Since arriving at Gettysburg College in 2008, Religious Studies Chair Megan Adamson Sijapati has taught courses covering religion and modernity, violence and nonviolence, cultural politics, religious nationalism, cyber religion, society and ethics, Islam, South Asia, and Hinduism. Her two primary research areas are religious minority communities in South Asia and the intersections of embodiment and epistemology in contemporary Islam.
At Gettysburg, Sijapati is also an affiliate of the Public Policy department and a member of the advisory committees for International and Global Studies, Middle East and Islamic Studies, and Peace and Justice Studies. She helped develop the College’s Middle East and Islamic Studies program.
Sijapati earned her Bachelor of Arts in religion at Colorado College and a Master of Arts in religious studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. She completed her Ph.D. in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
As a scholar, Sijapati is the co-editor of two books, “Muslim Communities and Cultures of the Himalayas: Conceptualizing the Global Umman” (with J. Fewkes, Routledge Press, 2022) and “Religion and Modernity in the Himalaya” (with J.V. Birkenholtz, Routledge Press, 2016). She is also the author of “Islamic Revival in Nepal: Religion and a New Nation” (Routledge Press, 2013, second edition). She has published 15 peer-reviewed research articles in academic journals and edited volumes, most recently in the journal Body and Religion.
In addition to her scholarly research, Sijapati serves on the International Advisory Board for the University of Nepal, the nation’s first liberal arts university. She has presented her research and collaborated with colleagues at academic institutions around the world, including India, Senegal, Nepal, Pakistan, Egypt, and Oman.
Sijapati has enjoyed opportunities to lead students and colleagues on immersion trips and seminars to experience new cultures firsthand in Morocco, India, and Nepal. She has developed more than 18 different courses at the College and has been a faculty mentor for three Kolbe Student Research Fellows.
In 2019, Sijapati received the Johnson Center for Creative Teaching and Learning (JCCTL) Excellence in Teaching Award. When she’s not teaching or immersed in research, she is volunteering with Gettysburg’s Prison Society or the New York City climate organization Faithfully Sustainable, studying classical languages, or hiking with her dog on the Gettysburg battlefield.
“As a scholar and a teacher, I get excited about helping my students to see the world in new ways,” she said. “It’s rewarding to see students develop intercultural communication skills and critical thinking around some of life’s most pressing questions.”
Photo by Miranda Harple
Posted: 06/16/25