Amanda J. Lucia That autoethnographic experience reinforced to me the ways in which these scenes privilege healthy and wealthy bodies, which also interfaces with their propensity toward whiteness.
Religious Exoticism and White Utopias: 7 Questions for Amanda J. Lucia
American Gurus: Seven Questions for Arthur Versluis
What sparked the idea for writing this book? Why write it now? American Gurus was a long time in the making. I first had the ideas for some of the book when I was working on American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions (1993). In particular, I wanted to look at how Platonism influenced American Transcendentalism.