Fellow type: Senior Fellow

Professor Dermot Killingley

Professor Dermot Killingley

Biography

Dermot Killingley studied Latin, Greek and Sanskrit in Merton College, Oxford from 1955 to 1959, and Middle Iranian languages in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, from 1959 to 1961. He returned to SOAS in 1968 to study Indian philosophy. He taught in the Department of Indian Studies, University of Malaya, from 1961 to 1968, and in the Department of Religious Studies, Newcastle University, from 1970 to 2000, when he retired as Reader in Hindu Studies.

In 2008 Dermot Killingley taught in the University of Vienna as Visiting Professor. He is now joint editor (with Simon Brodbeck and Anna King) of Religions of South Asia (RoSA).

Research Area/s

Ancient Indian thought and modern developments, particularly Rammohun Roy, Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan.

Selected Publications

  • Beginning Sanskrit: A Practical Course Based on Graded Reading and Exercises I-III (LINCOM publishers, 1996)
  • Rammohun Roy in Hindu and Christian Tradition (Grevatt & Grevatt, 1993)

Managing Editor

  • Joint editor of Religions of South Asia (RoSA).

Chapters and Articles

  • “Manufacturing Yogis: Swami Vivekananda as a Yoga Teacher”, in: Mark Singleton and Ellen Goldberg, eds., Gurus of Modern Yoga, Oxford University Press, 2014
  • “Modernity, Reform, and Revival”, in: Gavin Flood, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2003
  • “The Paths of the Dead and the Five Fires”, in: Peter Connolly and Sue Hamilton, eds., Indian Insights: Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Bhakti, Luzac Oriental, 1997
Dr Sanjukta Gupta

Dr Sanjukta Gupta

Biography

Dr Sanjukta Gupta graduated as MA in Sanskrit from Calcutta University in 1952. She then  worked as a lecturer in Sanskrit at Visva Bharati, Calcutta and Jadavpur Universities from 1958 to 1966. She subsequently joined Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 1967, where she held the post of senior lecturer in Sanskrit until 1986. She is presently a member of the Oriental Faculty of Oxford University, where she is a part-time tutor.

Research Area/s

Sanskrit, Advaita Vedanta, and ancient Indian religions.
Dr Gupta also specialises in Indian philosophy (Advaita Vedanta) and ancient Indian religions, with particular emphasis on Tantra, Vaishnavism and bhakti and gender studies.

Selected Publications

  • The Cosmic Play of Power: Goddess, Tantra and Women (Motilal Banarsidass, 2012).
  • Advaita Vedanta and Vaisnavism: Philosophy of Madhusudana Sarasvati (Routledge, 2006).
  • A History of Indian Literature (Harrassowitz Verlag, 1981).
Professor Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Madhav M. Deshpande

Biography

Professor Madhav M. Deshpande began his academic career  in Pune, India, where he studied traditional and modern Sanskrit. Deshpande earned his B.A. in 1966 and M.A. in 1968, both in Sanskrit from the University of Pune. In 1972 he completed his doctorate in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. That same year, he was appointed Professor of Sanskrit and Hindu Studies at the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan  with a joint appointment in the Department of Linguistics. He continued to work here until his retirement. During his career he has published fifteen books and over 150 research papers relating to these areas.

Research Area/s

Historical linguistics, Sanskrit grammatical tradition, Sanskrit phonetics, Indo-Aryan linguistics and Sociolinguistics of Sanskrit and Prakrit languages.

Professor Madhav M. Deshpande’s academic interests include; the Sanskrit grammatical tradition, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics of Indo-Aryan languages, and the religious and philosophical traditions of India, including Hinduism and Buddhism.

Selected Publications

  • Samskrtasubodhini: A Sanskrit Primer (University of Michigan, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1997).
  • The Meaning of Nouns:  Semantic Theory in Classical and Medieval India (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992).
  • Sociolinguistic Attitudes in India: A Historical Reconstruction (Karoma Publishers, 1979).
Professor Francis X. Clooney, SJ

Professor Francis X. Clooney, SJ

Biography

Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., is a Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Society of Jesus. Since 2005 he has been Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard University, USA. Francis was previously Professor of Comparative Theology at Boston College, where he taught since 1984, after earning his doctorate in South Asian languages and civilizations from the University of Chicago. He served as Academic Director of the OCHS from 2002-2004. Furthermore Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., is on numerous editorial boards, was the first president of the International Society for Hindu-Christian Studies and, was, from 1998 to 2004, coordinator for interreligious dialogue for the Society of Jesus.

Research Areas

Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., primary areas of scholarship have been theological commentarial writings in the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India, and the developing field of comparative theology, a discipline distinguished by attentiveness to the dynamics of theological reading and writing in light of traditions other then one’s own.

Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., has also written on the Jesuit missionary tradition, particularly in India, and is interested in the dynamics of dialogue in a postcolonial world.

Selected Publications

  • Western Jesuit Scholars in India: Tracing Their Paths, Reassessing Their Goals (Brill, 2020)
  • Reading the Hindu and Christian Classics: Why and How It Matters (University of Virgina Press, 2019)
  • Learning Interreligiously: In the Text, in the World (Fortress, 2018)
  • The Future of Hindu-Christian Studies: A Theological Inquiry (Routledge, 2017)
  • His Hiding Place Is Darkness: A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence (Stanford University Press, 2013)
  • Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders (Blackwell Publishing, 2010)
  • Fr. Bouchet’s India: An 18th-Century Jesuit’s Encounter With Hinduism (Satya Nilayam Publications, 2005)
  • Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (Oxford University Press, 2004)

In Preparation: 

  • “The Two and the Three: Thinking about the Trinity in Light of a Hindu Reflection on the Divine Consort,” in Trinity – Theological Perspective from the East and from the West. Editor, Christoph Schwöbel.
  • “Prologue: Reflections on Vaisnava-Christian Dialogue,” Journal of Vaisnava Studies

Chapters and Articles

  • “Hindu, Christian, Catholic: Four Western Jesuits in India and the Balance They Achieved,” The Whole is Greater than Its Parts: Encountering the Interreligious and Ecumenical Other in the Age of Pope Francis. Edited by Gabriel Said Reynolds and Peter Casarella. Crossroad Publishing, 2020, 71-93.
  • “An Instance of Interreligious Contemplative Reading: In the Absence of the Beloved,” Spirituality through Interreligious Experience. Edited by Xavier Tharamel, SJ. Delhi: ISPCK, 2019, 124-133.
  • “Comparative Theology: Writing Between Worlds of Meaning,” in Theologically Engaged Anthropology. Edited by Derrick Lemons, 2018.
  • “Vedanta and Christian Faith: A Signpost in the Intellectual Journey of Bede Griffiths,” The Continuing Quest: Bede Griffiths Centenary Volume. Edited by Thomas Matus, OSB, and Joseph Wong, OSB. EOS Publishing, 2016, 27-41.