I am excited to announce that I have a new chapter in the forthcoming volume Key Categories in the Study of Religion: Contexts and Critiques (Equinox Publishing), edited by Rebekka King. Here's the summary for my chapter, "Of Dualisms and Döppelgangers: Mapping Ancient Minds and Bodies in Religious Studies":
Reflecting on the work of Richard Newton, this chapter critiques certain racist and nationalist viewpoints inherited from Romanticism that persist in the study of Religion— among these are speculative theories on so-called Aryan history, the origins of language, and the moral-psychology of the ancients. Essential to this discussion is a reflection on, as Newton describes, “how we narrate… intellectual heritage” and expertise, from the scholars and research we cite to the adaptation of speculative theories that can come to govern our everyday lives and assumptions.
