Drew Thomases

Office: AL-672 | Email: [email protected]

Drew Thomases received his M.A. (2008), M.Phil. (2012), and Ph.D. (2015) in religious studies from Columbia University. His work focuses on the anthropology of religion in North India—more specifically, Hindu pilgrimage and practice—though he is broadly interested in tourism, globalization, environmentalism, and theoretical approaches to the study of religion.

His current book project analyzes the dynamics of religion and tourism in the pilgrimage site of Pushkar, Rajasthan. Titled Guest is God: Pilgrimage, Tourism, and Making Paradise in India, the manuscript explores the various ways in which local efforts toward creating heaven on earth highlight the entanglement of modern Hinduism and the Indian tourist economy. Drew’s research has been funded by the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, the Fulbright IIE, the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, and Columbia’s Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life.