Supervisor:
Jessica Frazier and Imre Bangha
College:
St Cross
Thesis title: A Tagorian Eco-philosophy: An Alternative Perspective on the Human-Nature Relationship.
Primary Research Area: Study of Religion, Environmental Philosophy, Religions and the Environment, Rabindranath Tagore
About:
After completing a Post Graduate Diploma (PGDip) at Oxford in 2017, Natasha pursued an MA in the Religions of Asia at SOAS in 2018. Her MA dissertation focused on the concept of prakṛti (nature) in the Bhagavad Gītā and its relevance to modern environmental concerns. This research laid the foundation for Natasha’s DPhil proposal, which examines today's environmental issues through the lens of Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). Tagore's engagement with nature and the environment is evident in his extensive literary works, public lectures, and private correspondence, reflecting his profound sensitivity and foresight regarding humanity's relationship with nature, creation, creativity, modernity, and 'progress.' From these insights, Natasha develops and constructs a distinct Tagorean ecosophy, offering an alternative perspective on the knowledge-action gap that underlies the contemporary environmental crisis.
Links:
Academia: oxford.academia.edu/NatashaChawla
Twitter: @Natasha_Chawla
Select Publications:
Review of LeVasseur and Peterson (eds.), Religion and the Ecological Crisis: The 'Lynn White Thesis' at Fifty, Journal of the Graduate Theological Society (2023)
Introduction: The Humanities in Deep Time, Guest Editor Intro, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology (2022)
Editor Introduction, Journal of the Graduate Theological Society (2022)
Conference Papers and Plenary Lectures:
EASR (Conference theme: Nature, Ecology, and Religious Responses to Climate Change) Radical Love: Satish Kumar's vision for ecological and religious unity, Forthcoming August 2024.
Yale Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology: Exploring Ontopoetics, 2024, Online.
“Religious Imaginations – (A Hindu perspective on) What is the Good Life”. LSE Faith Centre Beecken Faith and Leadership, 2021, 2022, and 2023, LSE.
BASR Annual Conference: – Exploring Environmental Endings, Renewal, and Dharmic Religious Responses through Temporal Hindu Concepts, 2023, Cambridge.
ASLE conference: virtual panel presentation on Rabindranath Tagore’s Classrooms Without Walls: School and Methodology, 2023, Portland.
“A Poet-Philosophers Hope”. 6th Annual Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology, Yale Divinity School, 2022, Online.
“A (not the) Hindu perspective”. Interfaith Perspectives on the Environment Conference Touchstone Bradford, 2022, Online.
Academic Interests:
Religion and the Environment; Ecosophy; Ecotheology; Environmental Humanities; Indian philosophy; Advaita Vedanta; Yoga; Interfaith and peacebuilding, Ontopoetics.
Academic related Activities:
Alongside her studies, Natasha co-organised the "The Humanities in Deep Time" conference in 2021 with Tim Middleton, funded by TORCH Environmental Humanities. They also co-guest edited the "Deep Time in the Humanities" special edition for the Worldviews Special Issue (2022).
Natasha was the editor (2021-22) and an editorial board member (2020-21) of the Journal of the Oxford Graduate Theological Society (JOGTS). She served as the Graduate Student Representative on the Faculty's Graduate Joint Consultative Committee (GJCC, 2021-22) and co-president of the Oxford Graduate Theological Society (OGTS, 2021-2023).
Currently, she is a member of the Continuing Development Board (CDB) at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) and serves on the Oxford Poetry Society committee.
Areas of Teaching Competence and Experience:
Religion and the Environment, Environmental Philosophy, Yoga Philosophy
