Dr. Uma Shankar

Principal
SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce
Sion (West), Mumbaii

Dr. Uma Shankar is the Principal of SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Sion (West), Mumbai. She herself was an ex-student of SIES, holds her Masters and Doctoral degree in Philosophy and has been a professor at the department of Philosophy of SIES.

Dr. Shankar has numerous publications to her in various national and international academic journals. The titles of some of them are namely: Shaiva Siddhanta (Somaiya Publications Pvt. Ltd.), Meditational Practices in Buddhism (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan), Reflections on Mythological Discourse (Hindi Vidya Prachar Samiti), Varkari Sampradaya- Unparallel Devotion of the Saints of Maharashtra (Department Of Philosophy, SIES & Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha), Religious Pluralism: Conflicts And Challenges (Romania, Filosofie Nr.34(2/2014), Moral Philosophy (Sheth Publishers)..

Dr. Gopal Gupta

Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
University of Evansville, USA

Dr. Gupta is 'Joe Dunham distinguished Professor of Ethics' at the Aurora University. He has completed his doctoral degree in Religious Studies, University of Oxford, Queens College, UK and his masters degree in Science and Religion, University of Oxford, Linacre College, UK. His areas of expertise are namely: Comparative Religious Ethics, Business, medical, and Environment Ethics, Science and Religion, Eastern Philosophy and Religions.

Dr. David Haberman

Professor and Former Chair
Dept. of Religious Studies
Indiana University, USA

Dr. Haberman is the Professor and former chair of the department of Religious Studies in Indiana University, USA. Currently he is also a part of the advisory board of the Forum on Religion and Ecology based at the Yale University School for Forestry and Environmental Studies. He received his undergraduate degree (1976) in Religious studies from the University of Colorado and his PhD (1984) in History of Religions from the University of Chicago. He had taught at the University of Arizona and Williams College before joining as a full-time faculty member at the Indiana University where he had also chaired the department for five long years.

Dr. Haberman's first publication was 'Acting as a Way of Salvation: A Study of Raganuga Bhakti Sadhana (Oxford University Press, 1988). Later he published a book on the circular pilgrimage of Braj named, 'Journey Through the Twelve Forests: An Encounter with Krishna’ (Oxford, 1994) which won the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence the year it came out. His current Fulbright project is to study the worship of Mount Govardhan, the most distinguishing feature of the sacred landscape of Braj.
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Dr. T.C. Roymon

Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Sophia College, Mumbai

Dr. Roy born in Kottayam, Kerala, was ordained a priest in 2001 which he resigned in 2007. He completed his doctoral thesis in Philosophy from the University of Mumbai. He is currently the professor of Sophia College, Mumbai. Apart from being the former co-ordinator of P.G. Diploma in Philosophy of Communal Harmony & Social Peace Dept. of Philosophy, Mumbai University and the former Deputy Director of IPCSR Mumbai. He published his first book in 2010 by the name ‘Heritage of Harmony: Mystic and Bhakti Saints of Hinduism'.
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Dr. Ravi M. Gupta

Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies
Associate Professor, Dept. of Religious Studies
Utah State University, USA

Dr. Ravi M. Gupta, also known as Radhika Raman Das, is a notable scholar, author and an editor. He received a MSt in the Study of Religion in 2000 and a doctoral degree in Hinduism in 2004 from the University of Oxford. He holds the Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies at Utah University and was a Visiting Scholar at the Maxwell Institute during Fall 2020. He also serves as Director of the Religious Studies Program at USU. He has taught at the University of Florida, Centre College, and the College of William & Mary. He received four teaching awards, a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship, and two research fellowships at the University of Oxford. He is a Permanent Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a past president of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies.

His research areas are Hinduism, World Religions, Sanskrit, Religious Studies. His research interests are the Bhagavata Purana's Sanskrit commentaries, Vaishnava bhakti traditions, interreligious dialogue, and the relationship between faith, scholarship, religion and ecology.

Some of his notable works in this field include: The Caitanya Vaiṣṇava Vedānta of Jīva Gosvāmī: When Knowledge Meets Devotion (2007), The Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Sacred Text and Living Tradition (2013), Caitanya Vaiṣṇava Philosophy: Tradition, Reason and Devotion (2014),The Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Selected Readings (2016).

Dr. Abhishek Ghosh

Director
Institute of Vaishnava Studies, Gainesville
Florida, USA

Dr. Abhishek Ghosh, also known as Krishna Abhishek Ghosh is the Director of the Institute of Vaishnava Studies. He did his MSt in Theology and Religious Studies from Mansfield College, Oxford University, UK, MA in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and holds a PhD in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago on “Vaishnavism and the West”. In the past he has taught at UChicago’s Graham School of General Studies where he won the ‘Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching’. He was also a professor of Hinduism and World’s Religions at Grand Valley State University, Michigan before joining as the Director of IVS.

Dr. Ghosh's research specialization is in the History of Religions, South Asian Studies and Gaudiya Vaishnavism. His latest book project titled “Worlds of Devotion” is under contract with State University of New York Press’ prestigious Hindu Studies Series.

Some of his other works include: Christian Missionaries, Western Education, and a Hindu Guru: The Colonial Milieux of Bhaktivinoda and the Inception of a Worldwide Bhakti Movement, Globalizing the Eastern Savior: Creative Tensions in Bhaktivinoda’s Autobiography and Pioneering a Worldwide Bhakti Movement.

Dr. Kenneth R. Valpey

Research Fellow,
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Dr. Kenneth R. Valpey is a research fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) (a recognized independent center of the University of Oxford), and a research fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics (OCAE). He completed his DPhil (PhD) in 2003 at the University of Oxford with a study of Vaishnava temple liturgical practices and theology (published by Routledge in 2006 as Attending Kṛṣṇa’s Image: Caitanya Vaiṣṇava Mūrti-sevā As Devotional Truth).

In the OCHS, Dr. Valpey co-directs the Bhāgavata Purāṇa Research Project. As fellows of OCHS, Dr. Valpey and Prof. Ravi M. Gupta have edited together a volume of articles and translated a volume of selections from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, both of them published by Columbia University Press (2013; 2016 respectively). As a research fellow of the OCAE, Dr. Valpey has written and lectured on nonviolence and environmentalism as well as on the application of yoga principles and practices for animal-human relationships and animal protection.

Dr. Valpey has taught courses on Indian religion and culture at the University of Florida, Gainesville, at Chinese University of Hong Kong, and at the University of Pula, Croatia. Some of his notable works include: Attending Krishna's Image: Caitanya Vaishnava Murti-Seva as Devotional Truth. (Routledge Hindu Studies Series, vol. 4) (Stockholm: Recensia Press, 2006), The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), The Bhagavata Purana: Selected Readings (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), Krishna Seva: Traditional Ritual in the Practice of Bhakti Yoga (China: Yunnan University Press, 2018), Cow Care in Hindu Animal Press (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).