Existential Despair

Justin McDaniel is the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his PhD in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard University. He has published five books in his field, edited ten more, published over 100 articles and reviews, and won several awards for writing. He has been a Fulbright, Mellon, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim Fellow. He was named one of the top ten most innovative professors in America by the Chronicle of Higher Education and one of the hundred top cultural influencers by Cultured Magazine in 2026. He has won teaching and advising awards at Harvard University, Ohio University, the University of California, and the Ludwig Prize for Teaching at Penn. His work on pedagogical methods in the courses Existential Despair and Living Deliberately have been featured on NPR, Huffington Post, Washington Post, the New York Times and many other venues. He lives in Philadelphia.