Cynthia Ann Humes is a professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont, California. The college lists her research interests as: History of Hinduism in America, Modern Hindu Goddess Worship, and Gender and Religion. She is also an author, the college's Chief Technology Officer and a Commissioner on the Claremont City Planning Commission. Humes has spent much time in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in order to study

Indian culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse India. The term al ...

, and especially the role of

goddesses A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...

in modern

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

. She has also written on Hinduism's influence on

new religious movements A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...

in the United States. In 2008 she criticized the

Transcendental Meditation movement The Transcendental Meditation movement (TM) are programs and organizations that promote the Transcendental Meditation technique founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India in the 1950s. The organization was estimated to have 900,000 participants ...

for its seeming misunderstanding of

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...

,Cynthia Ann Humes, "Maharishi Ayur-Veda", chapter 17 in while in 2005 she had criticized its exclusivity.

Bibliography

*''Living Banaras: Hindu religion in cultural context''. By Bradley R. Hertel and Cynthia Ann Humes. Albany: SUNY Press, 1993. *''Gurus in America''. By

Thomas Forsthoefel Thomas Forsthoefel is a professor of religious studies at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, as well as a poet and author.

and Cynthia Ann Humes. Albany: SUNY Press, 2005. *''Breaking boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Saktism''. By Cynthia Ann Humes and Rachel Fell McDermott. Delhi: Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2009. *''The Ivory Tower and the Cloud. Understanding Cloud Computing'' (Thomson Reuters/Aspatore: 2010 edition, Inside the Minds series), co-authored with Jeremy Whaley. *''Staying in the IT Game on Campus. Updating Your Company's Technology Strategy: Leading CTOs and CIOs on Working with the Executive Team, Managing Budget Constraints, and Delivering Business Value'' (Thomson Reuters/Aspatore: 2010 edition, Inside the Minds series).

References

Living people Claremont McKenna College faculty Religious studies scholars Researchers of new religious movements and cults Women chief technology officers American chief technology officers Year of birth missing (living people) {{reli-studies-bio-stub