Affiliated Faculty

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Dr. Harjeet Singh Grewal is a scholar of Sikh intellectual history and religious thought at the University of Calgary, where he serves as Assistant Professor (Teaching) in the Department of Classics and Religion. His research examines how narrative, philosophy, and transnationalism intersect within Sikh studies, with particular expertise in <em>janamsakhi</em> literature, scriptural hermeneutics, and decolonial approaches to Sikh epistemology. He works across archival, manuscript, and oral history sources in Panjabi, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, and Braj.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Grewal's doctoral dissertation, "Janamsakhi: Retracing Networks of Interpretation" (University of Michigan, 2017), argued that <em>janamsakhi</em>s should be understood as exegetical texts rather than biographies of Guru Nanak, revealing the intertextual networks connecting janamsakhi narratives with the Guru Granth Sahib and the literary tradition of Bhai Gurdas. The dissertation highlighted oral traditions — particularly <em>katha</em> and <em>kirtan</em> — as vital interpretive practices within Sikh studies. He has three book manuscripts in progress: <strong><em>Decolonizing Sikh Thought and Intellectual History: Allegory, Resistance, and the Politics of Narrative in Early Modernity</em></strong> (under consideration, Cambridge University Press); <strong><em>Dis-locatia, Deterritorialization, and Diaspora in Sikh Hip Hop: The Varieties of Sikh Experience</em></strong> (under contract, Routledge Critical Sikh Studies Series); and <strong><em>Framed-Sikhism: Historicism, Epistemicide, and Posthumanist Critique</em> </strong>(under consideration, Routledge).</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">His published scholarship spans <em>janamsakhi</em> studies, Sikh political thought, and diaspora activism. Book chapters include "Encountering Oneness and Exiled Being: Conceptualizing Udasi in the Janamsakhi, Varan Bhai Gurdas, and Sri Guru Granth Sahib" and "Transnational Sikh Social Activism" (with Tejpaul Singh Bainiwal) in <em>The Sikh World</em> (Routledge, 2023), and "Bhai Vir Singh's Puratan Janamsakhi: Sikh Book Culture and the Historical Turn" in <strong><em>Bhai Vir Singh (1872–1957): Religious and Literary Modernities</em></strong> (Routledge, 2023). Three forthcoming chapters in the <strong><em>Routledge Companion to the Sri Guru Granth Sahib</em></strong> address mythos and narrative, Bhai Gurdas's decolonizing hermeneutics, and Guru Tegh Bahadur's Salok and Sikh humanism. In <strong><em>Sikh Formations</em></strong>, his publications include "Philosophical Transgression and Self-Cultivation in the Puratan Janamsakhi" (2020), "The Violent-Nonviolent Binary of Democratic Protest: Phantasmagoria, Gursikhi, and Khalsa Sovereignty" (2022), and earlier articles on Panjabi migration literature (2008), Operation Blue Star (2010), the Oak Creek gurdwara attack (2012, 2013). He served as Assistant Editor of the Springer <strong><em>Encyclopedia of Indian Religions: Sikhism</em></strong> (2017), contributing seventeen entries on subjects including <em>Janamsakhi</em>s, Khalsa, Guru, Hermeneutics, <em>Takht</em>s, and <em>Bhakti</em>.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Grewal serves as Associate Editor of <strong><em>Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory</em></strong> (2019–present), having previously served as Theory Colloquium Editor (2016–2019). He was a member of the Steering Committee, Sikh Studies Unit, American Academy of Religions (2015–2019), and serves on the Board of Directors of the World Sikh Organization (2022–2026).</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">At the University of Calgary, Grewal led the creation of a Sikh Studies program in partnership with Calgary's Sikh community, developing courses including Introduction to the Sikh Tradition, Sikh Migration and Diaspora, Sikh Philosophy and Intellectual History, Social Justice and Ethics in the Sikh Tradition, and Introduction to Pluralism. He co-organized fundraising campaigns raising over $538,000 toward the Sikh Studies endowment. His applied research includes a nationwide Anti-Sikh Hatred Research Project in partnership with the World Sikh Organization and the Canada Race Relations Foundation (2025), and he was awarded a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2022–2024). He received the University of Calgary Teaching Excellence Award in 2023.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">He received his Ph.D. in Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Michigan (2017), where his committee included Arvind-Pal S. Mandair (chair), Donald S. Lopez, Farina Mir, Madhav Deshpande, and Shahzad Bashir (Stanford); his M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia (2005), studying under Anne Murphy; and his B.A. in Asian Studies from UBC (2003). He also holds a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences with a specialization in Molecular Genetics from the University of Alberta (2000).</p>

Sikh intellectual history, Janamsakhi literature, and scriptural hermeneutics, with particular attention to decolonial epistemology and the politics of narrative in early modernity. Examines how oral traditions — katha, kirtan, and janamsakhi storytelling — function as interpretive practices within Sikh thought. Research also addresses transnational Sikh activism, diaspora cultural production including Sikh hip-hop, and anti-Sikh hate. Engages archival, manuscript, and oral history sources in Panjabi, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, and Braj.