Archives: Fellows

Fellows

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.
Professor Purushottama Bilimoria

Professor Purushottama Bilimoria

Biography:

Professor Purushottama Bilimoria is a current Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Fellow and Visiting Faculty at Ashoka University in Delhi, India (fall 2019), and a Senior Research Fellow with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He is a visiting Professor and Lecturer with the Institute for South Asia Studies, at UC Berkeley, and Dominican University, San Anselmo, and serves as a senior lecturer in the Center for Dharma Studies at Graduate Theological Union (GTU). Professor Purushottama Bilimoria is likewise Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Studies at Deakin University, and Senior Research Fellow with the School of Philosophical and Historical Studies and the Australia India Institute at University of Melbourne.

Professor Purushottama Bilimoria is an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia, Journal of Philosophy of Religion, Springer and has also edited a book series with Springer on Sophia: cross-cultural studies in Culture and Traditions.

Lectures he conducted at the Oxford Centre For Hindu Studies:
  • The Logical Illumination of Mīmāṃsā, and Nyaya (to Navyanyaya) – The evolution of thinking, metaphysics and theology  (apauruṣeyā, apurva, padarthas, Isvara, vadavivada, hetutarka)
  • Hinduism’s Transnational Diasaporias*: the view from Oceania – (*aporias of diaspora)
  • Indian Practical Ethics: Law, Gender, Justice, Ecological and Bioethical Challenges

Research Area/s:

Hindu religious philosophies, political philosophy, pertaining to ethics of rights, theories of justice, capabilities and education and gender issues in third world, particularly South Asian.

Research Interests:

Classical Indian philosophy and comparative ethics, Continental thought, cross-cultural philosophy of religion, diaspora studies, bioethics, and personal law in India.

Selected Publications:

  • Globalization, Transnationalism, Gender and Ecological Engagement (2015)
  • Indian Diaspora : Hindus and Sikhs in Australia (2015)
  • Emotions in Indian Thought-Systems (2015)
  • Postcolonial Reason and Its Critiques: Deliberations on Spivak’s Thoughts (2014)
  • Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion (Springer, 2009)
  • Sabdapramana: Word and Knowledge in Indian Philosophy (DK PrintWorld, 2008)
  • Indian Ethics I (Ashgate, 2007)

Managing Editor

  • Professor Purushottama Bilimoria is an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia, Journal of Philosophy of Religion, Springer.

Chapters and Articles

  • “Nietzsche as ‘Europe’s Buddha’ and Asia’s Superman”, Sophia 47/3, 2008