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Rick Weiss
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Rick Weiss

PhD (Chicago)
Senior Lecturer

On this page:

Rick specialises in South Asian religious cultures and history. His current research examines the intersection of healing, science, and community in the defence of siddha medicine, a traditional medical system of South India.

Rick is the Postgraduate Coordinator for Religious Studies.

Current Teaching

RELI103 Paths to Enlightenment: Introducing Asian Religions (summer 09/10)
RELI 326 Religion and Healing
RELI 335 Arguing about Religion: Discourse and Debate
RELI 425 Advanced Studies in Asian Religions

Other Teaching (Not Offered in 2009)

RELI205 The Religions of India: Gods, Goddesses and the Sacred
RELI 428 Advanced Studies in the Language of Religious Texts

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Current Research Projects

Rick's research interests focus on:

  • healing systems
  • South Asian religion
  • theories of tradition
  • religious community

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Selected Publications

Book:
Recipes for Immortality: Healing, Religion, and Community in South India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009

› read more

Journal Articles:
“The Limits of Inventing Tradition: The Dravidian Movement in South India.” In Tradition as a Resource: Invention, Innovation, Inheritance. A Special Issue of the Australian Religion Studies Review 20.1: 59-75. 2007

“The Global Guru: Sai Baba and the Miracle of the Modern.” In New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 7.2 (2005): 5-19.

Chapter in Edited Volume:
“The Autonomy of Tradition: Creating Space for Indian Medicine.” In Historicizing Tradition (Religion and Society 43). Edited by Gregory Grieve and Steven Engler. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Pages 175-194. 2005         

› View publications by Rick Weiss

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Administrative Responsibilities

  • Academic library liaison
  • Research Committee, SACR
  • Asian Studies Institute Executive Board

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Contact Details

Location: HU 215
Office Ph: 463-6726
Email: rick.weiss@vuw.ac.nz

 

CURRENT COMMENT

Rick spent several months in Chennai, South India, from September 2005 to January 2006, conducting research for a study on religious and ethnic community in India. Rick is examining the role of religion in the formation of harmonious groups on the one hand, and in conflict between communities on the other. His research entails the collection and reading of premodern and contemporary Tamil texutal devotional materials which focus on the Hindu god Shiva.

Rick’s most recent conference paper presentation was entitled “Modern Rhetoric and the Miraculous Origins of Siddha Medicine.” He delivered this paper at the Conference on the Study of Religions of India, held in June at Albion College in Michigan, USA.

 


RICK RECOMMENDS
Love song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda, translated by Barbara Stoler Miller, New York: Columbia University Press, 1977
- medieval Sanskrit poem that combines erotic and devotional imagery
Ghosh, Amitav, In an Antique Land, New York: Vintage, 1992
- historical novel of early Indian and Middle Eastern cultural interactions
Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama, Delhi: Rupa, 1990
- the Dalai Lama’s childhood and flight to India
Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, translated by Barbara Stoler Miller, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996
- accessible translation of the classic Sanskrit text on yoga and liberation
Anantha Murthy, U. R., Samskara, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986
- novel of religious conflicts and duties in an Indian village

 

  		   
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