Dr. Mugdha Yeolekar
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, California State University, Fullerton
Dr. Mugdha Yeolekar is an assistant professor of Religious Studies at California State University at Fullerton. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Sanskrit and Indology from Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Pune. She earned a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Pune and a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. She pursued her doctoral studies at Arizona State University and completed her PhD in Religious Studies. Her dissertation entitled “Gurucaritra Pārāyaṇ: Social Praxis of Religious Reading” considers the practices of ritual readings of the Gurucaritra, an important medieval Hindu text, by contemporary devotees of the god Dattātreya.
She teaches the following courses: Introduction to the Religions of the World, Introduction to Scientific Study of Religion, Religion and (non) Violence, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Women and Religion. Her research interests include agency, gender, materiality, and technology in Indian religions. Dr. Mugdha Yeolekar has published articles on sex and gender, devotional reading practices, teaching about diversity, and ecologies in Hinduism. She is currently preparing a monograph on devotional reading practices.
