Alumni

Kristian has completed an M.St. in Theology.

Wahid has completed an M.St. in the Study of Religions. His main interests were Islam, philosophy, Hinduism, and anthropology.

Canada

Harris - Manchester College

BA in English Litrature, Cambridge University, 1985

MA in medieval and Renaissance Literature, MCGill University, Montreal, 1989.

Mst in Religion, University of Oxford, 2003

Jane is currently Unitarian Minister for the Bethnal Green Unitarians, London.

Charlotte has received an M.St. in the Study of Religion with a focus on Hinduism and Islam.

USA

Mansfield College

BA in Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, California, USA 2001.

M.St. in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2002. Masters Thesis: 'Divine Knowability in the Bhagavat-Sandarbha of Jiva Gosvami'.

Currently Travis is pursing his Ph.D. at the University of California at Santa Barbara through the Religious Studies Department.

Travis has been graced with the following awards: Cota-Robles Diversity Fellowship, University of California at Santa Barbara. Oxford's Clarendon Fund Bursary Scholarship. Raimundo Panikkar Award for outstanding achievement in the study of South Asian religions.

Anuradha Dooney was awarded her BA in Social Science, from University College Dublin, and her M.St. in the Study of Religion, from Oxford University. Her masters thesis was an exploration of faith development in the Vaishnava tradition. She 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.

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USA

Harris - Manchester College

BA Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2002. Senior thesis: 'The metaphysical presupposition of neo-Darwinism and their relationship with a Vaishnava theology of nature.'

MSt Science and Religion, University of Oxford, 2003. Thesis: 'The Value of Science: The Perspectives of Contemporary Science, Stephen Jay Gould and Theistic Samkhya'.

Receiveda DPhil, University of Oxford. Research area: Vaishnavism and the design of living organisms. Vaishnava conceptions of the creation and natural history of the world, in relation to developments in modern biology.

Recipient of Ashvatta Narayanan Bursary of £500 in 2007.

Dr Jessica Frazier is from Washington DC, USA. Jessica is a Fellow of the Centre and helps to organise lectures and seminars, research projects, conferences, and fellowships. Jessica is also a member of the Centre's teaching staff, tutoring in the Faculty of Theology, and serves as secretary of our Academic Council, our Academic Planning Committee and the Theology Faculty's Study of Religions group.

She was awarded her B.A. and DPhil from Cambridge University and received an MsT in Religion from Oxford University. She is interested in Hinduism, the Nature of Religion, and the Philosophy of Religion, and is the author of Reality, Religion and Passion: Indian and Western Approaches in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Rupa Gosvami (2009), and the Continuum Companion to Hinduism (2010). She is also founding editor of the Journal of Hindu Studies, published by Oxford University Press.

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UK

Blackfrairs

MA, M.Phil. (Cantab.)

D.Phil. on the doctrines of God and creation in the thought of St Thomas Aquinas and Ramanuja.

Fr Ganeri is a member of the Dominican Order within the Catholic Church. He is currently Prior of the Dominican Priory, in Cambridge. Fr Ganeri is a lecturer in Hinduism at Heythrop College, London. He is also involved in promoting Hindu-Christian dialogue and is a member of the Catholic Bishops' Committee for Other Faiths.

India

Mansfield College

BA in English (Honours), University of Calcutta , India, 2004.

MSt in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2006.

Abhishek is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Chicago. His research interest includes Caitanya Vaishnavism during late colonial and
postcolonial periods in Bengal and focuses especially on the Bhagavata commentarial tradition that was developed by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and Bhaktivedanta Swami.

India

Hertford College

Shubangi is studying at Skidmore College, USA, where she is majoring in Government and East Asian Studies.

She came to Oxford to study Hinduism and British foreign policy.

Shubangi plans to return to Oxford University as a graduate student to do further study in International Affairs and Hinduism.

USA

Linacre College

BA in Philosophy and B.Sc. in Mathematics, Boise State University, USA, 1999.

MSt in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2000.

D.Phil. in Hinduism in the Faculty of Theology at Oxford. Ravi's thesis focused on the early development of Vedanta philosophy in the Chaitanya Vaishnava tradition, based on original manuscript sources 2004.

Ravi was our youngest student, entering Oxford University at the age of 17. He has won a number of prestigious awards including: a full Yate Scholarship from the University Theology Faculty and St. Hugh's College; and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Linacre College.

UK

Keble College

BA in Theology, Oxford University, 2006. Fleur's interest was in world religions, with a focus on Hinduism and Buddhism.

MA in Law and Social Science, School of Oriential and Africian Studies, University of London, 2007. Her focus was on violence, conflict and development.

Fleur is currently studying to become a Religious studies teacher.

Germany

Wolfson College

BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Stirling, Scotland, 2005: Dissertation topic 'The Nyaya-Darsana and its Relation to Western Logic and Scholarship'

Melanie compleated her MSt in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, focusing on Sanskrit and Indian logic, particularly the Nyaya system, in 2006

South Africa

Mansfield College

BA in the Science of Religion, University of Cape Town, South Africa,

MSt in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2002.

USA

Hertford College

Trent is a visiting student of religion and political change from George Mason University in Virginia.

At Oxford he is studying Hinduism and Buddhism. His research and life interest is the intersection of religious traditions and social movements in the contemporary political scene.

Germany

Mansfield College

Judith was in Oxford on a 'Junior Year Abroad' programme studying Economic Theory and Hinduism.

Currently pursuing a BA in International Relations, Economics, and German, George Washington University, USA.

USA

Wadham College

Ashiyana was a visiting student to Oxford studying Hinduism, Hindi and Mathematics during her stay.

UK

St Peter's College

James completed hi BA in Theology and Philosophy at Oxford.

Yugoslavia

Mansfield College

BA in Philosophy, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, 2002.

MPhil degree in Classical Indian Religion at the Oriental faculty of University of Oxford 2004.

As a part of my undergraduate studies I had acquired a basic knowledge of Sanskrit, and was introduced into the study of Hinduism as an academic discipline. Together with other optional modules I had chosen to study in my undergraduate degree, such as Cosmology, Anthropology and Geography, I hoped to combine my interests and fascination with India and its rich and ancient forms of wisdom and culture. I tried to learn the ways that Western culture relates to and understands India as well as how both may be fusing to create new forms of culture and identity. 

UK

Christ Church

Currently pursuing a BA in Theology, University of Oxford

BA at the University of Denver.

Tucker is a visiting student at Blackfriars in Theology and Philosophy.

UK

Keble College

BA (1st Class, Hons) Religious Studies, Edinburgh University.

M.St. in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2006.

Interests include methodological issues in the Study of Religions and religious law, particularly 11th century Hindu (Dayabhaga) law and modern Islamist ideas; also interfaith dialogue, particularly Hindu-Muslim relations. President of the Religious Studies Society in Oxford.

Sweden

MA in Religious Studies with major in History of Religions from Gothenburg University, 2005.

Ferdinando is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Gothenburg University in Sweden. He has received a scholarship from The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education and will spend two terms in spring 2008 at the OCHS as a visiting scholar.

He is working on a project that explores the philosophy and history of modern devotional mysticism. The focus of the study is on Vaishnavism in Bengal during the vital beginnings of the 20th century. He has studied and carried out field work in India for a total period of eight months since 2004. He is currently affiliated to the Department of Sociology, Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

USA

Lady Margaret Hall

BA in Religious Studies and Urdu, School of African & Oriental Studies, London, 1993.

Daniel is studying at the Univesity of Caifornia, Berkeley, USA, where he is majoring in Religious Studies and Classics.

Daniel was a visiting student to Oxford studying Hinduism and Latin Literature during his stay. 

France

St Cross College

Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Bard College, USA, 2000.

Master of Arts in Indian Philosophy from Banaras Hindu University, India, 2002.

Completed his D.Phil at the University of Oxford. His research dealt with the non-dual system of Vedanta as presented by its most celebrated exponent, the late 7th century AD philosopher, Shankara.

His thesis examined Shankara's soteriological tradition in the light of certain pedagogical and interpretive principles. It introduced the key teaching techniques, which allow Shankara to formulate a coherent and cohesive system of thought from the variegated materials of the Advaita Vedanta tradition. As a whole, his work attempts to show that the soteriological value of Shankara Vedanta lies in its being based on well-established principles of textual interpretation and, ultimately, on universal experience.

UK

Mansfield College

BSc Sociology, University of Bath

MSc Development Studies, London School of Economics

MSt in the Study of Religions (specifically Buddhism and Hinduism), University of Oxford, 2007

I left a finance position of 4 years to come to Oxford. I had previously taken the part time course in Hindu Studies, run by the OCHS in London, out of interest. This course inspired me to further study and hence Oxford.

My specific area of interest in Buddhism is related to the nature of Buddhist involvement in the conflict in Sri Lanka. It is a lot more difficult to pin-point specific areas of interest in Hinduism because there are many! One of the areas I hope to explore, however, is the concept of God in the saguna and nirguna bhakti traditions.

USA

Wolfson College

BA in Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley, 1996

MSt in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2000. Thesis: An Analysis of Challenges to the Validity of the Tattva-sandarbha as Representative of the Philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Manjari is presently living in India studying Sanskrit and Hindi and working for a publishing company which specializes in English translations of Sanskrit and Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava literature. 

Israel

Wolfson Colege

B.A. The Hebrew University in Jerusalem: Sanskrit, Indology, Western Philosophy and Religous Studies.

M.A. The Tel Aviv University. Thesis: The Metaphysical Structure of the Bhagavad gita.

M.Litt. The University of Oxford. Thesis: Rasa and Vedanta in the Bhagavata Purana, 2004.

PhD. The University of Haifa. Thesis: Personhood and Aesthetics in the Bhagavata Purana , 2007. Post Doctorate. The University of Cambridge. 2007-2008

Recipient of OCHS Bursary of £200 in 2001.

For ongoing updates please see Ithamar's home page at: http://east-asia.haifa.ac.il/staff/itheodor.htm

Kenneth Valpey, USA (1999–2004)

St Cross College

BA (honours) in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 1996.

MA, in the Cultural and Historical Study of Religion, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, US. 1998.

M.St. in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2000.

D.Phil., Oxford University, offering a dissertation entitled The Grammar and Poetics of Murti-Seva: Caitanya Vaisnava Image Worship as Discourse, Ritual, and Narrative, 2004.

In 2006 Dr Valpey's dissertation was published in revised form with the Routledge/OCHS Hindu Studies Series as a monograph entitled Attending Krsna’s Image: Caitanya Vaisnava Murti-seva as Devotional Truth.

He is presently working with Dr. Ravi M. Gupta on an edited volume, a ‘companion’ to the Bhagavata Purana, and on a translation of a 16th century Sanskrit Vaisnava ritual text, the Haribhaktivilasa, together with Dr. Mans Broo (Abo Akademie, Finland).

Having taught courses in Indian and Asian religions for the year 2006 at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and having taught for the academic year 2007-08 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, he presently continues to teach at CUHK each Autumn semester as a Visiting Scholar.

USA

St Edmund Hall

BA Religion, University of Rochester, USA, 2001

MA, UC Berkley, USA, 2003

M Phil, Classical Indian Religions, University of Oxford, 2005

Christopher's main areas of interest were Shaivism, Tantric Shaivism, and Veda.

Bjarne Wernicke Olesen is from Aarhus, Denmark. He was awarded his BA in Classical Indology and his BA and MA in the Study of Religion from Aarhus University where he now teaches courses in Sanskrit, Pāli and Indian religions at the Section for the Study of Religion. He has travelled extensively in Asia and Europe, studied in Hamburg, Delhi, and Kathmandu, and spend time as a visiting scholar at OCHS. In 2007 he received a PhD scholarship at the Faculty of Theology, Aarhus University, and is currently undertaking doctoral research in the area of Hindu ‘Śāktism’ and working on the Śākta Traditions project at OCHS together with Prof. Gavin Flood. He is a Research Fellow of the Centre and interested in Hindu and Buddhist traditions in South Asia (especially medieval Tantric traditions), Hindu Studies, and the history of research on religion. He is coauthor of a new Danish translation of the Bhagavadgītā published in 2009.

UK

Jesus College

BA Joint Honours, Philosophy & Theology, Birmingham University, UK. Thesis: "The Seperation of Praxis & Theory in Western Religion & Philosophy".

MSt. In the Study of Religion, Oxford University. Thesis: "The Teleology of Ramanuja's Theology, focusing on Buddhism and Hinduism".

Recipient of OCHS Book Grant of £50 in 2006.