Faculty
Whitney Sanford
Associate Professor of Religion
Ph.D.
Religion and Nature, Hinduism, North Indian Devotional Traditions
Office: 107 Anderson Hall
Phone: (352) 392-1625
Email: wsanford@ufl.edu
Whitney Sanford received her BA in English and Philosophy from Bowdoin College and M.A. and PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in north Indian devotional traditions.
She teaches and researches in two main areas: Religion and Nature and Religions of Asia. In the area of Religion and Nature, she focuses on environmental movements of the global South and religious attitudes towards agricultural sustainability, particularly in South Asia. Her second book Growing Stories from India: Religion and the Fate of Agriculture (University Press of Kentucky, 2011) explores how Hindu agricultural narratives provide the foundation to expand the ecological imagination to rethink agricultural practice. She conducted fieldwork in Baldeo, India, examining narratives and practices related to Balaram, a deity associated with agriculture. Her new project "Gandhi's Environmental Legacy: What Gandhi Can Teach Us about Sustainability, Self-Sufficiency, and Social Justice" explores Gandhi's influence on contemporary intentional communities in the United States. She is conducting fieldwork in communities in California, Missouri, Iowa, and Florida to see how these communities are translating aspects of Gandhian social thought, e.g. non-violence, voluntary simplicity, and appropriate technologies, into practice.
In the Religions of Asia area, she focuses on Braj devotional traditions. Her first book Singing Krishna: Sound Becomes Sight in Paramanand's Poetry (SUNY 2008) explores the role of devotional poetry in ritual practice. She has published articles in JAAR, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, International Journal of Hindu Studies and Alternative Krishnas, edited by Guy Beck (SUNY Press, 2005). Additionally, she is interested in how participation in outdoor recreation activities functions as religious experience and to what extent this participation leads to a practiced environmental ethic.
