Fellows
Dr Gillian Evison
2005
Gillian Evison read theology at St. John's College, Oxford before moving to Wolfson College to complete the M.Phil in Classical Indian Religion.
Whilst finishing her D.Phil and working part time at the Wolfson Library, Gillian developed an interest in its collection of books on Indian religions. She started work at the Indian Institute Library, the Bodleian Library's specialist unit devoted to South Asian materials, in 1990 and was appointed as its Librarian in 1993. Gillian is also serves on a number of national committees devoted to South Asian librarianship and her special interests include the use of new technologies to open up access to South Asian collections in libraries and museums.
Dr Sanjukta Gupta
2005
Dr Sanjukta Gupta 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. Apart from Sanskrit, Dr Gupta also specialises in Indian philosophy (Vedanta) and ancient Indian religions, with particular emphasis on Tantra, Vaishnavism and bhakti and gender studies.
Peggy Morgan
2005
Peggy Morgan was a former Honorary President of the British Association for the Study of Religions and Lecturer in World Religions at Mansfield College, Oxford. She has degrees in both theology and religious studies and has been involved not only in education in a variety of arenas, including schools, continuing education and distance learning degrees, but also in interfaith dialogue at various local, national and international levels.
She is a former chair of the Shap Working Party on World Religions in Education and of The Trustees of the International Interfaith centre, of which she is now a patron. Between September 1996 and May 2002 she was also Director of The Religious Experience Research Centre.
Publications include:
- Testing the Global Ethic (with M. Braybrooke) - Conexus Publishers (1998)
- Six Religions in the Twenty-First Century (with W.O. Cole) - Nelson Thornes (2000)
- Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions (with C. Lawton) - Columbia University Press (2007)
Senior Associate Fellows
John Brockington
2012
John Brockington graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1963 and joined the Sanskrit Department at Edinburgh in 1965, completing his D.Phil in 1968 with a thesis on the language and style of the Ramayana.
He remained at Edinburgh throughout his teaching career and is now emeritus Professor of Sanskrit in the School of Asian Studies (of which he was the first Head) and an Honorary Fellow in the Centre for South Asian Studies.
He has written several books and around 100 articles on his special area of research, the Sanskrit epics, as well as on other topics. He was the Secretary General of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies from 2000 to 2012 (and is now a Vice President) and he was the chair of the organising committee of the 13th World Sanskrit Conference, held at Edinburgh in July 2006
Dermot Killingley
2012
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, in the Department of Religious Studies, Newcastle University, from 1970 to 2000, when he retired as Reader in Hindu Studies. In 2008 he 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). He has published research on aspects of ancient Indian thought, and on modern developments, particularly Rammohun Roy, Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan. His books include Rammohun Roy in Hindu and Christian Tradition, and a three-volume teaching course, Beginning Sanskrit.
Professor Patrick Olivelle
2012
Professor Olivelle studied sanskrit and Indian Religions for his BA at Oxford University. He later pursued a PhD in the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Olivelle is very well known and highly regarded for his work on early Indian religions. His research interests are Ascetic Traditions and the History of the Idea of Dharma. Patrick Olivelle is a Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas. He has published many books such as The Asrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution.
Francis X. Clooney, SJ
2004
Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard University, USA, since 2005. Francis is a Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Society of Jesus. He 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. His 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 than one's own. He has also written on the Jesuit missionary tradition, particularly in India, and is interested in the dynamics of dialogue in a postcolonial world. He is on numerous editorial boards; was the first president of the International Society for Hindu-Christian Studies; and, from 1998 to 2004, was coordinator for interreligious dialogue for the Society of Jesus. Professor Clooney’s publications include Fr. Bouchet's India: An 18th-Century Jesuit's Encounter With Hinduism and Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary.
Prof. Thomas Hopkins
2001
Prof. Thomas Hopkins, is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College, USA. He is the author of The Hindu Religious Tradition and has published numerous articles and encyclopaedia entries on all aspects on Indian religious life ranging from the Indus Civilisation to modern Bengal Vaishnavism. His special interest in the Vaishnava devotional tradition led to his first meeting with A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in New York in 1966, which focused his attention on the newly emerging ISKCON movement and started a long-term study of ISKCON's history and theology.
Prof. M. N. Narasimhachary
2001
PhD in Sanskrit - University of Madras
Founder Professor & Head (Retired), Department of Vaishnavism, University of Madras, India. His specialist subjects include the Pre-Ramanuja Religion and Philosophy, Pancharatra Agama Literature, Telugu and Sanskrit Literature and popularisation of Sanskrit as a spoken tongue. He has published a number of books, articles and monographs in academic journals on topics such as the Samskrita Svapnah, Bhakti & Prapatti in Srivaishnava Philosophy and the Pancaratra-kantakoddhara.
Prof. Narasimhachary received the Certificate of Honour for Proficiency in Sanskrit from the President of India for the year 2004 and was the director of Academic Affairs at the OCHS from 2000-2001.
Prof. Narasimhachary passed away on 6 March 2013.
Prof. Joseph O' Connell
2001
Prof. O'Connell is Professor Emeritus in the Study of Religion at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. Since his Ph.D studies on 'Social Implications of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Movement' at Harvard University (USA) and Government Sanskrit College (Calcutta), he has researched, taught and published extensively on religion and society in India and Bangladesh, especially on Vaishnavas and Muslims in Bengal. He has edited or co-edited several volumes on Bengali studies and Gaudiya Vaishnavism.
Prof. O'Connell passed away on 6 May 2012.