Ben Williams, PhD

PhD in South Asian Studies, Harvard University; MTS in Hindu Studies, Harvard Divinity School; BA in Religion, University of Vermont

BA Religious Studies, BA Yoga Studies, MA Yoga Studies

Ben Williams is an intellectual historian focused on Indian religions and the history of Shaiva tantra. He has received extensive training in Indian philosophy, literature, and aesthetics in Sanskrit sources. Ben currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Hinduism at Naropa University, where he serves as the faculty lead for a recently launched low-residency MA program in Yoga Studies.

Ben also serves on the academic advisory council of the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, which is dedicated to the preservation of scriptural and philosophical texts of classical India and is also on the steering committee for the Tantric Studies Unit of the American Academy of Religion.

Ben’s doctoral thesis is on revelation and the figure of the tantric guru in the writings of Abhinavagupta, an eminent intellectual figure of medieval Kashmir.

• Current publications can be found here. Ben is currently working on a monograph on the medieval luminary Abhinavagupta as well as two collaborative translations, which are also book-length projects.