Rachel McDermott

Ph.D., Study of Religion, Harvard University, 1993
A.M., Study of Religion, Harvard University, 1986
M.Div., Harvard Divinity School, 1984
B.A., Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 1981

Rachel Fell McDermott is Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures and specializes in South Asia, especially India and Bangladesh. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, her M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School in 1984, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1993. Her research interests focus on Bengal, in eastern India and Bangladesh; she has published extensively on the Hindu-goddess-centered religious traditions from that part of the subcontinent and is now involved in a research project on Kazi Nazrul Islam, both the “Rebel Poet” of India and the National Poet of Bangladesh. She is also committed to the study of comparative religion, and teaches comparative courses in which important religious themes are traced across cultures.

Books

McDermott, Rachel F, et al. Sources of Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Volume 2, Edition 3. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.

McDermott, Rachel F. Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal: The Fortunes of Hindu Festivals. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.

McDermott, Rachel F, et al. Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Saktism. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2009.

McDermott, Rachel F, and Jeffrey J Kripal. Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

McDermott, Rachel F. Mother of My Heart, Daughter of My Dreams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

‌McDermott, Rachel F. Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kali and Uma from Bengal. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

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Journal Articles and Book Chapter

McDermott, Rachel F, Polish, Daniel. “Image Worship and Sacrifice: Legitimacy, Illegitimacy, and Theological Debate." Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy, Culture and Religion, edited by Ithamar Theodor and Yudit Greenberg. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014.

McDermott, Rachel F. “Bangladesh." The Sources of Indian Traditions, edited by Rachel Fell McDermott, et al. 2 vols., 3rd ed, New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

McDermott, Rachel F. “Playing with Durga: Ritual Levity in Bengali Goddess Religion." Sacred Play: Ritual Levity and Humor in South Asian Religions, edited by Selva J. Raj and Corinne Dempsey. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010, pp. 143-159.

McDermott, Rachel F. “The Pujas in Historical and Political Controversy: Colonial and Post-Colonial Goddesses." Religions of South Asia, vol. 2, no. 2 (2009): pp. 135-159.

McDermott, Rachel F. “From Hinduism to Christianity, from India to New York: Bondage and Exodus Experiences in the Lives of Indian Dalit Christians in the American Diaspora." South Asian Christian Diaspora: Invisible Diaspora in Europe and North America, edited by Knut Axel Jacobsen and Selva J. Raj. Hampshire: Ashgate Press, 2009, pp. 223-248.

McDermott, Rachel F. “Introduction” and “A Festival for Jagaddhatri and the Power of Localized Religion in Bengal." Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Saktism, edited by Cynthia Ann Humes and Rachel Fell McDermott. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2009, pp. xvii-xxxiv and 201-222.

McDermott, Rachel F. “Evil, Motherhood, and the Hindu Goddess Kali." Deliver Us from Evil, edited by M. David Eckel and Bradley L. Herling. New York: Continuum, 2008, pp. 44-56.

McDermott, Rachel F. “Gifts to an Anglican from Krishna’s Council." Song Divine: Christian Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, edited by Catherine Cornille. Leuven: Peeters Press, and Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 2006, pp. 131-144.

McDermott, Rachel F. “The Vedanta Society." Religion and American Cultures : An Encyclopedia of Traditions, Diversity, and Popular Expressions, edited by Gary Laderman & Luis Leon. vol. 1, Santa Barbara: Abc-Clio, 2003, pp. 120-122.

McDermott, Rachel F. “Kali's New Frontiers: A Hindu Goddess on the Internet." Encountering Kali : In the Margins, at the Center, in the West, edited by Rachel F. McDermott and Jeffrey J. Kripal. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, pp. 273-295.‌

McDermott, Rachel F. “Raising Snakes in Bengal: The Use of Tantric Imagery in Sakta Poetry Contexts." Tantra in Practice, edited by David G. White. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000, pp.167-183.

‌McDermott, Rachel F. “Popular Attitudes towards Kali and Her Poetry Tradition: Interviewing Saktas in Bengal." Wild Goddesses in India and Nepal, edited by Axel Michaels, et al. vol. 2, Peter Lang: International Academic Publishers, 1996, pp 383-415.

McDermott, Rachel F. “The Western Kali.” Devī Goddesses of India, edited by John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1996, pp. 281-313.

McDermott, Rachel F. “Meeting 'the Mother Who Takes Across': Christian Encounters with the Fierce Goddesses of Hinduism.” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, vol. 16, no. 1 (2003): pp. 48-57.

McDermott, Rachel F. “New Age Hinduism, New Age Orientalism, and the Second-generation South Asian.” Introduction: Who Speaks for Hinduism? edited by S Caldwell and B.K Smith. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 68, no. 4 (2000): pp. 721-731.

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