International & Global Studies

Megan Adamson Sijapati

Professor

Religious Studies

Contact

Box

Campus Box 0408

Address

Weidensall Hall
Room 303
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400

Website

website

Education

PhD University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007
MA University of Colorado, 2001
BA Colorado College, 1996

Academic Focus

Islam; South Asia; the body; violence/non-violence; rel. & modernity; digital religion; contemplative traditions, Islam & Sufism in North America

Megan Adamson Sijapati's research and teaching areas are religion & modernity, religious violence & non-violence, identity, revivalism & authority, space/place, the body, digital religion. She specializes in Islam and Muslim cultures, Sufism, South Asia, and North America.

She is the 2019 recipient of the JCCTL Excellence in Teaching Award.

Megan was Chair of the Department of Religious Studies from 2017-2020 and Co-Chair of the Globalization Studies program from 2014-17. She is a founding and continuing member of the Advisory Committee for Middle East & Islamic Studies (MEIS). She serves on the advisory committees for Peace & Justice Studies and Public Policy. She served for two years as a Community Based Learning Fellow through the Center for Public Service and a Digitial Technology Fellow.

Beyond the college, Dr. Sijapati recently served as Co-Chair of the American Academy of Religion's Body in Religion program unit. She is on the Executive Board of the South Asian Muslim Studies Association.

Select peer-reviewed publications:

2022: “‘The Body Is a Tool for remembrance’: Healing, Transformation, and the Instrumentality of the Body in a North American Sufi Order”. Body and Religion 5 (1):96–115. https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.22888

2022: "Islamic Meditation: Mindfulness Apps for Muslims in the Digital Spiritual Marketplace" in Cyber Islam, ed. Robert Rozehnal, R. (Bloomsbury Press)

2021 book: Muslim Communities and Cultures of the Himalaya: Conceptualizing the Global Ummah. Co-editor with Jacqueline H. Fewkes. (London and New York: Routledge Press).

2021: "Diversity, Continuity, and Disjuncture: Approaching Multivocal Perspectives on Being Muslim in the Himalaya," co-author with JH Fewkes in Muslim Communities and Cultures of the Himalaya (London and New York: Routledge Press).

2019: "Sufi Remembrance Practices in the Meditation Marketplace of a Mobile App" In Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps. Fewkes J. (ed) (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan)

2018: "Preparing for the House of God: Nepali Muslim Narratives of the Hajj," Himalaya 38, no. 2: 106-116.

2017: “Muslim Belonging in Hindu South Asia: Ambivalence and Difference in Nepali Public Discourses,” Society and Culture in South Asia 3, no. 2 (August 2017): 198-219. 

2016 book: “Modern Religiosities and Religious Modernities: Views from the Himalaya,” in Religion and Modernity in the Himalaya, eds. M A Sijapati and J V Birkenholtz (London: Routledge).

2016: Religion and Modernity in the Himalaya. Co-ed. with J V Birkenholtz (London: Routledge).

2016: “From Heavy Beads to Safety Pins: Adornment and Religiosity in Hindu Women’s Pote Practices” co-author with T Harris. Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief. 12:1, 1-25.

2012: “Mawdudi’s Islamic Revivalist Ideology and the Islami Sangh Nepal,” Studies in Nepali History and Society17, no. 1: 41-61.

2011 book: Islamic Revival in Nepal: Religion and a New Nation (London: Routledge). (Paperback & South Asia editions, 2012).

2011: “Muslims in Nepal: The Local and Global Dimensions of a Changing Religious Minority,” Religion Compass 5, no. 11: 656-65.

*for full list see C.V.

Courses Taught