Sasha Makarova (馬靜雍) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. Her 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 dissertation explores the construction of gender and the role of women in Shangqing Daoism (4th–10th century). Makarova’s research centers on the notion of motherhood as one of the most significant and hitherto underappreciated lenses through which to approach the representations of women during the medieval period. Her theoretical perspective bridges the disciplines of East Asian history and literature, religious studies, history of medicine, and gender and sexuality studies.
Before beginning her current doctoral program, Makarova earned a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) degree 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.
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; non-discursive modes of knowledge and their relationship to language.