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

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

• Lost Ecstasy: Its Decline and Transformation in Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Mysticism Series, 2018.       
• Perceiving the Divine through the Human Body:  Mystical Sensuality, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.  Co-edited with Thomas Cattio.
• Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Making Virtuous Daughters and Wives:  An Introduction to Women's Brata Rituals in Bengali Folk Religion, Albany: SUNY Press, 2003.
• The Madness of the Saints: Ecstatic Religion in Bengal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

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.

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