Tel: 815/753-6819

Fax: 815/753-6302

E-mail: gspencer@niu.edu
 

E D U C A T I O N, T E A C H I N G, R E S E A R C H

Higher Education:

B.A., University of Maryland, College Park, 1961

M.A., University of California at Berkeley, 1963

Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1967

Areas of Specialization in Teaching and Research:

Teaching: India, Japan, Asian surveys, U.S. survey, comparative topics

Research: India
 

P R O F E S S I O N A L E X P E R I E N C E

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, Assistant Professor, 1967-73

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, Associate Professor, 1973-84

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, Professor, 1984-

Assistant Chair and Director of Graduate Studies, 1985-1990

Department Chair, 1990-1995, 1999-
 

P U B L I C A T I O N S

Books:

The Politics of Expansion: The Chola Conquest of Sri Lanka and Sri Vijaya. Madras: New Era Publications, 1983.

Edited Works:

Temples, Kings and Peasants: Perceptions of South India's Past. Madras: New Era Publications, 1987.

Articles:

"Temple Money Lending and Livestock Redistribution in Early Tanjore," Indian Economic and Social History Review; 5, No. 3 (September 1968), 277-93.

"Religious Networks and Royal Influence in Eleventh Century South India," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient; 12, Pt. I (1969), 42-56.

"Royal Initiative Under Rajaraja I: The Auditing of Temple Accounts," Indian Economic and Social History Review; 7, No. 4 (December 1970), 232-244.

"The Sacred Geography of the Tamil Shaivite Hymns," Numen; International Review for the History of Religions; 17, No. 3 (December 1970), 232-44.

"Toward an Analysis of Dynastic Hinterlands: The Imperial Cholas of Eleventh Century South India," with K. R. Hall, Asian Profile; 2, No. 1 (February 1974), 51-62.

"The Politics of Plunder: The Cholas in Eleventh Century Ceylon," Journal of Asian Studies; 35, No. 3 (May 1976), 405-19.

"Crisis of Authority in a Hindu Temple Under the Impact of Islm: rrangam in the Fourteenth Century," in Bardwell L. Smith, ed. Religion and the Legitimation of Power in South Asia; International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology, Vol. 15. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978, pp. 14-27.

"The Economy of Kñcpuram: A Sacred Center in Early South India," with K. R. Hall, Journal of Urban History; 6, No. 2 (February 1980), 127-51.

"Sons of the Sun: The Solar Genealogy of a Chola King," Asian Profile; 10, No. 1 (February 1982), 81-95.

"Ties that Bound: Royal Marriage Alliance in the Chola Period," Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Asian Studies. Hong Kong: Asian Research Service, 1982, pp. 717-36.

"When Queens Bore Gifts: Women as Temple Donors in the Chola Period," in K. V. Raman et al., eds. rnidhih: Perspectives in Indian Archaeology, Arts and Culture. Shri K. R. Srinivasan Festschrift. Madras: New Era Publications, 1983, pp. 361-74.

"Heirs Apparent: Fiction and Function in Chola Mythical Genealogies," Indian Economic and Social History Review; 21, No. 4 (December 1984), pp. 415-32.

"Instant Ancestors: Assumed Royal Identities of the Pallava-Chola Period in South India," Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Asian Studies, 1985. Hong Kong: Asian Research Service, 1985, pp. 467-75.

"Indian Trade Diasporas and Chola Maritime Expansion," Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies, 6, No. 1 (Sept. 1988), 1-13.

"Trade, Prestige and the State in Medieval South India: Some Characteristics," Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium on Asian Studies, 1991. Hong Kong: Asian Research Service, 1992, pp. 447-57.

"Snapshots of South Indian Studies in the United States," IATR Newsletter. International Association of Tamil Research, No. 2 (January 1997), 4-8.

"In Search of Change: Reflections on the Scholarship of Noboru Karashima," in Kenneth R. Hall, ed., Structure and Change in Early South India: Essays in Honor of Professor Noboru Karashima. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, 28-43.
 

P A P E R S & O T H E R C O N F E R E N C E P A R T I C I P A T I O N

Papers Presented at Professional Conferences:

"When Queens Bore Gifts: Women as Temple Donors in the Ca Period," Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, Toronto, March 1981.

"In Search of Change: Reflections on the Scholarship of Noboru Karashima," Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, Honolulu, March 1996.
 

Other Participation at Professional Conferences:

Chair, panel on "Kingship and the Social Order in South India," Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, Toronto, March 1976.

Panel member, "The Teaching of Asian History: A Workshop," American Historical Association Regional Conference on the Teaching of History, State University of New York at Fredonia, March 1978.

Conducted workshop, "Asia in Sight and Sound: Devising Slide and Audio Tape Presentations," American Historical Association Regional Conference on the Teaching of History, Purdue University, December 1978.

Discussant, panel on "Temple Patronage in Medieval India," Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 1989.

Chair, panel on "Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Indian Inscriptions," Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 1994.