Elizabeth A. Cecil

Elizabeth A. Cecil (Ph.D., Brown University) investigates the history of Hindu religions across South and Southeast Asia, focusing on intersections of text, image, monument, and landscape. Her research is grounded in fieldwork and primary sources in Sanskrit and regional vernaculars, with recent projects in Cambodia, Java, and India. She is the primary Research Collaborator on the ERC-funded PURANA project and co-editor-in-chief of the journal PURANA Media. At FSU, she contributes to the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center and co-directs the More-than-human Religion project.

Her curatorial work includes the exhibition Water Ways: Indigenous Ecologies and Florida Heritage (Sept. 2025–March 2026), which traces how water shapes material and ritual landscapes across Florida and Asia. Cecil’s scholarship has appeared in History of Religions, The Journal of Hindu Studies, Archives of Asian Art, and Textual Cultures. Her books include Mapping the Pāśupata Landscape (2020) and Primary Sources and Asian Pasts (2021). Her work has been supported by the Getty Foundation, ACLS, and NEH, and she received the FSU Developing Scholar Award in 2025 for outstanding research by an Associate Professor.