Special Section on "Feminist Theory and the Study of South Asian Religions" in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 24:1 (Sp 2008): 5-71. Convener and Contributor of Introduction and Article, "Chosen Moments: Mediation and Direct Experience in the Life of the Classical Tamil Saint, Karaikkal Ammaiyar" (pp. 5-11, 11-31)

Special Issue on “Bodily Transformations Across Indian Religions.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 10:2 (August 2006).  Guest Editor and Contributor of Introduction and Article, "The Story of the Classical Tamil Woman Saint, Karaikkal Ammaiyar: A Translation of Her Story from Cekkilar's Periya Puranam" (pp. 173-86)

The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States. Oxford University Press, 2004.  Editor and Contributor of Introduction ("Hindu Female Gurus in Historical and Philosophical Context" pp. 3-49) and Article on "Gurumayi: The Play of Shakti and Guru" (pp. 219-243)

The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India. Vidya Dehejia with essays by Richard H. Davis, R. Nagaswamy and Karen Pechilis Prentiss.  American Federation of Arts and University of Washington Press, 2002.  Contributor of Article "Joyous Encounters: Tamil Bhakti Poets and Images of the Divine" (pp. 65-79)

The Embodiment of Bhakti.  Oxford University Press, 1999.  Author

Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, American Academy of Religion 2003-(2008)

Book Review Editor, International Journal of Hindu Studies, June 2006-Present

Professor Pechilis explores issues of interpreting the embodied self through poetry, biography, and practice in devotional traditions of Hinduism.  She understands `devotion’ to be a site for the intersection of wonder and self-expression, and for an exquisitely participatory impetus, especially in the arts and letters.  Over the past twenty years she has conducted research in Chennai (Madras), south India through grants from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Fulbright Program, and the Asian Cultural Council.  Her published work, both independent and collaborative, engages many scholarly discussions about the making of religious tradition, including interpretive history, translation, cultural analysis, and feminist and gender studies.

Professor Pechilis' courses on Asian religions explore historical processes in the development of religions, including master narratives and alternatives to them. Annual core courses include Religions of India and Religions of China and Japan. Elective courses include Women in Asian Religions, Religion in Modern Novels from India, and Classical Devotional Arts of India. Her comparative courses engage a central theme with which to explore similarities and differences across Asian and Abrahamic traditions. Courses include pilgrimage, marriage in world religions, and eastern and western art.

For four years (2004-08), Professor Pechilis directed the Humanities Program at Drew, an innovative interdisciplinary program designed especially for college students.  Professor Pechilis’ special interest was to foreground global contacts among cultures considered in Humanities Program courses.  All courses in the program are team-taught by the Director and a professor with subject expertise; many Humanities disciplines contribute to the program.  Each semester the program offers a course on a period in Western history.  Each fall the program offers a course that recognizes contributions of cultures across the globe to world and Western history (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East).  Each spring the program offers a half-semester current issues course that considers a timely topic from multi-disciplinary perspectives including Arts, Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences.  The Humanities Program website is at:  http://depts.drew.edu/hum/. 

Tevaram (devotional poetry), in The Embodiment of Bhakti (OUP 1999): 157-188

Tiruvarutpayan (couplets on divine grace), in The Embodiment of Bhakti: 189-209

Tirumuraikantapuranam (story of the making of a canon), in International Journal of Hindu Studies 5:1 (April 2001): 1-44

Periya Puranam-Story of Nantanar (hagiography), in Eleanor Zelliot and Rohini Mokashi-Punekar, eds., Untouchable Saints: An Indian Phenomenon (New Delhi: Manohar, 2005): 95-107

Periya Puranam-Story of Karaikkal Ammaiyar (hagiography), in International Journal of Hindu Studies 10:2 (September 2006)

The poetry of female saint and author Karaikkal Ammaiyar, in progress