Dr James Madaio

Research Fellow at the Department of South Asia, Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
madaio@orient.cas.cz

Biography

James Madaio is a research fellow at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague and at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He is Editor of the Journal of Hindu Studies (Oxford University Press) and Regional Editor (Indic traditions) of Bloomsbury Academic’s Introductions to World Philosophies book series. His monograph, Advaita Vedānta and the Story of Liberation: Vidyāraṇya’s Narrative Philosophy, is under contract with Oxford University Press. He is also an editor of two forthcoming volumes: The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Non-duality in Indian Thought (co-edited with Jonathan Duquette) and Provincializing Pluralism: Difference and Diversity in South Asian Traditions (co-edited with Brian Black). He received his PhD from the University of Manchester and was a postdoctoral fellow at New Europe College (Bucharest) and an affiliated researcher at the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute (Chennai). He was previously a lecturer at the University of Maryland, the University of Manchester, and Charles University. He is currently Adjunct Faculty at the Consciousness Studies programme at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore and is the recent recipient of a multiyear research grant from the Czech Science Foundation.

Research Interests

Advaita Vedānta; historiography and genealogy of modern advaita-related movements; Indic theories of self, pedagogy, and hermeneutics; Cross-cultural philosophy and dialogue; Transnational South Asian traditions and the Global Occult

Selected Publications

Chapters and Articles

  • ‘The Narrative Shape of Orthopraxy: Storytelling, dharma, and the path to liberation in Advaita Vedānta’. The Journal of Hindu Studies (2021), 14.3, pp. 326–377
  • “Transparent smoke in the pure sky of consciousness: emotions and liberation-while-living in the Jīvanmuktiviveka”,in: Maria Heim, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Roy Tzohar eds., The Bloomsbury Handbook of Classical Indian Emotions, Bloomsbury, London (2021).
  • “Neglected Advaitas: The Genealogy of Swami Vivekananda’s Cosmopolitan Theology”, in: Rita Sherma ed., Vivekananda: His Life, Legacy and Relevance, Lexington Books, Lanham (2021).
  • “Vernacular Hinduisms: Texts, Traditions, and Transformation” (co-authored with James S. Bradbury), The Journal of Hindu Studies13:2 (2020).
  • “Transformative dialogue in the Yogavāsiṣṭha”, in: Brian Black & Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad eds., In Dialogue with Classical Indian Traditions: Encounter Transformation, and Interpretation, Routledge, London (2019).
  • “Liberation and Hindu Studies”, The Journal of Hindu Studies 12/1, 1–11 (2019).
  • “The Instability of Non-dual Knowing: Post-gnosis sādhana in Vidyāraṇya’s Advaita Vedānta”, Journal of Dharma Studies1/1, 11-30 (2018).
  • “Rethinking Neo-Vedānta: Swami Vivekananda and the Selective Historiography of Advaita Vedānta”, Religions 8/6 (2017).
  • “The Shinto Religion”, in: Suheil Bushrui, et al.The Spiritual Heritage of the Human Race:  An Introduction to the World’s Religions, Oneworld Publications, Oxford  (2010).
  • “The Religious Traditions of Ancient Greece”, in: Suheil Bushrui, et al.The Spiritual Heritage of the Human Race:  An Introduction to the World’s Religions, Oneworld Publications, Oxford  (2010).