Audrey Truschke

Audrey Truschke is a historian of South Asia and an associate professor at Rutgers University.
Education and career.
Truschke received her bachelor's in religious studies from University of Chicago (2004). She graduated from Columbia University (2007) in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies before going on to receive a M.Phil. (2008) in the same discipline. 
She received her PhD from Columbia University in 2012, and was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Cambridge (2012-2013) and Stanford University (2013-2016). In 2015, she joined Rutgers University as an assistant professor of South Asian History and in 2020, she was promoted to associate professorship.
Publications and reception.
Monographs.
In 2016, "Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court", was published by Columbia University Press. It dwelt upon the literary, social, and political roles of Sanskrit in the Mughal courts from 1560 to 1650, and was reviewed in multiple journals.
Her second book, "Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King", was a revisionist scholarship on Aurangzeb. It was published by Stanford University Press in 2017.
Her third (and latest) monograph "The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule", was published in January 2021 by Columbia University Press. Sheldon Pollock, Romila Thapar, Cynthia Talbot, and Richard M. Eaton noted it to be an impressive and incisive scholarship, which provided fresh perspectives.
Edited Volumes.
In May 2021, she co-edited "The Ramayana of Hamida Banu Begum, Queen Mother of Mughal India" which was published by Silvana Editoriale and Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.
Honors.
In 2017, she was conferred with the John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History by American Historical Association for "Culture of Encounters" being the "most distinguished work of scholarship on South Asian history" in the previous year .
Controversies.
Truschke has been accused of engaging in prejudiced commentary on Hinduism. In one of her tweets, she had referred to an episode in Ramayana where Sita deemed Rama as a "misogynist pig". When questioned, Truschke asserted of having followed a critical translation of the Valmiki Ramayana by Robert P. Goldman. Goldman however rejected that he ever used such language and deemed her act as "shocking and extremely inappropriate". Truschke responded by stating that such disagreements are routine aspects of scholarly discourse and she had offered a "loose translation". 
In 2021, a group of Hindu students of Rutgers University circulated a petition that called for Rutgers University to terminate Truschke's teaching assignments on Hinduism, condemn her prejudiced views, and create “a safe space for diaspora Hindus". Among the many alleged reasons were Truschke's claiming Bhagavad Gita to rationalize mass slaughter, whitewashing a "Hindu genocide" by Aurangzeb, and linking Hindus with the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. Hindu American Foundation joined the protests, as well. The University, while defending academic freedom and calling for an immediate end to hate speech directed at her, said that it was initiating a dialogue with the Hindu community to understand their concerns. Days later, faculty members of Rutgers from varied faith backgrounds (including Hinduism) drafted an open letter which affirmed faith in Truschke's scholarship, rejected the levelled charges of "Hinduphobia", and applauded Rutgers' affirmation of academic liberty whilst upholding commitment to diversity; among the signatories who expressed solidarity were Romila Thapar, Rajmohan Gandhi, Sheldon Pollock, Partha Chatterjee, Suketu Mehta and others.