice University (2009)
B.A., Southern Methodist University (2004)
Course offerings include Theories of Religion, Religion and Culture, and Hinduism and Buddhism
Books
In progress. Predation: The Capitalist Logic of Animal Brutality.
2020. Peace Love Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality. New York: Oxford University
Press (expected publication date: July 2020).
2014. Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
2014. Kripal, Jeffrey J., Ata Anzali, Andrea R. Jain, and Erin Prophet. Comparing Religions:
Coming to Terms. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Film
2021. Predation: A Short Documentary. Produced and co-directed by Andrea R. Jain and Vinnie Manganello. Available at https://www.andreajain.com/predation.
Refereed Articles
Forthcoming. “From Self-Management to Black Veganism: Non-Compliance Amidst Planetary
Crisis, Pandemic, and Health Injustice.” Studies in Religion.
2017. “Yoga, Christians Practicing Yoga, and God: On Theological Compatibility, or Is There a
Better Question?” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 30.
2014. “Who Is to Say Modern Yoga Practitioners Have It All Wrong?: On Hindu Origins and
Yogaphobia.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 82(2): 427-471.
2012. “Branding Yoga: The Cases of Iyengar Yoga, Siddha Yoga, and Anusara Yoga.”
Approaching Religion 2(2): 3-17.
2012. “The Malleability of Yoga: A Response to Christian and Hindu Opponents of the
Popularization of Yoga.” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 25: 3-10.
2012. “The Dual-Ideal of the Ascetic and Healthy Body: The Jain Terapanth and Modern Yoga
in the Context of Late Capitalism.” Nova Religio 15(3) (February): 29-50.
2010. “Erotic Motherhood and the Ideal Son: Mythology as Psychotherapy in the Krishna-Bhakti
Tradition. Pastoral Psychology 59(1) (February): 53-64.
2009. Jain, Andrea R. and Jeffrey J. Kripal. “Quietism and Karma: Non-Action as Non-Ethics in
Jain Asceticism.” Common Knowledge. Symposium: Apology for Quietism, Part 2 15(2) (Spring): 197-207.
2005. McCullough, Michael E., Craig K. Enders, Sharon L. Brion, and Andrea R. Jain. “The
Varieties of Religious Development in Adulthood: A Longitudinal Investigation of
Religion and Rational Choice.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89(1) (August): 78-89.
Refereed Book Chapters
Forthcoming. “Money.” Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Sarah Hammerschlag.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
2021. “Neoliberal Yoga.” Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies. Edited by
Suzanne Newcombe and Karen O’Brien-Kop. New York: Routledge.
2018. “Yogi Superman, Master Capitalist: Bikram Choudhury and the Religion of Commercial
Spirituality.” Being Spiritual but not Religious: Past, Present, and Future(s). Edited by William B. Parsons. New York: Routledge.
2018. “Subversive Spiritualities: Yoga’s Complex Role in the Narrative of Sex and Religion in
the Twentieth Century U.S.” Devotions and Desires: Religion and Sexuality in the Twentieth Century United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
2015. “Jain Modern Yoga: The Case of Preksha Dhyana.” Jain Yoga. Edited by Christopher Key
Chapple. New York: Routledge.
2014. “Conversion to Jain Traditions.” The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion. Edited
by Charles Farhadian and Lewis R. Rambo. New York: Oxford University Press.
2014. “Muktananda: Entrepreneurial Godman, Tantric Hero.” Gurus of Modern Yoga. Edited by
Ellen Goldberg and Mark Singleton. New York: Oxford University Press.
Indiana Humanities INCommon Grant (2021), Luce Foundation Grant (2019), IU Consortium for the Study of Religion, Ethics, and Society Workshop Grant (2019), Research Trailblazer Award at IUPUI (2018), Department of Religion at Rice University Alumni Flame Award (2018), IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute Internal Grant (2016-2017), IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Exploratory Travel Fellowship (2014-2015), Crovetto Award for Excellence in the Study of New Religious Movements with Ties to South Asia at Nova Religio (2012), Outstanding Advisor to a Student Organization at IUPUI (2012)
Capitalism, religion, sex, and society in our contemporary world.
Editor, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
