Rohit Singh earned his PhD in Religious Studies from UC Santa Barbara with a specialization in Tibetan and South Asian religions. A hands-on scholar, he has conducted extensive fieldwork with diverse Buddhist and Muslim communities in the Himalayas. His research focuses on three main areas that center the lived manifestations of religious discourse: inter-religious interactions in the Himalayas, theories of religion and secularity, and the ethnography of Tantra.
Dr. Singh maintains a cosmopolitan and collaborative approach to research to avoid being trapped in an intellectual silo. In addition to presenting his work at various international conferences, his scholarship has been published in the Journal of Global Buddhism, HIMALAYA: The Journal for the Association of Nepal and Himalaya Studies, and the Oxford Handbooks Online: Religion. His most recent publication, The Ethnography of Tantra: Textures and Contexts of Living Tantric Traditions, is an edited volume in collaboration with Carola E. Lorea. He is currently creating a book manuscript examining Buddhist/Muslim interactions in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.
His research is a buttress for his teaching. Dr. Singh is a passionate educator who enjoys creatively leading courses on Asian Religions, Islam in South Asia, Comparative Religion, and Theory and Method in Religious Studies. Students frequently have the chance to engage with his own research data, exposing them to religious practices, cultural traditions, and unique voices and perspectives from around the world. His classes feature various high-impact learning practices using multimedia content to foster student involvement and participation. His adventurous approach livens up the classroom with games and local excursions. He envisions sharing his learning adventures more directly by taking students to Asia on faculty-led study abroad trips. Aware that we exist and succeed in community, Dr. Singh works to ensure that his educational environments enable a diversity of students to voice and develop their questions, comments, and critiques.
Off campus, Dr. Singh enjoys traveling, marital arts training, and playing video games. He cares deeply about animals. You can often find him around town with his beloved dog, Padma.