Gregory Clines, Ph.D. Candidate, Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University
As a historian of religious literature, Greg is interested in questions of newness: how authors mark newness in their texts; how innovation and tradition are weighed against each other; and why both modern scholars and authors themselves value newness in the first place. His dissertation focuses on a fifteenth-century Digambara Jain author named Jinadāsa, who wrote Rāmāyaṇa narratives in both Sanskrit and Middle Gujarati. Greg argues that these works are simultaneously part of a long tradition of Jain Rāmāyaṇa composition and also independent texts with identifiable socio-historical goals. Greg holds a MA from Columbia University and a BA from the University of Virginia. He has taught extensively in both FAS and Harvard Extension School and is currently teaching a Junior Tutorial in Religion that focuses on Indian devotional (bhakti) literature.
