June McDaniel

Professor Emerita of Religious Studies

Education

  • Ph.D. in History of Religions, The Divinity School at the University of Chicago
  • M.A. in Theological Studies, Candler Seminary at Emory University
  • B.A. in Studio Art, SUNY Albany

Research Interests

  • Religious Experience, especially in the Hindu tradition
  • Mysticism
  • Hindu bhakti and tantra
  • Women's religious rituals
  • Study of holy people
  • Religions of India
  • Mysticism and Religious Experience
  • Psychology of Religion

Courses Taught

  • RELS 105: Intro to World Religions
  • RELS 205: Sacred Text of the East
  • RELS 245: The Religions of India
  • RELS 298: Spirituality, Madness & Healing
  • RELS 298: Special Topics: Goddesses in World Religion
  • RELS 298: Special Topics: Religion & Psychology
  • RELS 301: Mysticism & Religious Experience
  • RELS 350: Phenomenology of Religion
  • RELS 365: Religion and Psychology
  • RELS 375: Asian Esotericism: Yoga and Tantra
  • RELS 450: Religious Symbolism

Publications

Books

Book Chapters

  • “Magical Tantra in Bengal, Bali and Java; from pisaca tantrikas to balians and dukuns.”  In Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia:  Texts, Practices and Practitioners form the Margins.  Ed. Andrea Acri and Paolo Rosati.  Routledge, 2023.
  • “Fierce Goddesses of India:  Durga and Kali” in The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War, ed. Margo Kitts.  Cambridge University Press, 2023
  • "From the Underworld of Yama to the Island of Gems: Concepts of Afterlife in Hinduism.” In Candy Cann, Death and Afterlife. Routledge Publishers, 2018.
  • “Tantric Lives in Bengal and Bali: Toward a Comparative Ethnography” in The Ethnography of Tantra;  Textures and Contexts of Living Tantric Traditions, edited by Carola E. Lorea & Rohit Singh.  Albany:  SUNY Press, 2024.
  • “Magical Tantra in Bengal, Bali and Java; from pisaca tantrikas to balians and dukuns.”  In Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia:  Texts, Practices and Practitioners form the Margins.  Ed. Andrea Acri and Paolo Rosati.  Routledge, 2023.
  • “Fierce Goddesses of India:  Durga and Kali” in The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War, ed. Margo Kitts.  Cambridge University Press, 2023.
  • “From the Underworld of Yama to the Island of Gems: Concepts of Afterlife in Hinduism.” In Candy Cann, Death and Afterlife. Routledge Publishers, 2018.
  • “Dark Devotion:  Religious Emotion in Shakta and Shi’ah Traditions.”  in John Corrigan, ed.  Feeling Emotion.  Durham:  Duke University Press, 2017.
  • “From the Old Lady of the Grove to Ekatmika Bhava:  Women’s Mysticism, Devotion and Possession Trance in Popular Bengali Shaktism.”  in Zayn R. Kassam, Women and Asian Religions.  Santa Barbara:  Praeger Publishers, 2017.
  • “Death Visions of the Goddess Kali” in Thomas Cattoi and Christopher Moreman, Death, Dying and Mysticism:  The Ecstasy of    the End.  NY:  Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
  • “Psychoanalysis and the Problem of Religious Ecstasy” in Psychoanalysis, Culture and Religion:  Essays in Honor of Sudhir Kakar. New York:  Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • “Yoginis in Bengali Religious Traditions:  Tribal, Tantric and Bhakti influences.” In Yogini in South Asia:  Interdisciplinary Approaches, ed. Istvan Keul. NY: Routledge, 2013.
  • “Modern Bengali Sakta Tantrikas:  Ethnography, Image and Stereotype.”  In Istvan Keul, Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond.  Tubingen:  De Gruyter, 147-164.  2012.

Articles

  • "At the Burning Ground: Death and Transcendence in Bengali Shaktism" Religions 14, no. 8: 1014.  2023.  Special Issue: “Mystical Theology:  Negation and Desolation’ https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081014 
  • “Shakti in Village India: Priestesses, Sadhikas, Bhar Ladies, Ayes, Bhaktas, Witches, and Bonga Girls”.  Religions 14, no. 6 789. 2023. Special Issue: “Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture” https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060789 

  • “Can There Be a Tantric Ethics?  Gender and Authority in the Kularnava Tantra.”  in Pratap Kumar Penumula and Arvind Sharma, eds. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Hindu Ethics.  Bloomsbury Academic, 2025.

  • “Shaktism.” In Bloomsbury Religion in North America. Section “Hinduism: The Basics,” edited by Jeffery D. Long. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. Accessed September 25, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350886599.014.

  • “The Mahamantra and the Tetragrammaton:  Mystical Imagination in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and Prophetic Kabbalah”.  Journal of Vaishnava Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, Fall 2024.  pp 89-106.

  • "At the Burning Ground: Death and Transcendence in Bengali Shaktism" Religions 14, no. 8: 1014.  2023.  Special Issue: “Mystical Theology:  Negation and Desolation’ https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081014

  • “Shakti in Village India: Priestesses, Sadhikas, Bhar Ladies, Ayes, Bhaktas, Witches, and Bonga Girls”.  Religions 14, no. 6 789. 2023.  Special Issue: “Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture”   https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060789

  • “Strengthening the Moral Compass:  The Effects of MDMA Therapy of Moral and Spiritual Development.  Pastoral Psychology, 66 (6), pp. 721-742, 2017.

  • “Religious Change and Experimentation in Indonesian Hinduism.”  International Journal of Dharma Studies. 2 (20), 14 pages.  2017.

  • “Indonesia, Modernity and the Problems of Religious Adaptation.’  Wacana:  Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia. 15 (2), 30 pages. 2015.

  • “A Modern Hindu Monotheism:  Indonesian Hindus as “People of the Book.”  Journal of Hindu Studies, 2013.

  • “The Role of Yoga in Some Bengali Bhakti Traditions:  Shaktism, Gaudiya Vaisnavism, Baul and Sahajiya Dharma.” Journal of Hindu Studies, 2012, 5 (1), 53-74.

  • “Agama Hindu Dharma as a New Religious Movement:  Hinduism Recreated in the Image of Islam.  Novo Religio, 2010, 14, #1, pp. 93-111.

  • “Saktism” in Oxford Bibliographies Online. Oxford University Press, 2010.

 

Recent

  • Columbia University, NY, “Writing on Ecstasy in the Academy”, Seminar on Reading and Writing, 2023.
  • Texas Christian University, Fort Worth.  “Bengali Shaktism and the Situation of Holy Women in Hinduism,” Dept of Religious Studies, 2023.
  • Oxford University, England.  “Visualization Practices in Some Bengali Hindu Contemplative Traditions:  Shaktism, Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Baul Songs, and Raja Yoga,” 2022.
  • Oxford University, England.  “Shaktism and Ethnography:  Some Major Styles of Worship and Belief among Practitioners,” Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, 2022.
  • Texas Christian University, Contemplative Studies Program.  “Yoga, Tantra, and Jungian Psychology:  Eastern and Western Understandings of the Mind.  2021.
  • Georgetown University, Washington DC.  “Religious Emotion in Nirguna and Saguna Hindu Traditions.”  Seminar of Religious Emotion, Theology Dept. 2018.
  • University of Helsinki, Finland.  Dept. of Comparative Religion.  PhD examination of candidate, outside evaluator.  2014.
  • Oxford University, England, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Wahlstrom Lecture.  “From Bengal to Bali:  Some Transformations in Hindu Ritual, Belief, Mysticism and Politics.”  2013.
  • Cambridge University, England.  “Rasa Theory in Shakta Poetry,” Cambridge Faculty Seminar in Religious Studies, 2013.
  • University of Wyoming, “The Religions of Indonesia,” Dept of Religious Studies, Laramie, Wyoming, 2013.
  • Gadjah Mada University, Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies.  “Mystical Experience and Yogic Meditation in Bengali Religion.”  Yogyakarta, Indonesia.  2012.
  • Indonesian National Council for Violence Against Women, “Religion, Pluralism and Violence Against Women,” Jakarta, Indonesia, 2012.
  • Islamic College of Jakarta, “Love in Hinduism”, seminar lecture on Love in World Religions.  Jakarta, Indonesia, 2012.
  • Oxford University, England, Anthropology Lecture Series “The Modern Adaptation of World Religions in Indonesia,” joint sponsorship by the departments of Anthropology and Theology, 2011.
  • Macmillan Center, Yale University.  “A Nation of Monotheisms:  Religious Adaptation in Modern Indonesia.”  2011.
  • University of Muenster, Department of Religionswissenschaft, “The Hindu Roots of Universalism.”  Germany, 2011.

 

Offices:

  • Steering committee, Mysticism Group, national American Academy of Religion, 2009-2014, 2016- 2019   
  • Co-Chair, Mysticism Group, national American Academy of Religion (2001- 2008)
  • Steering committee, Anthropology of Religion Group, national AAR, 2001- 2008
  • Co-chair and Founding Chair, Anthropology of Religion consultation (now group), 1999-2001, national American Academy of Religion
  • Tantric Studies Seminar, American Academy of Religion (national) 1997-2008
  • Co-Chair, Ritual Studies Group, AAR, (national) 1989-91