Dr Jessica Frazier

Fellow, Centre for Hindu Studies
01865 304307
 

Biography

After degrees in the Study of Religions at King’s College, Cambridge and Wolfson College, Oxford, I did doctoral work at Queen’s College, Cambridge on the early modern Hindu thinker Rūpa Gosvāmin and the hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Since then I continue to explore problems of Being and the Self, philosophy across cultures, and novel ways of understanding value. I now work on religion more broadly with a special interest in Asia, and specifically on two philosophical traditions: classical to early modern Vedanta, and Post-Heideggerian Phenomenology. I am Managing Editor of the Journal of Hindu Studies (Oxford Journals), and an occasional contributor to BBC programmes. My current projects include books on Religion, Hinduism and the Sacred (Cambridge), and a philosophical exploration of the sublime in modern thought.  I also spend a large portion of my time in Asia and elsewhere, exploring other ways of seeing the world.  

Research Areas

My interests in Indian thought include: Classical Hindu thought, Indian philosophical views on metaphysics, selfhood, and conceptions of aesthetics and value, Classical Vedanta, early-modern Bhedabheda, and Asian conceptions of the divine.

My research interests in Philosophy and Phenomenology include: Post-Heideggerian Philosophy, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics, philosophies of Being and Ontology, Self and Identity, Value and Emotion.

Selected Publications

  • Hindu Worldviews: Theories of Self, Ritual and Reality(Bloomsbury 2016)
  • The Bloomsbury Companion to Hindu Studies ([Continuum 2011] Bloomsbury 2014)
  • Reality, Religion and Passion: Indian and Western Approaches in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Rupa Gosvami (Lexington Books, 2009)
  • (Edited) Categorisation in Indian Philosophy: Thinking Inside the Box (Ashgate, 2014)

In Preparation: 

  • Religion, Hinduism and the Sacred: Rethinking the Divine(Cambridge University Press 2019)
  • An Introduction to Hindu Thought (Penguin Books 2020)
  • The Sublime World: Gadamer on Truth, Beauty, Globalism

Managing Editor

  • The Journal of Hindu Studies, Founding and Managing Editor (Oxford Journals, 2008-)

Chapters and Articles

  • “Philosophy and Religion in India” in The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Indian Philosophy, Purushottama Bilimoria ed. London: Routledge, 2018.
  • “Overflowing Selves: The Phenomenology of Possession in Hindu and Christian Contexts” in Mystical Theology: Eruptions from France, (Ashgate, 2015)
  •  “Sacrifice as Value-Bestowal: From Slaughtered Lambs to Dedicated Lives“ in Sacrifice and Modern Thought, Meszaros and Zacchuber Eds. (Oxford University Press, 2013)
  • “Hindu Visual Arts and Architecture” in The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts, Frank Burch Brown Ed. (Oxford University Press, 2014)
  • “Atheism in Hindu Culture” in the Oxford Handbook of Atheism,Stephen Bullivant Ed. (Oxford University Press, 2013)
  • “Natural Theology in Eastern Religions” in The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology, Russell Re Manning Ed. (Oxford University Press, 2013)
  • Bridges and Barriers to Hindu-Christian Relations, (Hindu-Christian Forum of Britain, 2011).
  • “Becoming the Goddess: Subjectivity in the Passion of the Goddess Rādhā” in New Topics in Feminist Philosophy of Religion,Pamela Sue Anderson ed. (Springer, 201v