Koshal Speaker Series welcomes historian Audrey Truschke for talk on constructing the history of Hinduism

Ohio University’s Koshal Speaker Series and the Department of Classics and Religious Studies will welcome historian Audrey Truschke, professor of history at Rutgers University–Newark, for a public lecture titled “Losing Religion and Other Challenges in Constructing the History of Hinduism.”

The event will take place Monday, Oct. 12, at 8 p.m. in 194 Clippinger Hall.

In the talk, Truschke will explore some of the central challenges scholars face when attempting to construct a history of Hinduism, including questions about whether Hinduism should be understood historically as a single “religion,” how its chronological boundaries should be defined, and how scholars can account for the tremendous diversity and change that have characterized the traditions now associated with Hinduism.

Truschke will begin with the story of a 15th century Kashmiri who converted to Islam and use a deceptively simple question,  "What religion did he convert from?", to examine the categories historians use to describe religious identity in South Asia.

Drawing on examples from early modern India, the lecture will consider how contemporary ideas about religious traditions and identities do not always map neatly onto the categories through which people understood themselves in earlier historical periods. The talk will invite the audience to think critically about how histories of religion are constructed and how concepts that may appear fixed in the present have changed considerably over time.

Truschke is a historian of South Asia whose research focuses on the cultural, political and intellectual history of early modern and modern India. Her scholarship has examined Sanskrit and Persian intellectual traditions, the Mughal Empire, religious identities and the ways histories of South Asia are interpreted and contested.

The lecture is presented through the Koshal Speaker Series, in partnership with Ohio University’s Department of Classics and Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I’m very appreciative of the Koshal family’s generosity in getting high-profile scholars to come to Athens and deliver their cutting-edge research. It’s a great opportunity for students and the community to see how the work of Ohio faculty like me fits into a much larger field that is constantly producing new knowledge and insights," said Dr. Brian Collins, who is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at OHIO.

All students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to attend the lecture.

Event details

Losing Religion and Other Challenges in Constructing the History of Hinduism
Audrey Truschke, Professor of History, Rutgers University–Newark
Monday, Oct. 12, 2026
8 p.m.
194 Clippinger Hall