Dr. Nancy Martin

Nancy M. Martin is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Chapman University and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. Coming to Chapman in 1995, she served as chair of the Department of Religious Studies from 2011 to 2024 and Director of Chapman’s Schweitzer Institute from 2014 to 2024.  Dr. Martin's areas of expertise include devotional Hinduism, comparative religious ethics, and gender and religion. She is a leading authority on the popular Hindu devotional saint Mirabai and in 2023 published Mirabai: The Making of a Saint (Oxford University Press). This is the first volume of what will be a three-volume comprehensive work on the saint, the culmination of more than three decades of research. The series details narratives about Mirabai and songs attributed to her from the earliest available manuscripts and historical evidence across five centuries to contemporary oral traditions and popular culture in India and the global embrace of this dynamic and powerful sixteenth-century woman.

• New Books Network Podcast Interview with Dr. Martin on Mirabai: The Making of a Saint

Dr. Martin’s most recent other publications include “Hinduism for Women: Present and Future Prospects for Socio-Spiritual Emancipation” in Women in World Religions: Exploring the Future, edited by Arvind Sharma (Springer Nature, 2024); “The Spiritual Prodigy, the Reluctant Guru, and the Saint: Mirabai and Collaborative Leadership at Hari Krishna Mandir” in Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture, edited by June McDaniel and Antoinette DeNapoli (MDPI, 2024); “’Reciprocal Illumination’ of Hinduism, Human Rights and the Comparative Study of Religion: Arvind Sharma’s Contributions,” International Journal of Hindu Studies (2024); and “Invoking Mirabai: Elision and Illumination in the Global Study of Women Mystics” in Gender and Medieval Mysticism from India to Europe. Edited by Alexandra Verini and Abir Bazaz (Routledge, 2023). Her book chapter “Forging Self and Sampradāy: Inclusion, Equality and Religious Diversity in Pre-Modern Bhakti” is forthcoming in Provincializing Pluralism: Difference and Diversity in South Asian Traditions, edited by Brian Black and James Madaio for Bloomsbury Academic.  She is currently completing her second monograph, entitled The Voice of Mirabai, exploring the poetic song tradition associated with the saint.

In her teaching and publications, Dr. Martin is also committed to fostering global ethical responsibility through increased interreligious cooperation and a deeper understanding of ethical issues at a global level.  Toward this end, she co-founded and co-directed the Global Ethics and Religion Forum from 2001 to 2009, organizing a series of conferences in Southern California and at Cambridge University on topics from "Ecology and Global Health" to "War and Reconciliation" and co-editing a series of volumes:

• The Meaning of Life in the World Religions
• Ethics in the World Religions
• Love, Sex and Gender in the World Religions
• Human Rights and Responsibilities in the World Religions

Prof. Martin continues to be an active participant in the Parliament of the World’s Religions and has lectured extensively on issues in comparative religious ethics in England, Canada, Spain, South Africa, Mexico, India, Thailand, China, and Australia as well as across the United States. Reflecting her interest in the transformative power of religious experience, her publications also include articles on “Transforming Love: Holiness and the Vocation of Justice” (Marquette 2008) and “Jesus and Spirituality in Interreligious Perspective” (Religions 2022) examining Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist contexts. In recognition of her expertise on Mirabai, Dr. Martin was invited in 2007 to lecture on the saint at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

In 2014 Prof. Martin accepted the appointment to be Director of Chapman University’s Albert Schweitzer Institute, recognizing his commitment to establishing a common foundation for ethical, compassionate action through his ethical mysticism of “Reverence for Life.”  Until her retirement in 2024, she regularly taught a course that invited students to consider the serious ethical challenges of our times, from colonialism, racism, and economic disparity to atomic weapons, war and the environmental crisis, and to explore how they might choose to “invest their humanity.”  As Director, Dr. Martin also took on the role of the Southern California regional bowl organizer (2015-2024) for the national high school ethics bowl which encourages high school students to reason carefully about complex ethical situations, develop and articulate clear positions as a team, listen carefully and engage in respectful dialog with others who may hold differing points of view, and respond thoughtfully to questions from a panel of judges.  This national program promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking, civil discourse, civic engagement, and an appreciation for multiple points of view—all essential elements of embodying “Reverence for Life.”  In addition in 2024, Dr. Martin together with two student Schweitzer Research Fellows completely redesigned the exhibit featuring items from Chapman’s Schweitzer collection to highlight the relevance of Schweitzer’s philosophy of Reverence for Life in the twenty-first century.

Prof. Martin assumed the position of Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Chapman in 2011.  She regularly taught courses on Buddhism and Reverence for Life as well as the departmental junior/senior seminar for majors and minors and a graduate course on “Religion in the International Arena” for the International Studies MA program in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. As part of her commitment to fostering interreligious literacy and understanding, Dr. Martin also served on the advisory and planning boards for the California 3Rs Project for Teaching Religion in the Public Schools.