Background
Patton, Laurie Louise was born on November 14, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Daughter of Anthony Seavey and Christine Card Patton.
( This elegantly written book introduces a new perspectiv...)
This elegantly written book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. In Bringing the Gods to Mind, Laurie Patton takes a new look at mantra as "performed poetry" and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of "magic" and "magico-religious" thought in Vedic sacrifice. Treating Vedic mantra as a sophisticated form of artistic composition, she develops the idea of metonymy, or associational thought, as a major motivator for the use of mantra in sacrificial performance. Filling a long-standing gap in our understanding, her book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity and hermeneutic sophistication of Vedic religion.
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religious studies educator writer
Patton, Laurie Louise was born on November 14, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Daughter of Anthony Seavey and Christine Card Patton.
Patton graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard, a doctorate from the University of Chicago, and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2000.
On November 18, 2014, Patton was named as the 17th President of Middlebury College. When she entered her role as president on July 1, 2015, she had become the first woman president in Middlebury"s 214 year history. In 2006, she was the recipient of the Emory Williams Award for excellence in teaching.
Her early Indological work applies literary theory and theory of canon to the texts of early India, particularly Vedic texts.
Later, she used a theory of metonymy to rethink the application of mantras in early Indian ritual. Her first edited work, Authority, Anxiety, and Canon (1994) surveyed the larger field of Vedic interpretation as it existed in various intellectual contexts throughout India.
She was co-editor on Myth and Method an assessment of the state of the field in comparative mythology. Her co-edited work with Edwin Bryant (2005) brings together for the first time a variety of differing perspectives on the problem of Aryan origins.
Patton has also worked on gender questions, beginning with her edited volume, Jewels of Authority (2002), which examined early feminist stereotypes about women in Indian textual traditions as well as contemporary life.
Her recent articles on gender are derived from her present project, the first ethnography of women Sanskritists ever to be undertaken in India. Her translation of the Bhagavad Gita in the Penguin Classics Series follows a free verse style constrained by eight line stanzas. Patton regularly teaches in public venues nationally and internationally on interfaith issues, comparative religion, and religion and conflict.
Patton served as Chair of the Department from 2000–2007, as Company-convenor of the Religions and the Human Spirit Strategic Plan from 2005–2007, and as Winship Distinguished Research Professor from 2003-2006.
She was the recipient of Emory’s highest award for teaching, the Emory Williams Award, in 2006. She co-convenes the Religion and Conflict Initiative at Emory University.
( This elegantly written book introduces a new perspectiv...)
In 2008-2009 she co-hosted a television series on "Faith and Feminism" for Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting.
Executive board Atlanta Interfaith Alliance, Atlanta, 2001—2004. Education committee Ahavath Achim Synagogue, since 2002. Fellow: American Council Learned Societies, Gustafson Seminar (director 1999—2002).
Member: South Asia/American Academy Religion (secretary 1998—2001), Humanities Council (chair 2000-2003).