DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Nisheeta Jagtiani is a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University in religious studies (field specialty of Buddhist studies). Her research interests lie in the relationship between religion and politics as well as the effects religion has on both elites and commoners. Her dissertation investigates sectarianism and rimé (non-sectarianism) in Tibetan Buddhism. She examines the biographies and works of Tibet’s renowned rimé figures such as Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Khyentse Choyki Lodro, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and Dzongsar Khyentse. Her doctoral research is informed by diaspora studies, psychology of religion and lived religion. Engaging in both ethnographic fieldwork and textual research, Nisheeta is motivated by study and work in Kham (East Tibet) and in Tibetan settlements in India such as Dharamsala, Chauntra and Bylakuppe. Nisheeta was awarded the American Academy of Religion’s International Dissertation Research Grant in 2021. Before joining Northwestern, Nisheeta completed her M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago in 2016. Her advisor is Sarah Jacoby.