Congratulations to Dr. Anna Lee White!

Anna Lee, the current Administrator for Yogic Studies and former Social Media Manager, successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation at McGill University titled "Hindu Community Formation and Ramanandi Hagiographies between the 17th and the 21st Century" on July 31st, 2024. Her doctoral work was completed in McGill's School of Religious Studies with concentrations in Asian religions and gender and women's studies. Her dissertation committee included Dr. Stainton, Dr. Aalekhya Malladi, Dr. Lara Braitstein, and Dr. Patton Burchett (College of William and Mary).

Anna Lee's dissertation will soon be available to read online. The abstract is available below: 

This dissertation studies poems, narratives, and hagiographies written about Hindu bhakti (“devotional”) saints associated with the Ramanandi sampradāy (“tradition”). The namesake of this tradition, Ramanand, lived in fourteenth- or fifteenth-century North India and is associated with many popular bhakti saints, and the Ramanandis helped lay the groundwork for a widespread Vaishnava tradition devoted to Ram and Sita. The Ramanandis are one of the largest and most influential ascetic communities in India today. This research project uses Ramanandi hagiographies as a lens to explore the development of the Ramanandi sampradāy and the shifts in the narratives surrounding it between the seventeenth century and the present.

This research offers a historiographical assessment of scholarship on the Ramanandi sampradāy, focusing on unresolved and contested topics. It critically evaluates the claim that the Ramanandi sampradāy is socially egalitarian, particularly in regard to gender. It analyzes the stories of the women associated with the Ramanandi sampradāy, including those considered to be saints and those mentioned in the stories of male saints. The dissertation focuses significantly on the Ram Rasik branch of the Ramanandi sampradāy and examines the figure of the sakhī (“female friend”) as a model of devotion. It argues that the Ram Rasik branch played an important role in the establishment of Vaishnavism in North India through their engagements with Krishna-focused bhakti traditions and their role in establishing Rāmāyaṇa-related pilgrimage sites. It examines the Ram Rasiks’ engagement with the bhaktamāl (“garland of devotees”) genre of hagiology and tracks Hindu nationalist influences on the re-tellings of Ramanand’s life story.

What's next for Anna Lee? In addition to continuing her work here at Yogic Studies, Anna Lee and her doctoral supervisor, Dr. Hamsa Stainton, are currently co-editing a book on stotras, or Sanskrit "hymns of praise."