Sasha Makarova (馬靜雍) is a Ph.D. candidate in The Study of Religion program at Harvard University. Before beginning her current doctoral program, she earned a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) from Harvard Divinity School in 2020. She holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Harvard University, awarded in 2010.
Makarova’s research focuses on medieval Daoism, with particular interest in conceptions of the body, selfhood, sexuality, and gender in religious discourse; visionary experience and visualization practice; and non-discursive modes of thought in the religious imagination. Her current research explores the construction of gender and the role of women in Shangqing Daoism from the fourth through tenth centuries.
Research interests: Daoism; Chinese religions; East Asian religions; Daoist conceptions of the body in cross cultural perspective; women, gender and sexuality; Daoism and medicine; visual meditation and visionary experience; East Asian religious visual culture; and non-discursive modes of knowledge and their relationship to language.