Stony Brook University

Faculty Member, Asian and Asian American Studies

Other Affiliations: University of Chicago, Divinity School

Assistant Professor

About

Andrew J. Nicholson joined the State University of New York at Stony Brook faculty in 2006.  He holds degrees in Religious Studies (M.A., University of Chicago), Philosophy (M.A., DePaul University), and South Asian Languages and Civilizations (Ph.D., University of Chicago).  He has also studied Sanskrit, Hindi, Indian philosophy, and yoga with teachers in India.  He has been the recipient of Fulbright-Hays, Robert Bosch Stiftung, and University of Chicago Committee on Southern Asia Studies fellowships.  He is currently co-director of the American Academy of Religion's Yoga in Theory and Practice Consultation, an associate of the Columbia University Seminar on South Asia, and a trustee of the American Institute of Indian Studies.

Professor Nicholson's primary area of research is Indian philosophy and intellectual history, most recently focusing on medieval Vedanta philosophy and its influence on ideas about Hinduism in modern Europe and India.  His book, "Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History," was published in 2010 by Columbia University Press as part of the new South Asia Across the Disciplines book series. It won the 2011 award for Best First Book in the History of Religions from the American Academy of Religion. His next book, an annotated translation of an 8th century Pasupata Yoga text, will be titled "Isvara Gita: The Secret Yoga of Lord Siva." Professor Nicholson has also published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy, Philosophy East and West, the Journal of the American Oriental Society, and the Journal of Vaishnava Studies.  Courses he has taught at Stony Brook include "Hinduism," "Elementary Sanskrit," "Yoga: Theory and Praxis," "Buddhism and Early Vedanta Philosophy," "Relativism East and West," and "Orientalism."

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