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Daniel Cohen

Visiting Assistant Professor
Education: Ph.D., University of Virginia
Interest: South Asian Religions; Religion and Culture; Religion and Neuropsychology; Memory, Healing, and Religious Narratives; Religion and Law; Religion and Film
Email: cohenda@missouri.edu

My research and teaching traverse a wide range of interests that cover South Asian religious traditions, religion and law, religion and film, and especially religion, spirituality and the brain, an area of research involving ongoing multidisciplinary interaction.

Generally, my interests embrace the ongoing interaction between religion and culture from a variety of perspectives. Religious narratives and rituals are often intertwined with the dynamic development and transformation of culture, while cultural values simultaneously interact with manifestations of religious understanding and interpretation.

My work explores the interaction of religion and culture in a variety of contexts and domains. As religion affects the dynamic development and transformation of cultural values, cultural perceptions interact directly with manifestations of religious understanding and interpretation. In terms of health, healing, and spirituality I am fascinated by how religious narratives and rituals influence aspects of physical and mental health.

As a Fulbright-Hays scholar, I conducted extensive field research in India on the use of Hindu religious narratives in traditional healing rituals. Notably, traditional healing practices in India provide a striking example of the use of both cultural and religious resources in dealing with a wide array of human problems, where the resources of modern Western medicine, psychiatry, and psychotherapy are either not available, or more often not regarded as applicable, for a significant portion of the population.

These research interests have led to my involvement in emerging interdisciplinary investigations on the relationship between religion, spirituality, and physical and mental health. Recent developments in neuropsychology, including brain imagining studies, are of special interest here, as a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between religious outlooks, human experience, and our developing understanding of the meaning of life grows.

Additional areas of interest include the intersection between Buddhist religious views and environmental ethics, the engagement of religion and American jurisprudence, as well as the increasingly important role of film in the social construction of religion and religious categories.

Teaching

RS 3200 Hinduism
RS 3005 Hindu Goddesses
RS 3005 Yoga, Tantra, and Healing in South Asia (topics course)
RS 3240 Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia
RS 3230 Buddhism and Environmental Ethics
RS 4300 Religious Narratives of South Asia
RS 4200/7200 Religion, Spirituality, and the Brain
RS 2930 Religion and Psychological Perspectives
          (upcoming in Fall 2009)
RS 2250 Religious Perspectives of Peace and War
RS 3280 Religion and Law in America
RS 3740 Religion and Film
RS 2110 Major World Religions

Recent and Forthcoming Publications

Dan Cohen, Dong Pil Yoon, and Brick Johnstone
Differentiating the Impact of Spiritual Experiences, Religious Practices, and Congregational Support on the Mental Health of Individuals with Heterogeneous Medical Disorders
International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, vol. 19:121–138, 2009

Daniel Cohen
College Fraternities and Expressive Association: Discrimination, Diversity, and Education
In: The Role of Religion in the 21st Century Public School (edited volume)
Peter Lang Publishing (forthcoming)

Previous Publications

Ancestor Worship. In: M. Mills, P. Claus, and S. Diamond, eds., South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, 2003, New York: Routledge: 15-16.

Cosmology, Hindu. In: M. Mills, P. Claus, and S. Diamond, eds., South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, 2003, New York: Routledge: 121-123.

Ghosts. In: M. Mills, P. Claus, and S. Diamond, eds., South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, 2003, New York: Routledge: 249-250.

Work in Progress

I am currently working on a book on ghost exorcism, memory, and healing in Hinduism. I am also preparing to do comparative research on the complementarities between Hindu and neuropsychological perspectives of the self.