Anna Tosato | Religion at Illinois

Contact Information

FLB 3021

tosato@illinois.edu

Office Hours

Fall 2023: WED: 9-11 AM

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Visiting Scholar

Bhagwan Munisuvrata Swami Post-doctoral Research Associate

Biography

After my MA (Cum Laude) in Asian Studies from the University of Venice “Ca’ Foscari”, I was the recipient of a five year research grant from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for graduate studies in Indology. The grant allowed me to spend five years in India as a research fellow at the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Mysore, and in 2015 I have obtained a Ph.D. in Ancient History and Archaeology with a dissertation on the relationship between dance and sculpture in South Indian temples. During my years in India, I have been conducting archeological fieldwork under the supervision of Dr. M. S. Nagaraja Rao (former director, Archaeological Survey of India) and I have been studying Sanskrit and the traditional texts on Indian arts under the guidance of eminent scholars (H. V. Nagaraja Rao and M. A. Lakshmithathachar). From August 2019, I am affiliated to the Department of Religion, UIUC, where I am currently the Bhagwan Munisuvrata Swami Post-doctoral Research Associate.

Courses Taught

REL 350: South Asian Goddesses

REL 494: Yoga, Art & the Hindu Temple. Yoga, Dance, Theatre and their Visual Representations in the Temple Art of India

REL 494 (Fall 2023), The Jain Way. Past and Present of an Indian Religion. A special collaboration with the Rietberg Museum, Zurich (Switzerland)

Recent Publications

Tosato 'Encapsulating Dance in Sculpture. The story of "Arjuna and the Hunter" as Represented in the Hoysa ḷa Temples'. South Asian Studies, Vol 39 (2023), 53-75.

Tosato. 'The Voice of the Sculptures: How the “Language of Dance” Can Be Used to Interpret Temple Sculptures'. An Example from the Hoysaḷeśvara Temple at Haḷebīd, in Theatrical and Ritual Boundaries in South Asia, ed. by Elisa Ganser and Eva Debicka-Borek, (Cracow Indological Studies, vol. 19, n. 2, 2017), pp: 79-109 (79-82)