Michael Slouber

I have researched and taught the history of religion and medicine in India for over 20 years. My passion is working with Sanskrit manuscripts of unpublished works, and sharing my discoveries with a broader audience. I earned graduate degrees in South Asian languages and literature at UC Berkeley and Universität Hamburg, and held positions at Brown University and St. Mary's College of Maryland.

My home base is Western Washington University in Bellingham in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where I teach courses on Indian history, religion, literature, and film.

My latest book, which I edited and contributed to, is A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses (UC Press, 2021). It is a collection of previously untranslated tales about goddesses from India and beyond, ranging from the 6th century to the 20th. I am also the author of Early Tantric Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2016), which studies the history and function of traditional remedies for snakebite in premodern India.I won the DK Award for the best dissertation on Sanskrit 2012–2014 and am an honorary fellow of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies. Currently, I am working on a book on Tantric traditions relating to spirit possession and exorcism.