https://www.sohinisarahpillai.com/home daily 1.0 2026-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/50aa1c2d-e640-4331-8b9d-0ab45886af4b/PILLAI%2C+SOHINI_AuthorPhoto.jpg https://www.sohinisarahpillai.com/publications daily 0.75 2025-10-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/866b6ab7-81e0-4047-a584-78fd061e5b2c/Pillai_Krishnas_cover%5B32%5D_page-0001.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/8e8ca7a6-4924-4f48-a759-4758c9078d0a/Many+Mahabharatas+Cover.jpg https://www.sohinisarahpillai.com/teaching daily 0.75 2026-04-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/f5b19017-5eb4-4a2c-b469-18b03b05332b/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.08.00%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Animation, Inclusion, and Religion Many children grow up watching Disney/Pixar animated movies. While some of these pre-21st-century films have been criticized for their depictions of different communities and religious traditions, Disney/Pixar have recently been trying to create more inclusive and authentic representation in new animated movies and live action remakes. In this first-year seminar, we will analyze Disney/Pixar’s portrayals of specific communities and religious traditions and examine how they have changed over time. Along with watching films including Moana, Zootopia, Coco, and Encanto, we will read journal articles and book chapters and engage with forms of public scholarship like documentaries and podcasts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/938a9520-b41d-44ca-9abd-ad888062afd8/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.11.15%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians: Religion and Star Wars (RELG 132) This course examines the role religion plays in the immensely popular epic space opera multimedia franchise known as Star Wars and related media such as Dune and Spaceballs. But what does the Force and communities such as the Jedi, the Sith, and Mandalorians have to do with religion? In this course, we will investigate several important concepts in the study of religion that also play a huge part in Star Wars films and television shows including Orientalism, Islamophobia, cultural appropriation, racism, colonization, indigeneity, canonization, and fiction-based vs. traditional religions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/fcf811f1-6e92-46bb-bd1c-1b66340a62d5/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.13.45%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Visualizing Hindu Traditions (RELG 140) 1.25 billion people in the world identify themselves as Hindus. But what does it mean to be a “Hindu”? What is “Hinduism”? This course explores the diverse beliefs, practices, customs, and rituals that make up Hindu traditions in South Asia and the diaspora via different forms of visual media including documentaries, television series, and feature films. We will focus on practices and divine interactions in the everyday lives of Hindus, study different narrative traditions, and examine key historical and contemporary issues such as imperialism, Orientalism, casteism, gender discrimination, religious nationalism, and globalization. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/ed96cfa8-4a88-4ead-adcd-d22be369a4f7/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.14.58%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Religion Goes to the Movies (RELG 170) This course focuses on the relationship between religion and popular cinema and explores the following questions: How are religious traditions, religious leaders and figures, and religious communities represented in mainstream movies such as Monkey Man or Conclave or Sinners? How do modern films retell well-known religious stories? How is our knowledge of different religions shaped by popular movies? This course also introduces major concepts that are central to the study of film such as mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound as well as methodological approaches to examining religion and film. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/6ae421bc-e630-40b1-86dd-9a80b5b85677/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.19.52%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Dance, Drama, and Devotion in South Asia (RELG 230/THEA 230) A wide range of different vibrant and colorful dance, drama, and music performance traditions are found in South Asia (the region comprised of the modern countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). South Asia is also one of the most religiously diverse regions of the world. Along with being the birthplace of the Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh religions, South Asia is also home to followers of Islamic, Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian traditions. This course explores how different performance traditions are used to express religious devotion in South Asia as well as in the South Asian diaspora. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/5aeda085-7d49-45ca-9c40-a84fd76cd7e0/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.23.18%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Religion, Bollywood, and Beyond (RELG 231) In the past one hundred years, South Asia has become known for its history of religious conflict or communalism. This course examines depictions of religious conflict and representations of religious communities in South Asia and the diaspora in films and TV shows. All the movies we will watch are from “Bollywood,” one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world. We will examine portrayals of historical figures (such as Alauddin Khilji, Akbar, and Bhagat Singh) and historical events including the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. We will also explore critical issues related to the study of religion in South Asia such as religious nationalism, Islamophobia, casteism, and misogyny. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/f6672ba9-dec8-426c-b93a-d7d15101e474/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.26.10%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Religion, Representation, and Avatar (RELG 236/SEMN 236) This sophomore seminar focuses on the role religion plays in the Avatar: The Last Airbender multimedia franchise. The fictional fantasy world of the Avatar universe is clearly inspired by several different Asian and Indigenous American cultures. We will explore how Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Indigenous American, Jain, and Shinto religious traditions are incorporated into and appropriated by the Avatar TV shows. We will also investigate how queer, disabled, and marginalized characters are depicted within the religious realm of Avatar. Finally, we will examine multiple key concepts in the study of religion that also play a major part in the Avatar franchise. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/23504142-5ecd-49cf-8746-f098a1b1525f/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.27.38%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Princesses, Demonesses, and Warriors: The Women of the South Asian Epics (RELG 241) For the past two thousand years, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata epics have been retold countless times in many different languages in South Asia by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and caste-oppressed and Indigenous people. In this course, you will be introduced to the diverse worlds of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata traditions through the close examination of ten different women in the epics. We will focus on representations of these women in two of the most popular and influential kinds of epic retellings in modern India: television shows and films. We will also explore critical social issues in South Asia such as misogyny, sexual violence, homophobia, transphobia, religious nationalism, Islamophobia, and casteism. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/4c60fc7d-a5be-4153-8370-4f48c7fa831a/Screenshot+2026-04-16+at+1.32.38%E2%80%AFPM.png Teaching - Muslims, Media, and Misconceptions in South Asia (RELG 271) Popular media is filled with misconceptions about Muslims. One of these misconceptions is that most Muslims live in the Middle East. In reality, South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka) has the largest population of Muslims in the world. In this course, we will carefully evaluate movies, television shows, and other popular forms of media about and by Muslims in South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. We will also learn about the core beliefs and practices of Islam in South Asia and the complex meanings of terms repeatedly used in the media to describe Islam and Muslims such as jihad and shari’ah. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/0acab121-7ff0-4b8a-868a-659d443ef3eb/464128632_18464798368000010_3459908846031318872_n.jpg Teaching - Other Courses Epic Epics (First-Year Seminar) Junior Seminar in Religion (Theory and Methods) Senior Seminar in Religion (Capstone Course) https://www.sohinisarahpillai.com/mediaandpublicscholarship daily 0.75 2026-01-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/5bafcfcf-f4df-4de9-8e98-8dcc22ef530a/Screenshot+2026-01-20+at+3.41.03%E2%80%AFPM.png Media & Public Scholarship “Our Lady of the Upside Down: Kali in Stranger Things Harkens Back to the Goddess Herself,” Religion Dispatches, January 20, 2026. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/60e19218-dc69-4cd9-aa0d-1de036059c8a/IMG_0913.jpeg Media & Public Scholarship “Erasing Caste on American Television: ‘We Were Liars’ Shows That Representation Isn’t Enough,” Religion Dispatches, July 7, 2025. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/73771d5e-a9c4-4715-9bbc-fa726500c76a/Screen+Shot+2024-11-07+at+11.15.57+AM.png Media & Public Scholarship “Hindu Heroes and Muslim Demons: How Singham Again Retells the Ramayana in Troubling Ways,” The Polis Project, November 7, 2024. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/b2b6a790-b7c5-4651-8afc-148dba067a65/Screen+Shot+2022-02-28+at+8.26.18+AM.png Media & Public Scholarship https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/4dde1e1b-918c-446b-bc64-60dabddf2dc6/Screen+Shot+2023-12-08+at+10.02.18+AM.png Media & Public Scholarship “Star Wars Religion Course at K-College with Dr. Sohini Pillai,” The Rocker Morning Show with Meatball and Mark, 107.7 WRKR, hosted by Kevin "Meatball" Kerr and Mark Frankhouse, December 8, 2023. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/36a5203b-266d-4aea-b19d-bd20987976d4/Screen+Shot+2023-09-01+at+12.36.49+PM.png Media & Public Scholarship “New Star Wars Religion Class Fills with Hyperspace-Like Speed,” Andy Brown, Kalamazoo College, September 1, 2023. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/499ea521-c65b-4bdd-a67b-17cf0716bdb6/Screen+Shot+2022-08-26+at+8.56.57+AM.png Media & Public Scholarship “K’s Best Friend: Yorkshire Terrier Leia Makes Friends On Campus and Off, ” Frances Czuk, Kalamazoo College, August 26, 2022. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/cec9dc7c-3b3b-48e7-8c86-37931903b0a0/High+Theory+Painting.jpg Media & Public Scholarship Image by Saronik Bosu for High Theory (This image is a work of fan art that adapts characters from the Star Wars franchise owned by Lucasfilm Ltd.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/9b630f9b-779e-48b1-9746-20c47f04d8f4/Screen+Shot+2022-02-07+at+7.24.24+AM.png Media & Public Scholarship https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/25a06c0c-186c-4d83-bad9-d18f4528f966/Screen+Shot+2022-08-09+at+8.18.27+AM.png Media & Public Scholarship “The Mahabharata Series: The Philosophy,” Speaking of Indian Arts, with Nell Shapiro Hawley, hosted by Anjali Lai, recorded May 6, 2021 (published on June 14, 2022). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa06a5c421bca6e8936554a/b2b6a790-b7c5-4651-8afc-148dba067a65/Screen+Shot+2022-02-28+at+8.26.18+AM.png Media & Public Scholarship https://www.sohinisarahpillai.com/epicbollywood daily 0.75 2026-02-19