Kristin C. Bloomer Associate Professor Department of Religion, Carleton College One North College Street Northfield, MN 55057 work: (507) 222-5734 cell: (303) 704-0851 [email protected]

EDUCATION

University of Chicago, The Divinity School, Chicago, Illinois. Doctor of Philosophy: Theology and History of Religions, Summer 2008. Dissertation: “Making Mary: Hinduism, Catholicism and Spirit Possession in Contemporary Tamil Nadu, South India.” Co-chairs: Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School. Kathryn Tanner, Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology, University of Chicago Divinity School.

Master of Arts in Divinity, Spring 2000.

University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, December 1993. Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing/Non-Fiction.

Cambridge University, King's College, Cambridge, U.K. Bachelor of Arts, 1991. Master of Arts, 1996; Theological and Religious Studies. Exams: The Study of Religion; Self and Salvation in Indian and Western Thought; Religion, Ritual, and Ideology (Social Anthropology); Modern Theology; Philosophical Theology; Greek.

Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, May 1989. Bachelor of Arts, English; Phi Beta Kappa.

PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT

Associate Professor, Carleton College, Department of Religion, Northfield, MN (Assistant Professor September 2010 to Spring 2016). Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and South Asian Religions, Harvard University, 2012-13 (during Carleton sabbatical). Bloomer, page 2 of 12

Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii-Mānoa, Department of Religion, Honolulu, HI, August 2008-July 2010. Lecturer, Loyola University, Theology Department, Chicago, IL, Spring 2007.

TEACHING COMPETENCIES

Religions of South Asia; Hinduism; History of Christianity; Christianity in India; Global Christianities; Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion; Women and Religion; The Sacred Body; Many Marys; Spirit Possession; Yoga: Religion, History, and Practice; Feminist Theory; Ritual Theory; Introduction to the Study of Religion; Saints, Goddesses, and Whores; Catholicism; Comparative Theology; Religion and Globalization; Christianity and Colonialism; Critical Theory in the Study of Religion; Anthropology of Religion; Tamil Language, Religion, and Culture; Religion and Literature; Spiritual Autobiography; Mysticism.

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

Book: Possessed by the Virgin: Hinduism, Catholicism, and Marian Possession in South India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Article: “Comparative Theology, Comparative Religion, and Hindu-Christian Studies: Ethnography as Method.” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies. Vol. 21. 2008.

Invited Article: “Notes From the Field: Retrieving the Dead.” The Martin Marty Center for Religion and Culture Web Forum. http://divinity.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/imce/pdfs/webforum/022005/commentary .shtml. Chicago: University of Chicago, February 2005.

Book Reviews: “Global Icons: Apertures to the Popular,” by Bishnupriya Ghosh. (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2011.) International Journal of Hindu Studies, 19.2-3, Fall 2016.

“The History of Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present,” by Robert E. Frykenberg. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.) Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 22, 2009.

“Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India,” by Eliza F. Kent. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.) Anglican Theological Review, April 2007. Bloomer, page 3 of 12

“The Riddle of Sadhu Sundar Singh,” by Eric J. Sharpe. (New Delhi: Intercultural Publications, 2004.) Journal of Religion, Vol. 86, Issue 1, 2006. pp. 718-719.

“The Lost Land of Lamuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories,” by Sumathi Ramaswamy. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.) Journal of Asian Studies. Association for Asian Studies. Vol. 64, No. 3. August 2005. pp. 787-789.

"At the Feet of the Goddess: The Divine Feminine in Local Hindu Religion," by Lynn Foulston. (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2002.) Journal of Religion. Vol 85, Issue 1, Jan. 2005. pp. 162-163.

CONFERENCE PAPERS AND INVITED LECTURES

Conference paper. “Ethnography Over Time: Vulnerable Subjects,” for the panel “Vulnerability and Reciprocity in the Fieldwork Encounter.” Anthropology of Religion Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Boston, MA, Nov. 18, 2017.

Panel presider. “Constructing Powerful Selves: Autobiography in South Asia.” Religion in South Asia Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Boston, MA, Nov. 21, 2017.

Conference paper. “Land, Gendered Space, and Spirit Possession in South India,” for a special joint panel of the Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group and Indigenous Religious Traditions Group. American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, Nov. 24, 2014.

Conference paper. “Breaking the Rules: Sacred Bodies and Everyday Acts of Resistance,” for the conference “Pedagogy and Community Building,” Center for South Asian Studies Annual Symposium, University of Hawai’i-Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, April 20, 2017.

Conference paper and invited panelist. “Discussion of The Saint and the Banyan Tree, Winner of the SHCS Book Award,” American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, Nov. 21, 2014.

Conference paper. “Urban and Rural, Real and Imagined: Marian Spirit Possession in Chennai and Rural Sivagangai District, Tamil Nadu,” Conference on the Study of Religions in India, Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, June 28, 2014.

Invited paper. “Ritual Contestation and Failure: Marian Spirit Possession in South India,” American Ethnological Society Conference, Chicago, Illinois, April 12, 2013.

Invited speaker. “Studying Religions in the Minority: Christianity in India,” Center for the Study of World Religions,” Harvard University, April 10, 2013. Bloomer, page 4 of 12

Invited lecture. “Mary (Speaks Back) in India: What does ethnographic material say to comparative theology?” Harvard University, Comparative Theology Seminar, Center for the Study of World Religions, Cambridge, MA, February 22, 2013.

Invited lecture. “Mary, Munis, and Other Mischievous Spirits: Possession and Healing in a Roman Catholic, Dalit, Indian Village,” Harvard University, Hindu Studies Colloquium, Cambridge, MA, February 21, 2013.

Invited public lecture. “Possessed by a Goddess: The Virgin Mary in South India,” McGill University, Religious Studies, Montreal, Canada, January 11, 2013.

Public lecture. “Possessed by Mary: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Spirit Possession in Tamil Nadu, South India,” Women’s Studies in Religion Program Lecture Series, Harvard University, The Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, November 1, 2013.

Conference paper. “Ritual as Text, Text as Ritual: the Poetics of Possession in South India,” European Conference for South Asian Studies, Lisbon, Portugal, July 2012.

Conference paper. “Ethnographic Engagements Across Time: Reflections on the Ethics of Fieldwork and Writing,” as part of a panel with Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Emory University; Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University; Kirin Narayan, University of Wisconsin; and Leela Prasad, Duke University. Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, October, 2012.

Invited lecture. “Making Mary: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Marian Spirit Possession in Tamil Nadu, South India,” Blake Lecture Series, Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of History, February 2012.

Conference paper. “Tamil Tropes, Modern Selves: The Poetics of Possession in Urban, Christian Tamil Nadu,” Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin- Madison, October 2011.

Conference paper presenter and panel organizer. “Altered States: Spirit Possession, Modernity, and Other Dangerous Crossings in India,” at joint conference of the Association of Asian Studies and International Convention of Asia Scholars, Honolulu, HI, March 31-April 3, 2011.

Conference paper. “Processions, Possession, and Authority: Re-enactments and Reversals in Contemporary Tamil Nadu, South India,” Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, October 16, 2010. Bloomer, page 5 of 12

Invited lecture. “Vessels of Bounty,” Spring 2010 Colloquium Series presented by the Women’s Studies Program, co-sponsored by the Political Science Department, February, 2010.

Invited panelist. “Author Meets Critics: Webb Keane’s Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter,” Special Session, History of Christianity Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Montreal, QC, Nov. 7, 2009.

Conference paper. “S-potting the Goddess: South Indian Hindu and Christian Ritual Performances,” University of Wisconsin-Madison, Annual Conference on South Asia, Oct. 24, 2009.

Invited lecture. “Embodied Local Theologies: Mātā, Mary, and other subversive spirits in south India,” Culturing Theologies, Theologizing Cultures: Exploring the Worlds of Religion Conference, The University of Chicago, April 2009.

Conference paper. “Two Cases of Marian Spirit Possession: Syncretic-Somatic Semantics,” History of Christianity Section, American Academy of Religion, Chicago, IL, November 2008.

Conference paper. “O Mother: Complicating Indian Christian Identities,” Anthropology of Religion Group and Society for Hindu-Christian Studies, American Academy of Religion, Chicago, IL, November 2008.

Conference paper. “Ethnography and Hindu-Christian Studies.” Society for Hindu- Christian Studies, SHCS Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, Nov. 16, 2007.

Conference paper. “Being Saved and Getting ‘Saved’: Questions of Conversion and Hybridity after the 2004 Asian Tsunami,” Comparative Religions Section, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA. Nov. 19, 2007.

Conference paper. “Mātā Shakti: Embodying Mary as Divine Feminine in Tamil Nadu,” Annual Conference on the Study of Religions of India, Albion College, Albion, MI, Sept. 2007.

Conference paper. “Talking in Tongues, Talking in Tamil: Alternate Voices in the Study of Religion.” Fourth Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference. South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. April 7, 2007.

Invited lecture. “Faith and Failure: Hindus and Christians of Velankanni a Year after the Tsunami.” Department of Philosophy and Religion. Colgate University, Syracuse, NY. March 22, 2006. Bloomer, page 6 of 12

Invited panelist. “The New Our Bodies, Ourselves and Global Feminisms: Challenges, Strategies, Practices.” 10th Annual International Women and Health Meeting, New Delhi, India. Sept. 24, 2005.

SERVICE TO THE COLLEGE

Coordinator for South Asian Studies, Carleton College, Summer 2016-present.

Affiliated faculty, Women and Gender Studies, Carleton College, 2010-present.

Affiliated faculty, Asian Studies, Carleton College, 2010-present.

Faculty Affairs Committee, Carleton College, 2016-present.

Off Campus Studies (OCS) Fellow, Carleton College, 2017-2018.

Faculty Board Member, Intercollegiate Sri Lanka Education (ISLE) Program, 2016- present.

Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) India Programs Representative, 2014- present.

Distinguished Women Visitors Fund Committee, Carleton College. 2013-2017.

Guest Speaker, Mentoring Panel, Learning and Teaching Center, May 12, 2016.

Host and Organizer. Rose Berger, writer, activist and senior associate editor for Sojourners magazine, based in Washington, DC. Free public lecture and class visit, Carleton College, March 3, 2015.

Guest Speaker. “Body Positivity.” Invited by students to be the faculty representative on this five-person panel for student-run event. January, 2015.

Guest Speaker. “Pathways to the Humanities Panel,” Learning and Teaching Center. One of six professors (representing English, Philosophy, Religion, History, Classics and European Studies) to discuss graduate school and career experience with majors and potential majors, Carleton College, April 2014.

Host and Organizer. 2014 Lindesmith Lecturer Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, for a student/faculty discussion group and public lecture: “Freedom of Speech in India, from the Vedas to the Present,” May 8, 2014. Bloomer, page 7 of 12

Host and Organizer. Kiawekupono O Ka Ua, an award-winning, male hula halau (“school”) from O’ahu, Hawai’i, for a week long residency: free master dance classes; guided excursions in the College Arboretum with Arb Director and field guides; class visits in and beyond my own classroom; and performances in Weitz Center (Spring 2012, Winter 2014).

LGBT Committee, Carleton College, 2011-2012.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Area Studies Editor. Christianity: Modern/Global. Religious Studies Review, the journal of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion. 2016-present.

Invited Speaker, Conference on Marian Devotion, Macalaster College, St. Paul, MN, Nov. 5, 2017.

Teaching Circle Participant. Shared classroom observations and discussions with Anita Chikkatur (Education) and Anna Rafferty (Computer Science); sponsored by the Learning and Teaching Center (LTC), Carleton College, Spring 2017.

Participant. The Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) Conference, “Religion at a Crossroads,” Carleton College, April 31-June 2, 2017.

Invited speaker, Advanced Senior Seminar, Religion Department, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, March 31, 2016.

Invited participant and panelist. The Wabash Center’s University of Chicago Teaching Initiative Gathering. The University of Chicago, April 11-12, 2013.

Speaker. “Understanding the Religious Mind: Meditating Monks, Mother Mary, and the Limits of Inquiry,” Dialogos Presentation with Roger R. Jackson, Humanities Center Faculty Seminar, “Dimensions of Mind,” Carleton College, February 5, 2013.

Speaker. “Subjectivity and Anthropology,” for the “World Religions Café,” Center for the Study of World Religions. Harvard University, September 5, 2012.

Organizer. The Berry Lecture in Christianity and Rama Watumull Collaborative Lecture Series. Lecture and Colloquium with Kalpana Ram, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Funded by the Department of Religion and the Center for South Asian Studies, co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and Women’s Studies. University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, April 2009. Bloomer, page 8 of 12

Assessment Plan Coordinator, Department of Religion, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, 2008-2010.

Paper presenter. “Ethnography, Spirit Possession, and Feminist Theory.” Feminist Theories and the Study of Religion Workshop. Divinity School. April 23, 2007. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Paper presenter. “Being Mātā: Women and Living Catholicism in Tamil Nadu.” Feb. 20, 2007. Center for Gender Studies Workshop. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Official Rapporteur. Tenth Annual International Women and Health Meeting, New Delhi, India. September 20-25, 2005.

Participant. Women’s Studies in India Conference. Goa, India. May 2005.

FIELD WORK AND RESEARCH TRAVEL

I have lived for a total of three years in Tamil Nadu, south India. I conducted the bulk of my field work in the summer of 2001 in Madurai on an American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Language Fellowship, and from 2004 to 2006, in Chennai and in southern Tamil Nadu on a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation and Research Abroad Fellowship and an AIIS Junior Research Fellowship. I made two more, month-long trips to the field in July 2010 and November 2012, on research grants from the NEH and from Harvard University, and two other brief trips, in 2015 and 2016, on grants from Carleton College. I work within the interpretive tradition of anthropology, through formal and informal interviews and participant observation. I have also participated in and spoken at a number of conferences in India, and have traveled extensively throughout the country. I participated in recovery after the 2004 Asian Tsunami, which I witnessed and wrote about as an activist/researcher.

For three summers prior to that two-year stint, I studied Tamil intensively in Tamil Nadu, South India, via the French Institute of Pondicherry (1999), and American Institute of Indian Studies, Madurai (2000 and 2001).

FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS

AIIS/NEH Senior Fellowship, for “superior scholars/Indologists in the humanities,” to fund a new project, “Family Gods and Changing Places in Tamil Nadu, South India,” 2017-18. Curricular Innovation Grant, Carleton College, 2015. Global Engagement Initiative Grant, Carleton College, Summer and Fall 2014. American College of Learned Societies Fellow (ACLS), 2013-14. Research Associate, Women’s Studies in Religion Program, Harvard University, 2012- Bloomer, page 9 of 12

13. Resident Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, 2012- 13. Large Faculty Development Endowment and Class of 1949 Endowed Fund for Faculty Development, Carleton College, 2011-2012, for a year of junior sabbatical research leave. (Declined.) Faculty Research Seminar, Humanities Center, Carleton College, “Dimensions of Mind,” 2011-12; one of six faculty members chosen from across the disciplines. Visualizing the Liberal Arts (VIZ), Research and Curricular Grant through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Carleton College, 2011. Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship, 2011-12, Honorable Mention. University of Hawaii Endowment for the Humanities, 2009-2010, for research in India. University of Hawaii Research Relations Fund, 2009-2010, for research in India. Berry Lecture in Christianity Fund, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Department of Religion, 2008-2009, to host visiting scholar for public lecture and seminar. Rama Watamull Collaborative Lecture Series Grant, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Center for South Asian Studies, 2008-2009, to host visiting scholar for lecture, seminar. Harper Dissertation Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2007-08; one of five fellows university-wide. Doolittle-Harrison Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2007. Martin Marty Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Divinity School, University of Chicago, 2006-07; to support teaching and dissertation writing; one of sixteen fellows chosen. Center for Gender Studies Residency Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2006-07, one of three fellows chosen annually. Committee on South Asian Studies Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2005-6, Summer 2008. American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship, 2004-5. Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 2003-4. American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship, 2003-4. (Declined) Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Tamil), University of Chicago, The Divinity School, Summer 1999, 2000; AY 2000-3. Full Tuition Scholarship, University of Chicago, The Divinity School, 1998-2000. New England Associated Press News Executives Award, 1997, 1998. Pushcart Prize Nominee, 1995, 1997. Merriam-Frontier Award, for non-fiction, University of Montana, Missoula, 1993. Academy of American Poets Award, Honorable Mention, 1993. Full Teaching Fellowship, University of Montana, Missoula, 1991-93. Keasbey Memorial Fellowship, full tuition scholarship and living stipend for two years’ study at King’s College, Cambridge University, 1989-1991. Rhodes Scholarship Finalist, 1989. Phi Beta Kappa, Wesleyan University, 1989. Bloomer, page 10 of 12

THESIS COMMITTEE WORK

Outside Reader and Committee Member, Nicole Peterson, B.A. Departmental Honors Thesis, “Gateway to the Goddess: Devotion to Kali in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” Hamline University, St. Paul, MN, June 15, 2014.

Chair, Deeksha Sivakumar, M.A., “Bommai Kolu: Mothers and Daughters Assimilating Modernity and Tradition in an Urban Context,” University of Hawaii, Summer, 2010.

Committee Member, Joshua Hevert, M.A., History, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 2010-11.

Committee Member, Nicole Berger, M.A., Anthropology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 2010-2011.

Committee Member, Cary Hitchcock, M.A., “Lord Jagganath in Puri,” University of Hawaii, Summer 2010.

Committee Member, Jason Barthasius, M.A., “Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in Japan,” University of Hawaii, December 2009.

NON-ACADEMIC WORK EXPERIENCE

Staff Writer/Editor, The Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus, Rutland, Vt., 1994-1998. Sunday reporter and columnist for 32,000-circulation newspaper. Developed the paper’s first-ever religion beat, and covered education, the environment, and poverty issues. Wrote news, features and a weekly column, “In This State.” As Vermont Sunday Magazine interim editor, oversaw production of 20 issues.

Freelance Writer, In These Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, etc., 1997-98.

Staff Writer, Missoula Independent, September 1993-April 1994. Covered news, politics, social issues, and the environment for Montana's only independent weekly.

Executive Director, Hellgate Writers, Missoula, Mont., 1993. Managed $50,000 budget for the only literary arts center of the Inland Northwest. Organized writing workshops, reading tours; wrote grants (NEA, NEH); promoted regional writers; wrote and edited quarterly newsletter.

SELECTED NON-ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS Bloomer, page 11 of 12

Our Bodies, Ourselves. Chapter 10, Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era. ed. Heather Stephenson, Judy Norsigian, Kiki Zeldes. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

In These Times. "America's Newest Growth Industry: Private Prisons Leave Inmates at the Mercy of the Bottom Line.'' Cover story. March 1997. Reproduced in multiple publications with permission of the author.

Quarterly West, University of Utah, Spring/Summer 1997. "Stained Glass," non-fiction essay weaving personal narrative with scholarly investigation of Mariology. Nominated for Pushcart Prize.

“West of Wisdom,” in All This Was Meant to Burn (Missoula: University of Montana, 1993). Non-fiction essay chosen for chapbook publication by the University of Montana Merriam-Frontier Award Committee, 1993. Nominated for Pushcart Prize.

Cambridge and Oxford Short Story Anthology. ed. Margaret Drabble. "Catching Father.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

PEER REVIEWER

American Ethnologist, Practical Matters, Columbia University Press, History of Religions Journal.

MEDIA INTERVIEWS

Dutt, Ela. “The New Pope, New India, and Old Christianity,” News India Times USA, Desi Talk, and The Indian American, March 23, 2013. www.newsindia-times.com/NewsIndiaTimes/20130322/4712779047956941538.htm

Brachear, Manya A. “Questions of Faith Bound to Rise from Catastrophe,” Chicago Tribune, December 31, 2004. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-12-31/news/0412310253_1_harvard-divinity- school-buddhist-faith

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Society for Hindu-Christian Studies (Board member, 2008-12) American Academy of Religion Association of Asian Studies American Ethnological Society Women and Gender Studies Program, Carleton College Asian Studies Program, Carleton College Bloomer, page 12 of 12

Center for South Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Mānoa (2008-2010) Center for Women’s Studies, University of Hawaii at Mānoa (2008-2010) Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India (2004-2006, 2009-2010)

LANGUAGES

French (reading and spoken); German (reading knowledge); Tamil (classical, contemporary, spoken and written).