University of Rajasthan Archives

Eric Villalobos

Eric Villalobos is a fourth-year PhD student in the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. His research uses ethnographic and historical methodologies to examine the so-called “semi-renunciant” yati monastic lineages within Mūrtipūjaka Śvetāmbara Jainism in North India. This project takes him through the history of Indian monasticism, astrology, mantra science, and the colonial encounter with South Asian Indigenous medical systems. Eric received his BA in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his MA in South Asian area studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Eric’s Fulbright-Nehru project is exploring the historical collaboration between Rajasthani kingdoms and Jain merchant communities in promoting Jain monks as medical practitioners during the colonial era. He is seeking answers as to how and why Jain monks, supported by Rajasthani kings and the Jain merchant community, transformed modern Āyurveda into a distinctly Hindu-identified medical science. To this end, he is conducting research in Rajasthan State Archives at Bikaner, examining the royal court documents of the Rajput kingdoms, especially of Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur. Beyond this, he is gathering oral histories about Jain monastic rest houses which functioned as traditional medical houses during the colonial period.

Urja Joshi

Urja Joshi is a recent graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where she earned a master’s degree in South Asian studies. She earned her BA in history and religion at the University of North Texas, where she also presented and published her undergraduate thesis, “Hindu Mythology Is Not Mythology: The Philosophy of the Puranas”. She spent part of her childhood in India and grew up in a South Asian diaspora community – both these experiences shaped her early interest in South Asia’s cultural and religious diversity.

Her academic work centers on South Asian religious traditions, with particular focus on narrative traditions, indigenous theoretical frameworks, and visual and material sources. She is especially interested in how religious narratives are shaped and reinterpreted across textual and artistic traditions, and how South Asian theoretical frameworks can be applied to religious studies and art history. Her research also pays particular attention to Sanskrit literature and aesthetic theory, especially the concept of rasa and its role in shaping interpretations of narrative traditions such as the Ramayana. Urja was awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship through which she pursued Hindi language training; she also attended a summer study program in India through the American Institute of Indian Studies.

Urja’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining the intersection of visual and textual representations of Hindu religious narratives. Through site-specific research in Rajasthan, India, the project is focusing on artistic depictions, particularly temple carvings and early modern Rajasthani/Mewar paintings, and how they intersect with and challenge textual traditions. With the help of comparative analysis, Urja is also exploring how visual representation reshapes interpretive possibilities that are beyond textual description. The research is foregrounding understudied deities while simultaneously reexamining established narratives. By situating visual and textual traditions together, her research contributes to broader understandings of Hinduism and advances scholarship in South Asian art history and religious studies.

Joseph Meert

Dr. Joseph Meert, originally from Jackson, Michigan, completed his bachelor’s (1986) and master’s (1988) in geology from the University of Florida. He got his PhD in geology from the University of Michigan in 1993. The focus of his doctoral work was on Precambrian tectonics and paleogeographic reconstructions. Dr. Meert completed a short (eight-month) postdoctoral fellowship at the same institution before assuming an assistant professorship at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, until 2001. Following a one-year sabbatical to Norway and France, he moved to the University of Florida in Gainesville where he is currently a professor and undergraduate coordinator in geological sciences. Dr. Meert and his wife are celebrating their 30th year of marriage and are proud parents of Joseph, Brian, and Alex. They enjoy raising butterflies and bluebirds in their garden.

Dr. Meert’s research on Earth’s paleogeography has continued apace with a focus on the assembly of Peninsular India between 2.3 to 0.5 billion years ago. He has worked on five continents and published more than 170 articles and book chapters. His research in India has garnered international press attention. Most recently, he was featured in New York Times (Forget the Fossil Error It isn’t the First) and the French magazine Science & Vie (“ERREUR sur les fossile!”). Dr. Meert is also a fellow of the Geological Society of America and has served as president and vice president of the International Association for Gondwana Research.

Dr. Meert’s Fulbright-Nehru project in India is examining the Vindhyan sedimentary basin in both Rajasthan and the Son Valley region to solve a long-standing conundrum regarding the age of the rocks and their role in India’s geological history. His research is using the study of fossil magnetism to determine their past location and geochronology to provide a temporal framework. He is also teaching a short course in paleogeography and paleomagnetism at his host institution and hopes to generate student interest in these fields.