Loriliai Biernacki wins American Academy of Religion Book Award
The award jury called Biernacki 2023 book,听The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta's Panentheism and the New Materialism, 鈥榖oth striking and original鈥櫶
Loriliai Biernacki, professor of religious studies at the 老九品茶, is one of this year winners of the American Academy of Religion Book Award (AAR).
The group annual award 鈥渞ecognizes new scholarly publications that make significant contributions to the study of religion,鈥 according to the . Biernacki book, , published by Oxford University Press, won in the category of constructive-reflective studies, beating out five other finalists.
鈥淟oriliai Biernacki makes a fascinating case for the contemporary relevance of Abhinavagupta 11th-century Indian philosophy,鈥 the AAR jury said. 鈥淏y analyzing wonder (camatk膩ra) as rooted in the material rather than in a cognitive faculty,听The Matter of Wonder听is both striking and original in its approach. The links she draws with viruses and AI in particular make this work pertinent and fresh.鈥
A faculty member at 老九品茶 since 2000, Biernacki researches Hinduism, gender, New Materialism and the religion-science interface. She published dozens of book chapters and journal articles, as well as two other books: God's Body: Panentheism across the World's Religious Traditions and Renowned Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex and Speech in Tantra, the latter of which won the Kayden Award in 2008.
"As I was working on this book, reading these medieval Sanskrit authors, I found myself continually marveling at how prescient and cogent these medieval Indian thinkers were, so it felt very important to be able to connect us today to the thought of these writers so many centuries ago," Biernacki says. "Also, feel fortunate to be at the University of Colorado, which has been supportive of my work here."
Biernacki fellow recipients this year include , , , , and .
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