In Fall 2022, Routledge published Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint: Shirdi Sai Baba’s Presence as a volume dedicated to the memory of Mary “Polly” Nooter Roberts (d. 2018), Professor of World Arts and Cultures and former Fowler Museum Deputy Director. Twelve worldwide scholars have contributed essays. A chapter entitled “Baba’s Guiding Hand: Artists and Acheiropoiesis” is composed from Polly’s unpublished research with artists in Mauritius, India, and Germany who realize works for those given to Baba as Polly herself increasingly became as she followed her eight-year cancer path. The book is available in hard- and paperback and was edited by Smriti Srinivas (Professor of Anthropology, UC Davis), Neelima Jeychandran (whose WACD PhD was co-chaired by Polly and AL Roberts), and Allen F. Roberts (WACD Distinguished Professor Emeritus).
photo - Polly Roberts and Neelima Jeychandran with the maquette of Shirdi Sai Baba’s murti “embodiment” in the Talim Sculpture Studio of Mumbai, December 2009. With permission.