John Nemec

I am a professor of Indian religions and South Asian Studies and have taught at UVa for more than twenty years. I spend a lot of time in India and Nepal, and work on Hindu and Buddhist and Jain thought, ritual, literature, and related subjects. My interests include the study of politics and society in premodern South Asia, and I am principally interested in asking how it is that we as individuals live in the social world, how that world shapes us, and how we can (or cannot) shape it to our own inclinations. My courses always include dialogue. You come to Virginia NOT a blank slate, but with your own experiences, and they can shed light on the stories, texts, and scriptures I read in my classes. Art and architecture too. I hope you'll join my class and see how much one can come to know about a world in the distant past, and how much that world--with its great works of literature and other monumental cultural artifacts--can influence and shape, and make better, our lives today.