News & Updates
Ben Williams, PhD
Core Associate Professor of Hinduism and Yoga Studies
BA Religious Studies, BA Yoga Studies, MA Yoga Studies
EDUCATION:
Ben Williams is an intellectual historian focused on South Asian religions and the history of Śaiva tantra. He has received extensive training in Indian philosophy, literature, and aesthetics in Sanskrit sources and completed his PhD in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard University. Ben is currently an Associate Professor of Hinduism at Naropa University, and serves as the faculty lead for Naropa’s MA program in Yoga Studies.
In 2025, Ben became the first scholar-in-residence for the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, where he is guiding a number of initiatives related to the preservation, translation, and collaborative study of Sanskrit texts. This position coincides with the funding of a Muktabodha Chair of Yoga Studies at Naropa University, which Ben will hold until Spring 2028. Muktabodha created and sustains a digital library that houses a vast corpus of digitized Sanskrit texts focused on Śaiva and Śākta tantric literature. This collection includes many rare and important unpublished Sanskrit works on classical tantric yoga, philosophy, and ritual.
PUBLICATIONS:
Articles and Book Chapters
- “Visualizing Abhinavagupta in South India: The Gurunāthaparāmarśa of Madhurāja.” In Literature in South Asian Religions: Texts and Communities in Idea and Practice (Essays in Honor of Anne E. Monius). Edited by John Nemec and Gregory Clines. Routledge Press, submitted.
- “The Resonance of Mataṅga’s Flute: A Mythic Interlocutor of Classical Tantra and Indian Musicology.” Co-authored with Anna Guterman. In Yogic Traditions and Sacred Sound Practices in the United States. Edited by Brita Heimarck. SUNY Press, submitted.
- “A Hermeneutics of Engagement: Pedagogical Approaches to South Asian Religions at Naropa.” In Embodied Pedagogies in the Study of Religion. Edited by Sarabinh Levy-Brightman and Sravana Borkataky-Varma. Routledge, 2025.
- “A Countercultural Institute: Ram Dass & Allen Ginsberg.” In Naropa Magazine: 50th Anniversary Edition. Edited by Ben Williams and Cassie Smith, 2024-2025.
- “Transmitting Awareness (saṅkrānti): A Point of Contact in Abhinavagupta’s Śaiva Aesthetics.” Co-authored with James Reich. Indo-Iranian Journal vol. 67, 2024.
- “Assessing and Contextualizing Dramaturgical Perspectives: Insights from Abhinavagupta and Social Psychology.” Co-authored with Roman Palitsky and Isaac Young. Journal of Cognitive Historiography vol. 7.1-2, 2022.
- “Cosmogenesis and Phonematic Emanation.” Oxford Handbook for Tantric Studies. Edited by Richard K. Payne and Glen Hayes, 2022.
- “Conceptual Cognition and Awakening: Insights from Non-Dual Śaivism and Neuroscience.” Co-authored with Marjorie Woollacott. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, vol. 53.2, 2021.
- “Who is Abhinavagupta?” Tarka Journal: On the Scholar-Practitioner, vol. 0, February 2021.
- “Like a Bee to Nectar: Abhinavagupta’s Poetics of Religious Formation.”Journal of Dharma Studies vol. 3.2, 2020.
Editing Projects & Translations
- Naropa Magazine, 50th Anniversary Edition 2024-2025. Edited by Ben Williams & Cassandra Smith.
- Saubhāgyahṛdayastotra: Praise to the Heart of Auspiciousness. Translated by Ben Williams with an introduction and notes by Brian Campbell. Tripurā Tallikā, 2024.
- Cidvilāsastava: Hymn to the Play of Consciousness. Translated by Ben Williams with an introduction and notes by Brian Campbell. Tripurā Tallikā, 2023.
Books in Progress
- The Sūtras of Śiva: A New Edition and Annotated Translation of the Śivasūtravimarśinī. Volume 1 of the Muktabodha KSTS Translation Series edited by Hamsa Stainton. Co-authored with Mrinal Kaul. State University of New York Press. Under contract.
- Hymns of the Kaula Lineage: Critical Editions, Translations, and Studies from Early Modern Kashmir. Co-authored with Hamsa Stainton. In preparation. Forthcoming in December 2026.
