Barbara Holdrege

Barbara Holdrege is Professor and Chair of the South Asian Studies Committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is affiliated with the Department of Religion. Holding a Ph.D. from Harvard University, she has established herself as a leading comparative historian of religions specializing in South Asian and Jewish traditions.

Her educational foundation at Harvard University has enabled her extensive scholarly work focused on historical and textual studies of Hindu and Jewish traditions while engaging with broader theoretical issues surrounding analytical categories such as the body, space, scripture, and ritual.

Professor Holdrege's research spans several interconnected fields. Her work on the politics of comparison emphasizes how comparative study of 'Hinduisms' and 'Judaisms' serves as critical interrogation to dismantle dominant Eurocentric paradigms. Her scholarship on Hindu discourses of the body challenges the application of Western theoretical models to non-Western traditions, advocating instead for theory parity that recognizes Hindu contributions to embodiment theories. Her research on bhakti traditions explores connections between devotion and embodiment, particularly in Krishna bhakti, while her work on sacred spaces in South Asia examines how religious communities represent, experience, and shape their landscapes through architecture, ritual, and narrative.

Her scholarly output reveals a trajectory from textual studies toward more embodied and spatial approaches to religious traditions, with increasing attention to comparative methodology and postcolonial critique. Her publications consistently demonstrate methodological innovation while maintaining deep textual expertise in South Asian religious traditions.

Professor Holdrege has made significant contributions through her editorial work, including special issues on 'Refiguring Bodies That Matter' and 'Ritual and Power.' As former Director of the Center for the Analysis of Sacred Space (CASS), she pioneered the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to the humanities by developing geospatial digital models for mapping cultural and historical data.

She teaches a diverse range of courses including Introduction to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Hindu Myth and Image; Consciousness and the Body in Hindu Traditions; and numerous advanced seminars on South Asian religious studies, Vedic traditions, bhakti traditions, and South Asian discourses of the body.