Christopher Austin

Christopher R. Austin graduated from Concordia Religious Studies with a BA in 1996 and MA in 2002, focusing chiefly on Asian traditions with Drs. Srinivas Tilak, Leslie Orr, David Miller, and T.S. Rukmini. From there he took up a PhD at McMaster University (2008), examining in his doctoral thesis the concluding portions of the Sanskrit Mahabharata.

He is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Religion at Dalhousie University in Halifax, teaching widely on all major religious traditions of South and East Asia (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Indian and Theravada Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Popular Chinese Religion, Chinese Buddhism, Shinto, Popular Japanese Religion, Japanese Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism), as well as Sanskrit language, South Asian history, and issues in the colonial and contemporary construction of Hinduism and Buddhism.

His research treats the Sanskrit epics, early traditions of the Hindu god Vishnu/Krishna, and the role of kavya or Sanskrit courtly poetry in early Hinduism.