8. Sravana Borkataky-Varma | Śākta Tantra, Female Practitioners, and Misperceptions of Tantra

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma about
her experience growing up in India, receiving initiation into a
Śākta tantra lineage at Kāmākhya, discovering Religious Studies
and the academic path, her doctoral research, the role of female
practitioners, tantric sexual rites, being censored by Facebook,
online pūjā services, and much more. 

Speaker Bio

Sravana Borkataky-Varma is a historian, educator, and social
entrepreneur—who holds a PhD in Religions from Rice University.
As a historian, she studies Indian religions focusing on esoteric
rituals and gender, particularly in Hinduism (Śākta Tantra). As
an educator, she is currently working as a Lecturer at Harvard
University and at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where
she teaches introductory courses on World Religions and
higher-level courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Religion and Film,
and the History of Yoga.

In the past she has taught at the University of Houston,
University of Montana, Rice University and DaLian Neusoft
University, China. In a previous non-academic avatar, Sravana
worked in customer service, in the financial and IT industry. As
a social entrepreneur, she is the co-founder of a non-profit
called Lumen Tree Portal.  Sravana invests in building
communities with individuals from various faith-backgrounds who
believe in kindness, compassion, and fulfillment. 



Links


YS 106 | Śākta Tantra: Yoga and Hindu Goddess Traditions

https://uh.academia.edu/SravanaBorkatakyVarma

https://www.lumentree.org