Oxford Centre for
Hindu Studies Online
Oxford Centre for
Hindu Studies Online
Tutor
Dr Raj Balkaran is a scholar of Sanskrit narrative texts and the author of The Goddess and the King in Indian Myth (Routledge 2018), The Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth (Routledge 2020). Having taught comparative religion and mythology at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies for a decade, he now Tutors at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies where he also serves on the Continuing Education Department’s Course Development Board. Alongside his academic training, he has received extensive spiritual training as part of an oral tradition dedicated to the transmission of Indian wisdom teachings. Integrating his academic and spiritual training, he has founded the online School of Indian Wisdom where he designs and delivers original online courses centred on the practical life wisdom to be found in the philosophical, mythological and spiritual traditions of ancient India. Beyond teaching and research, Dr Balkaran runs a thriving life consulting practice and hosts the New Books in Indian Religions podcast.
TutorCourse Creator
Guy L. Beck is a scholar, author, musician, educator, historian of religions, and musicologist. A Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (Oxford University, UK), he is Lecturer in Philosophy, Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Tulane University, and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Loyola University New Orleans. Guy Beck is the first to publish a comprehensive study of the nature and function of sacred sound (Nada-Brahman) in the Hindu religion. He has created the first college textbook on music in the major world religions and is the first American to perform vocal music in an all-India conference of Hindustani classical music. Prof. Beck has produced the first and most complete collection of field recordings, translations, and annotations of the hymns and religious songs of the Radhavallabha Sampradaya, a Vaishnava or Krishna sect based in Vrindavan in northern India. His most recent publication is Musicology of Religion: Theories, Methods, and Directions (SUNY Press, 2023).
TutorCourse Creator
Daniela Bevilacqua is an Indianist specialising in Hindu asceticism, investigated through an ethnographic and historical perspective. She is currently a researcher at CRIA (ISCTE-IUL) in Lisbon. She worked as a post-doctoral researcher at SOAS, for the ERC-funded Haṭha Yoga Project (2015–2020). She is the author of Modern Hindu Traditionalism in Contemporary India, published by Routledge; From Tapas to Modern Yoga forthcoming in 2024 published by Equinox,; and several articles and book chapters on topics related to Hindu religious tradition, gender, and embodied practices.
Course Creator
Mandakranta Bose is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. She is also Professor Emerita, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, Canada. She studied Sanskrit and Hindu religious texts in Calcutta, comparative literature in Vancouver, and holds a doctorate from Oxford in textual studies in the classical performing arts of India. Mandakranta is the editor of The Ramayana Revisited (2004) and Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India (2000).
Course Creator
Måns Broo is a senior lecturer in Religious Studies at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. His research interests include yoga, tantra, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Dr Broo is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
TutorCourse Creator
Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and founding director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). in Los Angeles.
He has published more than twenty books including Karma and Creativity; Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions; Yoga and the Luminous; Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas; and several edited volumes on religion and ecology.
He has received numerous grants for his research, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Nehru Fellowship program. He serves on the advisory boards for the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale), the Ahimsa Center (Pomona), the Jaina Studies Centre (London), the Dharma Academy of North America (Berkeley), the Uberoi Foundation (Denver), the South Asian Studies Association (Los Angeles), and the International School for Jain Studies (Delhi). He also teaches online for LMU’s Center for Religion and Spirituality.
TutorCourse CreatorCourse Development Board
Prof. Gavin Flood is Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at Oxford University, Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall. His publications include Religion and the Philosophy of Life (2019), The Truth Within: A History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism (2013), The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in Our Strange World (2012), and The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory, and Tradition (2004). He is also the General Editor of the series ‘The Oxford History of Hinduism’ and is a Fellow of the British Academy.
Course Creator
Dr Jessica Frazier has degrees in Sanskrit, Religious Studies, and Philosophy of Religion from Oxford and Cambridge. Dr Frazier edits the Journal of Hindu Studies and teaches Hinduism and other religious traditions at Oxford University. She recently published Reality, Religion, and Passion, a comparison of Western and Indian approaches to religious truth.
TutorCourse Creator
Ravi was an early Doctoral student at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He now holds the Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies and serves as Professor and Department Head of the Department of History at Utah State University. He is the author or editor of four books, including an abridged translation of the Bhagavata Purana with Kenneth Valpey (Columbia University Press, 2017). Ravi has received four teaching awards, a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship, and two research fellowships at Oxford. He is a Permanent Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a past president of the Society for Hindu Christian Studies. His current research focuses on the Bhagavata Purana’s Sanskrit commentaries.
Tutor
With a D.Phil. in Theology and Religion at Oxford, Alan is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His current projects include philosophical approaches to the Vaiṣṇava concept of God and the intersection between Hinduism and secular society.
Course Development BoardAdministration
Lal Krishna is from Australia. He studied Linguistics at Deakin University, Melbourne, and has a BSc in Computing. Lal is your first port of call if you need help with anything administrative or technical. You can email him at lal@ochs.org.uk or by using the contact form.
course_creator:Course Creator
Layne teaches Hinduism, Buddhism, Esoterism, and Religion and Popular Culture at U.C. Berkeley and at California State University: Sacramento. He wrote the “Hinduism” and “Buddhism” chapters in Oxford University Press’ newest world religions textbook, Invitation to World Religions. He is co-author of OUP’s Invitation to Western Religions and Invitation to Asian Religions. In addition, he has published numerous articles on Śaiva Siddhānta, Tamiḻ Literature, and Siddha Tantrism.
Video
Danny is an independent film maker, camera operator, and DP. He started his career in the industry as a child actor, finally moving into the technical side of film making in 2010. His talent is to tell engaging stories, factual or fictional, with strong visual images.
TutorCourse Creator
Gitte has a Masters in Religious Studies from Aarhus University, Denmark but has completed most of her studies in Varanasi, India, and as a visiting student at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Gitte’s focus is on Yoga, Tantra, and Sanskrit. She is also a dedicated practitioner of āsana and prāṇāyāma. She manages the OCHS Kathmandu Office where she oversees the daily operation and focuses on Nepali and Newari language as well as Śākta traditions among the Newar community of The Kathmandu Valley.
TutorCourse Creator
Sarah Shaw is a longtime practitioner and teacher of Buddhism. She is a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and faculty member and lecturer at the University of Oxford. She is the Khyentse Foundation Reader in Buddhist Studies, University of South Wales. She has taught and published numerous works on the history and practices of Buddhism, including Mindfulness and Spirit of Buddhist Meditation.
TutorCourse Creator
Daniel Simpson brings yoga history and philosophy to life. He’s the author of two books on these subjects – The Truth of Yoga (2021) and The Evolution of Modern Yoga (forthcoming) – as well as hosting the Ancient Futures podcast. Daniel has an M.A. in yoga studies from SOAS (University of London), where he subsequently taught. In a previous career, he was a foreign correspondent, which helps him to demystify complex topics and make them accessible. His website is: https://www.danielsimpson.info
TutorCourse Creator
Dr Zoë Slatoff has created and tutors a comprehensive series of Sanskrit courses for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. She has a PhD in Religion and Philosophy from Lancaster University and an MA in Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. She teaches Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy in the Yoga Studies MA program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Zoë is the author of Yogāvatāraṇam: The Translation of Yoga, a Sanskrit textbook based on classic yoga texts. She also taught for many years at her yoga shala in NY, Ashtanga Yoga Upper West Side.
TutorCourse Creator
Nick is the Director – and the heart and soul – of the OCHS Continuing Education Department. He is a dedicated teacher with decades of experience in making sometimes-confusing traditions relevant. He has created over a dozen online courses and is working on many more. He has written translations and commentary on Bhagavad Gītā and the Yoga Sūtra. Nick received his Phd from Lancaster University (1995). His thesis was on the religious teachings of the Mahabharata.
TutorCourse Creator
Ken Valpey is one of the OCHS’s early students receiving his Doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2004. He is a theologian with a particular interest in animal ethics. He is an OCHS Fellow and a co-director of our Bhagavata Purana Research Project.