Elin Thorsén
Associate Senior Lecturer
Department of Literature, History of Ideas, andAbout Elin Thorsén
I am an associate senior lecturer in religious studies at the department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion. My research interests include guru movements, nonduality (advaita), and yoga in contemporary, global contexts.
I received my doctoral degree in religious studies from the University of Gothenburg in 2022. My doctoral thesis In Search of the Self: A Study of the International Scene of Modern Advaitic Satsang in Present-Day Rishikesh is an ethnographic study of the network of internationally frequented satsangs (a form of spiritual dialogic lectures), based on the philosophical system of advaita (“nonduality”), that flourished in Rishikesh, India between 2017–2019.
Since 2023 I am working with a research project where I explore the current global popularity of modern forms of yoga from the perspective of the concept of universalism. The purpose of the project is to gain insight into what role universalism, as a rhetorical as well as lived practice, has had in the legitimation and promoting of yoga.
At the department I teach on a variety of courses, with a particular focus on South Asian religions.