Philip Lutgendorf is an American

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...

. He is Professor of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and Modern Indian Studies at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. His areas of work and interest include the epic poem ''

Ramcharitmanas ''Ramcharitmanas'' ( deva, श्रीरामचरितमानस, Rāmacaritamānasa), is an epic poem in the Awadhi language, based on the ''Ramayana'', and composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Tulsidas (c. 1532–1623). Thi ...

'', the life and works of Hindu poet

Tulsidas Tulsidas (; born Rambola Dubey; also known as Goswami Tulsidas; c.1511pp. 23–34.–1623) was a Ramanandi Vaishnava Hindu saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit and Awadhi, but ...

, the worship of

Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

, Indian popular cinema, and the

Indian tea culture India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China, including the famous Assam tea and Darjeeling tea. Tea is the 'State Drink' of Assam. Following this the former Planning Commission (renamed Niti Aayog) Deputy Chairman, ...

. He is currently translating the ''Ramcharitmanas'' into English: this translation will be published by the

Murty Classical Library of India The Murty Classical Library of India began publishing classics of Indian literature in January 2015. The books, which are in dual-language format with the original language and English facing, are published by Harvard University Press. The Columbia ...

in seven volumes. He serves as the President of

American Institute of Indian Studies The American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), founded in 1961, is a consortium of 90 universities and colleges in the United States that promotes the advancement of knowledge about India in the U.S. It carries out this purpose by: awarding fello ...

Education and career

Lutgendorf received a B.A. degree from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. In 1987, he received a PhD degree with distinction from the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago. His dissertation was titled "The Life of a Text: Tulsidas' ''Ramcaritmanas'' in Performance." Since 1985, Lutgendorf has taught at the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literature of the University of Iowa. He has developed and taught courses on several subjects including Hindi language and written and oral narrative traditions of South Asia including the ''Ramcharitmanas'',

Hindu mythology Hindu mythology is the body of myths and literature attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramayana'', the Puranas, and reg ...

, Indian literature, Indian theatre, and Indian cinema.

Honors and recognition

Lutgendorf received the A. K. Coomaraswamy Prize for the book ''The Life of a Text''. In March 2002, he received the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

for research on the Hindu god Hanuman. In 2014, he received the

Fulbright-Hays fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

for research on the cultural history of ''chai'' (tea) in India. Historians

Barbara Metcalf Barbara Daly Metcalf (born September 13, 1941) is a professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Davis. She is a specialist in the history of South Asia, especially the colonial period, and the history of the Muslim population ...

and Thomas Metcalf called the website on Hindi films maintained by Lutgendorf "an excellent website on Hindi films." Freek Bakker wrote that Lutgendorf is an "expert in the Indian Ramayana tradition" and has done "profound research into the Ramayana ''katha'' tradition." Dr. Lutgendorf received the Tulsi Award by Pujya Morari Bapu on June 25, 2017 in Estes Park, CO. The Tulsi Award is typically presented on the day of Tulsi Jayanti (the birth date of Goswāmi Tulsidās) and recognises the lineage of those who recite kathas – their efforts to preserve the teachings of the scriptures and maintain the traditions of India. Although Dr. Lutgendorf was invited to Mahuva, India in the coming weeks, due to scheduling conflicts, Pujya Morari Bapu awarded the Tulsi Award in June 2017.

Selected bibliography

*''The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas'', University of California Press. 1991. . *''Ramcaritmanas Word Index/Manas shabda anukramanika'' (with Winand M. Callewaert), New Delhi: Manohar Publisher & Distributors, New Delhi. 1997. . *''From the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas, Book Five: Sundar Kand'', Indian Literature, vol. XLV, no. 3: 143–181. *''Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey'', New York: Oxford University Press. 2006. . *''The Indo-Aryan languages'', RoutledgeCurzon, 2002 *''Tulsidas: The Epic of Ram'' (7 volumes), Murty Classical Library of India: Harvard University Press. Forthcoming.

References

External links

Philip Lutgendorf's webpage on the website of University of Iowa''philip's fil-ums'': notes on Indian popular cinema by Philip Lutgendorf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutgendorf, Philip Linguists from the United States American Indologists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Iowa faculty