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Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson’s essay “Technology, Violence, and Nonviolence: A Gandhian Response to Heidegger and Derrida” appears in Classical and Contemporary Issues in Indian Studies: Essays in Honour of Trichur S. Rukmani, edited by P. Pratap Kumar and Jonathan Duquette (New Delhi: DK Printword, 2013): 360-377. The book represents a Festschrift for a distinguished Indian scholar. Professor Olson’s essay investigates the connection between technology and violence through the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida. Through these philosophies, and those of Ghandi, the essay works to answer the following questions: “Is there a way to apply some of the principles of Gandhian nonviolence in such as way as to ameliorate the violence associated with technology? Or, using Gandhi’s insights into the practice of nonviolence, is it thus possible for technology to become more nonviolent?”

Professor Olson has also signed a contract with Routledge Publishing in London to produce a textbook for college-level courses, tentatively titled Religious Ways of Experiencing: A Narrative Approach. It is proposed to discuss the plurality of religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, and the differences within particular traditions. His book also covers religions found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Native American traditions along with the new religious movements of today. The narrative approach of the textbook continues the story-telling traditions common in many of these religions. It will include supplementary material such as maps, photos, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for further reading.