Marko Geslani (PhD, Yale 2011) is a historian of religion specializing in ritual studies and medieval Hinduism. His first book, Rites of the God-King: Śānti and Ritual Change in Early Hinduism (OUP 2018), forms a historiographic critique of Hinduism through a history of omen-appeasement (śānti) rituals, from late Vedic ritual manuals to medieval Hindu purāṇas. His current research explores the role of the astral tradition (jyotiḥśāstra) on the problems of personhood and state formation in early Hinduism, engaging theories of gender, masculinity, and ornamentation. He is also working on a racial critique of the study of Asian religions as a setting for new approaches to Orientalism and premodern Asian studies.  
 
Professor Geslani teaches a range of courses in Hinduism and Buddhism, method and theory, Orientalism, and the critical history of religious studies. 
 
Recent Course Offerings: 
RELG 210 Introduction to Hinduism 
RELG 220 Introduction to Buddhism 
RELG 270 Religion and the Arts (History of Idolatry) 
RELG 390 Theories of Religion 
RELG 471 Race and Religion (Orientalism)  
RELG 491 Special Topics: A History of Sacrifice