[INDOLOGY] New Book Announcement: Branding Bhakti: Krishna Consciousness and the Makeover of a Movement

[Nicole Karapanagiotis]

Dear friends,

I am very excited to announce the publication of my first book, *Branding
Bhakti: Krishna Consciousness and the Makeover of a Movement *(Indiana
University Press, April 2021).

*From the jacket:*

*How do religious groups reinvent themselves in order to attract new
audiences? How do they rebrand their messages and recast their rituals in
order to make their followers more diverse?*

*In Branding Bhakti, Nicole Karapanagiotis considers the new branding of
the Hare Krishna Movement, or the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON). Known primarily for their orange robes, shaved
heads, ecstatic dancing on the streets, and exuberant Hindu-style temple
worship, many contemporary ISKCON groups are radically reinventing their
public presentation and their style of worship in order to attract a global
audience to their movement. Karapanagiotis explores their innovative and
complex approaches in both the United States and India by following three
new ISKCON brands aimed at gathering new followers. Each is led by a
world-renowned ISKCON guru and his global disciples, and each is promoted
through a mix of digital and social media and the construction of an
innovative "worship-scape." These new spaces trade ISKCON's traditional
temples for corporate work-life balance programs, posh yoga studios, urban
spiritual lounges, edgy mantra clubs/lofts, and rural meditative retreat
facilities.*

*Branding Bhakti not only investigates the methods the ISKCON movement uses
to position itself for growth but also highlights devotees' painful and
complicated struggles as they work to transform their shrinking, sectarian
movement into one with global religious appeal.*

It's available on the Indiana University Press webpage (link here:
https://iupress.org/9780253054890/branding-bhakti/ ), and at other fine
locations.

Cheers,
Nicole Karapanagiotis

-- 
Dr. Nicole Karapanagiotis, Ph.D.
She/her
Asst. Professor of Religion
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Camden College of Arts and Sciences
429 Cooper St., Room #303
Camden, NJ 08102
nicole.karapanagiotis at rutgers.edu


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20210406/fb49db18/attachment.htm>