Archives: Team Members

Arti Dhand is Associate Professor of South Asian Religion at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include the Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and The Mahabharata, and she is the author of Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage. Most recently, she is also host of The Mahabharata Podcast. 

Shubha Pathak, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, American University, interprets epic myths from India, Greece, and Rome.  Having authored Divine Yet Human Epics: Reflections of Poetic Rulers from Ancient Greece and India, she is a Steering Committee member of the American Academy of Religion’s Mahābhārata and Classical Hinduism Seminar.

Greg Bailey, formerly Reader in Sanskrit, is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Linguistics and Culture, La Trobe University, Melbourne. He has published translations and studies of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Bhartṛhari’s Śatakatrayam and books on early Buddhism, Australian politics and many articles on Sanskrit literature.

Simon Brodbeck studied at the University of Cambridge and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a Reader in Religious Studies at Cardiff University, where he has worked since 2008. His books include The Mahabharata Patriline and Krishna’s Lineage: the Harivamsha of Vyasa’s Mahabharata. 

Christopher R. Austin is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he lectures widely on the religious traditions of India, China, Japan and Tibet. His research focuses chiefly on the Sanskrit epics, Krishna and his son Pradyumna, and early Vaishnavism.

Brenda Beck holds a D.Phil. from Oxford (1968). Her thesis built around several years of research work in the villages of Tamil Nadu. Since then, she has taught at several North American universities and lectured at many more around the world. She has twice been a Guest Lecturer in India courtesy of the Indian Government. She has authored and/or edited eight books and more than fifty articles, mainly focused on the rich traditions and beliefs shared by Hindus in the rural areas of Kongu Nadu, a part of Tamil Nadu.

Hillary Rodrigues is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. His books include Ritual Worship of the Great Goddess and the co-edited Nine Nights of the Goddess. His digital publications include Hinduism-the eBook and Eastern Religions: Understanding Our Religious World. He has been honoured with his institution’s Distinguished Teaching Medal.

Caleb Simmons is an associate professor of Religious Studies and specialises in religion in South Asia, especially Hinduism. He is the author of Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India, and edited (with Moumita Sen and Hillary Rodrigues) the scholarly collection of essays titled Nine Nights of the Goddess: The Navarātri Festival in South Asia.