Shaunaka Rishi Das is from Wexford, Ireland. He has been Director of the OCHS since its inception in 1997. Shaunaka maintains the vision and ethos of the Centre on behalf of the Board of Governors, and encourages the Centre’s continued growth and development in all spheres. He has overall responsibility for its fundraising, administration, and communication.
Administration
Shaunaka Rishi Das
Director
Lal Krishna
Development Administrator
Lal Krishna is from Australia. Lal studied Linguistics at Deakin University, Melbourne, and has worked both as an editor and production manager for the publishing industry. He is skilled in database management, web development, and administration. Lal oversees the development of our ‘Friends and Funds’ programme, fund campaigns, Continuing Education online, database, website, and communications.
Dr Nicholas Sutton
Continuing Education Department Administrator
Dr Nicholas Sutton is from Birmingham, England. As Director for the Centre’s CE Dept. he is responsible for the development of courses, teaching provision, assessment of course work, online provision, and publications.
Dr Sutton obtained his BA Degree with First Class Honours from the Department of Theology at the University of Birmingham in 1991. He gained his Phd from Lancaster University in 1995, submitting a doctoral thesis on the religious teachings of the Mahabharata. From 1995 to 2001, Dr Sutton was Full Time Lecturer in Eastern Religions at Edge Hill University College and he currently lectures in Religious Studies for the Open University, and in Hinduism for the University of Nottingham. Dr Sutton has contributed a number of articles on the Hindu tradition to academic journals, as well as chapters in edited books. In 2000, his extensive work on epic theology entitled 'Religious Doctrines in the Mahabharata' was published by Motilal Benarsidass in Delhi. He is currently working on a translation and extended study of the Mahabharata's Moksha-dharma-parvan, and researching material for a book exploring the links between the Bhagavad Gita and the Mahabharata. His work has also brought him into close contact with the Hindu communities in the North of England where he worked with Preston College and the local temples in organising courses of study in Hindu scripture and Hindu religious practice.
Anuradha Dooney
Continuing Education Department
Anuradha is currently a Fellow of the OCHS, acting as a faculty member of the Continuing Education Department. Anuradha has been a tutor for courses in London, Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge, and Leicester since 2003. She has acted as the principal curriculum writer for undergraduate degree courses granted by the University of Wales, Lampeter, courses taught in the UK and Belgium.
She has also organised and run academic and interfaith workshops, seminars and conferences internationally. Anuradha is a respected lecturer and broadcaster.
Dr Rembert Lutjeharms
Librarian
D.Phil. in Theology (focusing on the theology of the sixteenth-century Caitanya Vaishvana poet and literary critic Kavikarnapura)- University of Oxford (2010)
MA in Oriental Studies - University of Ghent, Belgium
BA in Oriental Studies - University of Ghent, Belgium
Rembert is the Librarian at the Centre, and as a member of our Academic Planning Committee also helps to organise lectures and seminars at the Centre.
His research interests are Sanskrit poetry and poetics, early Caitanya Vaisnava history, and Sanskrit hermeneutics. Rembert has been teaching for our Hindu Studies Certificate Course since 2004 and is also an editor of the Journal of Hindu Studies, published by Oxford University Press.
Syama Dasi
Book-keeping
Syama helps with the book-keeping and banking.