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Sarah Pierce Taylor is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, focusing on the intersections of gender, emotion, and premodern religion in South India. Her current book project, “Embodying Souls: Emotion, Gender, Animality in Premodern South Asian Religion,” investigates the soteriological tensions within Jainism, specifically how it grapples with the pleasures of the body. Examining literature from the medieval Deccan region, her research argues that literary expressions were crucial for Jain poets in navigating a world steeped in attachment, embodiment, desire, and pleasure, which stand in contrast to the tradition's emphasis on detachment. Furthermore, Taylor explores a rich tradition of ghost stories within Sanskrit and Old Kannada literature that challenge normative gender roles and cultural hierarchies surrounding the boundaries between the living and the dead. Her work is also informed by contemporary theoretical developments in affect, animality, and disability studies, enriching the understanding of bodies in historical contexts. Previously, Dr. Taylor was an Assistant Professor of South Asian Religions at Concordia University.
Department of Philosophy