I started my working life working in kitchens, including on oil rigs, in fashionable West End restaurants and vegetarian cafes. Working in the catering trade enabled me to fund my first trip to India. I spent 8 months travelling around South India in 1979 at a time when most Western travellers did not get further south than Goa. I quickly became captivated by India’s rich and diverse culture. I returned to India in 1982 and travelled around the more northern parts for 18 months. This included a three-month intensive course on Yoga and Hindu philosophy at the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh. On returning to the UK, I moved to mid-Wales to run the vegetarian café at the Centre for Alternative Technology. While, I had thought that I would eventually live in India, I fell in love with the beautiful Dyfi Valley, which became my home for over 20 years. During this period revisited India on a number of occasions.
I eventually grew tired of working in kitchens, so I decided to take a break and return to education. Having developed an interest in the Hindu traditions, I enrolled on an undergraduate degree in Religious Studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter. I enjoyed my degree so much, that I continued with postgraduate studies, and eventually was awarded a PhD. The focus of my doctorate was an analysis of how the idea of Hinduism as a religion that could be compared and contrasted with other ‘religions’ emerged in the context of the colonial period. After completing my doctorate, I was fortunate to be employed at the University of Wolverhampton in the Religious Studies Department. However, for long and complex reasons, I moved to teaching Media and Cultural Studies – which opened new perspectives on my interests.
I have developed an interest in the ways that religious ideas are communicated. In particular I am interested in the ways in which religious ideas are expressed in the arts, media and popular culture. My focus is on religions as vibrant lived realities and consequently have an ethnographic approach to research. I have published a textbook on contemporary Hinduism. My most recent publication is an in-depth ethnography of a global meditation group called The Art of Living Foundation, which explores how Hindu ideas have become popular in the West and are often articulated in terms health and wellbeing.
I have recently completed a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. This research project focuses on the Centre for Alternative Technology in mid-Wales, where I used to work. The research explores issues of sustainability and lifestyles. I am also interested in religion and the environment, in particular the ways that different religious traditions can contribute to the imperative to develop more sustainable ways of living.
