John Cort (Denison University)

Updated:  Sat, 27 Dec 1997 14:08:43 -0400 (EDT)

John E. Cort
Department of Religion
Denison University
Granville, Ohio  43023  USA

phone: 614-587-6254
email: cort@denison.edu

Description of work:
Teaching:
 World Religions (intro for 1st & 2nd year students)
 Hinduism
 Buddhism
 Religions of China & Japan
 Religion & Nature
 Religion & Art
 anything else having to do with non-Judaeo-Christian religious traditions
   (& some of them, too), as well as courses having to do with approaches
   to the study of religion

At Harvard (1989-92) I also taught a comparative course on monasticism 
and several more specific courses on religions of South Asia, as well as 
a survey of Jainism.  At Columbia (1994-95), I taught:
 An Introduction to Jainism
 Religion and Art:  Icons & Iconoclasts
 Nonviolence in the Modern World

Research interests:
 Jains & Jainism
 religion, culture, social structure of north & western India, esp. Gujarat
 devotional religious traditions of South Asia
 second-level inquiry, i.e., how do we know about, study, and present
    South Asia? 

Present research projects:

In final stages of book, LIBERATION AND WELLBEING IN JAINISM:  RITUAL,
IDEOLOGY, AND RELIGIOUS VALUES IN INDIA        

Edited book, OPEN BOUNDARIES:  JAIN COMMUNITIES AND CULTURES IN INDIAN
HISTORY, due out spring 1998 from SUNY

Research and writing on intersection of art, ritual, devotion, & theology
in Jain tradition.  This project is within larger comparative framework of
iconoclastic and iconophilic attitudes in religious traditions. 

Change & 'reform' within Jain tradition, & ways in which Jains have been
engaged for past 1000 years in process of continual self-definition. 

1996-98, working with Michael Meister (U. Penn) and Alan Babb (Amherst
College) on Getty-funded project, "Patterns of Community Patronage in
Western India."  This study focuses on four Rajasthan pilgrimage temples: 
Mahavir and Sacciya Mata in Osian, Dadhimati Mata in Goth-Manglod (north
of Nagaur), and Ranchodray in Khed (near Balotra).