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ANDY ROTMAN
Associate
Professor
Religion Department
Smith College
Pierce Hall no. 203
Northampton, MA 01063
email:
arotman@smith.edu
work phone: (413) 585–3348
fax: (413) 585–7611
 
Research and Teaching Interests
Research
Much of my research concerns the ways in which seeing and what is seen in South Asia function as part of social history, affective relations, and material culture. This interest is apparent in my research on early Indian Buddhism, South Asian media, and the economies of the North Indian bazaar. My recent publications include Divine Stories: Translations from the Divyavadana, part 1 (2008), the first half of a two-part translation of one of the most important collections of ancient Buddhist narratives. This volume inaugurates a new translation series from Wisdom Publications called Classics of Indian Buddhism. I also completed Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism (2009), which considers the construction of faith as a visual practice in Buddhism, and how seeing and faith function as part of intersecting visual and moral systems.
My current research focuses on four book projects: (1) a translation of the second half of the Divyavadana; (2) a study of the landmark Hindi film, Amar, Akbar, Anthony, co-written with Christian Novetzke and William Elison; (3) a social and economic history called Saving the World through Commerce? Buddhism, Merchants, and Mercantilism in Early India; and (4) an ethnography of the changing visual economy of the North Indian bazaar, focusing on people involved in the jute bag industry—designers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, footpath vendors, and consumers. I am also working on a documentary film to complement the ethnography, which considers local ways of mediating, disseminating, and responding to transnational commodity images.
Teaching
The courses I teach concern South Asian religion broadly construed, both premodern and modern. Though I believe that religious studies offers an important heuristic for penetrating the complexities of many social phenomena, I like to teach materials from a variety of disciplines as a way of triangulating issues. I was trained to examine problems as a scholar of religion, as well as a linguist, anthropologist, and cultural historian, and I now train my students to do the same. I also like to use non-traditional media in the classroom, such as chromolithographs, comic books, television serials, and devotional cassettes, for these not only offer insight into under-represented aspects of South Asian religious life but also contextualize traditional materials and animate discussions.
Syllabi for some of my courses are available below.
Curriculum Vitae
Syllabi
Exhibitions
Recent Publications
 
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