Mathieu Boisvert

Mathieu Boisvert is a full professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal and the founding director of the Center for Studies and Research on India, South Asia, and Its Diaspora. He holds a Ph.D. (McGill) in South Asian philology (Sanskrit, Pali) and is primarily interested in the intersection of religion with the political and social spheres in contemporary India. He has also conducted extensive field research in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, and Bhutan, focusing on contemporary religious practices such as pilgrimage and asceticism, while also working with various marginalized communities. Since 2012, he has been studying Indian hijra (“transgender”) communities. In 2018, he published *Les Hijras: A Socio-Religious Portrait of a South Asian Transgender Community*.  He is currently leading a research project on “Multiple Identities, Sexualities, and Spiritualities: The Sakhi Community and Imaginary in India”; this project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada—Knowledge and is set to conclude in December 2026.

The project

Title: Multiple Identities, Sexualities, and Spiritualities: The Sakhi Community and Imaginary Worlds in India

"The “sakhi” are a marginalized group in northern India: their members, all born male, permanently adopt a female identity in order to establish an intimate relationship with their chosen deity, who is himself male.  The overall objective of this research project is to identify the various elements involved in the construction of “sakhi” identity and to highlight the need to conceptualize it beyond the sole category of the “third gender,” as it is generally presented in South Asia.  The diversity of factors involved in the construction of “sakhi” identity prompts us to propose a model that will shed light on the complexity of the “sakhi” experience and reality in contemporary Indian society. Two sub-objectives guide our work. The first, of a scientific nature, is to develop an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses both the imagined representations and the social realities surrounding this community in northern India. The second, more institutional in nature, aims to develop a network of researchers from multiple institutions (Canadian, French, and Indian) who will be invited to pool their expertise."

Hosting Institution(s): École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Selective Bibliography

• L’Évanescente sakhī: ascétisme et fluidité des genres, numéro spécial de la Revue interdisciplinaire sur l’Asie du Sud, en collaboration avec F. Pasche Guignard et D. Dimitrova, automne 2026.
• « Les Pèlerinages hindous et leurs réseaux. Balises pour la création d’un imaginaire national », in Interroger les chemins de Compostelle aux XXIe siècle, dir. C. Alcantara et A. Rucquoi, Toulouse : Presses des Mines, 2024
• « Cultivating a female body : Appropriation of female rituality (samskāra) within the hijra community”, in Rethinking the Body in South Asian Traditions, dir. Diana Dimitrova, Londres: Routledge (2020).
• Les hijras; portrait socioreligieux d’une communauté ‘transgenre’ sud-asiatique, Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, (2018).