About

Board of Governors

Shaunaka Rishi Das

Shaunaka Rishi Das is Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

Shaunaka is committed to inter-religious and theological dialogue and has served as an executive member of the Interfaith Network UK and the Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum. He is also a broadcaster and lecturer. Shaunaka has practiced as a Vaishnava Priest since 1982 and has been a member of ISKCON since 1979. He presently serves as an executive member of ISKCON's Communications and Education Ministries, and the ISKCON Studies Institute. He is the editor of the ISKCON Studies Journal, a scholarly journal of dialogue and discussion. Shaunaka is married to Keshava Devi.

Lord Navnit Dholakia OBE

Navnit Dholakia is the Chairman of our Board. He was appointed Baron Dholakia of Waltham Brooks and was introduced to the House of Lords in 1997. Lord Dholakia was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the County of West Sussex in 1999. He is Chairman of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders and also Chairs its Race Issues Advisory Committee. He has been on the Council of Save the Children Fund. He serves on the Council of the Howard League for Penal Reform and is on the Editorial Board of the Howard Journal. He is a trustee of the Mental Health Foundation and is on the Governing Body of the Commonwealth Institute. Lord Dholakia is also on the Management Board of the Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity. In addition to these activities, Lord Dholakia is a member of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the London School of Economics. He is a member of the Home Secretary's Race Forum. Lord Dholakia is a member of the Home Affairs team and is a Liberal Democrat Whip. In the Lords he serves on the Select Committees on the House of Lords Offices and European Communities Sub-Committee. He is a member of the House of Lords Appointments Commission and is President of the Liberal Democrats.

Dr Sharmila Bhattacharya Ford

Dr Sharmila Bhattacharya Ford is a practicing Vaishnava, philanthropist, mother of two, and wife of Alfred Ford, great grandson of automobile pioneer, Henry Ford. Born in Jaipur, India, Dr Ford received her doctorate from the University of New South Wales, Australia. She has published papers in the Journal of Lipid Research, Arteriosclerosis, and Biochemistry, and presented work at several of the International Conference on Arteriosclerosis. She is a board member of The Vrinda Trust and Bhaktivedanta Cultural Center at Devasadana Mandir in Detroit. Dr Ford and her husband have generously supported numerous projects around the world dedicated to preserving and promoting understanding and appreciation of Indian history and culture. They have been given several awards in recognition of their service to Indian culture throughout the world.

Prof. Richard Gombrich

Prof. Richard Gombrich acted as the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1976 to 2004. He is currently Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Joint General Editor for the Clay Sanskrit Library and a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Previous appointments have included the Gonda Lecturer at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997) and the Edmond Perry Lecturer at Northwestern University (1998). He is the recipient of several honorary degrees and medals including a University Medal, from Warsaw University and an Hon. D.Litt from the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, India. He is the author nearly 200 books, articles and book reviews. Prof. Gombrich is also President and Treasurer of the Pali Text Society as a member of the Academia Europaea.

Prof. Martin Goodman FBA

Prof. Goodman represents the Oriental Studies Faculty of Oxford University on our Board.

Peggy Morgan

Peggy Morgan is currently Honorary President of the British Association for the Study of Religions and Lecturer in World Religions at Mansfield College, Oxford, Where she convenes a fortnightly interdisciplinary seminar series in the study of religions. 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 and her publications include: (with C. Lawton) Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions; (with M. Braybrooke) Testing the Global Ethic; and (with W.O. Cole) and Six Religions in the Twenty-First Century.

Dr John Muddiman

The Reverend Dr John Muddiman is the G. B. Caird Fellow in New Testament Theology at Mansfield College, Oxford. Amongst his academic works he has produced a critically-acclaimed examination of authorship in the Epistle to the Ephesians. Moreover, along with John Barton, he has co-edited the Oxford Bible Commentary, a particular favourite amongst undergraduate theologians. Dr Muddiman represents the Theology Faculty of Oxford University on our Board.

Harish IK Patel

Harish IK Patel grew up in Tanzania and is now a hotelier, in London. Harish was the first winner of the Help the Aged SEVA award 2003. Through the IK Foundation (set up by his grandfather), his family and friends support educational projects, eye hospitals and disaster relief work in India. Patel also funds a 40-bed home for older people in Gujarat, which he visits each year. Projects in the UK include a sensory garden in Richmond Park for disabled people and centres for the Asian community in Cardiff, Preston and Wembley in London.

Mrs Neerja Sethi

Neerja Sethi

Neerja Sethi, Vice President of Internal Affairs and Co-founder of Syntel, Inc., has nearly 20 years of experience in the software development industry. Since 1980, Ms. Sethi has been instrumental in the strategic direction of the Company. She holds a master's degree in computer science, a master's degree in operations research, and a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Her charitable contributions include various charities and social work in connection with education.

Pramod Thakkar

Pramod Thakkar is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jalaram Charitable Trust (Temple), Leicester.

Prof. Keith Ward FBA

Keith Ward

Keith Ward was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University from 1991 until 2004. He is currently Gresham Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London. He is the holder of six University degrees, including three from Oxford and one from Cambridge. Previous appointments have included Fellow, Dean and Director of Studies in Philosophy and Theology, Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Head of the Department of History and Philosophy, University of London. He is also an honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of many books, including Religion and Revelation, Religions and Creation, Religion and Human Nature and Religion and Community. Prof. Ward is married with two adult children.

Former Board members

Dr Bettina Schmidt 2006-2007

Bettina Schmidt

Dr Bettina Schmidt is currently Lecturer in the Study of Religions at the University of Bangor, Wales. Academic degrees: 1989 MA in anthropology and religious studies (University of Marburg, Germany); 1995 PhD with a thesis about ethnicity and religion in Puerto Rico (honored with the University Award of the University of Marburg in 1996); 2001 habilitation (post-doc degree) with a book about cultural theories and Caribbean religions in New York City (University of Marburg). Research interests: anthropology of religion, diaspora, cultural theories, urban studies, and gender issues. Fieldworks in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador and New York City Former occupation: lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Oxford; academic assistant at the Institute of Comparative Religious and Cultural Studies at the University of Marburg; lecturer in anthropology, researcher, Visiting Professor at the City University of New York; and of the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad in Cusco, Peru. Dr Schmidt represented the Theology Faculty of Oxford University on our Board.

Prof. David Patterson CBE 1999 - 2002

1922 - 2005

Professor David Patterson was the President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, which he founded in 1972. In 2002, the Graduate Diploma in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the Oxford Centre became an M. St. (Master of Studies) Degree of Oxford University. Professor Patterson wasa Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, and was the Cowley Lecturer in Postbiblical Hebrew at Oxford University 1956-89. He held the degrees of BA, MA and PhD from Manchester University and an MA from Oxford University. He also held an Honorary Doctorate of Hebrew Letters from Baltimore Hebrew University and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion, New York.

His publications include Abraham Mapu the First Hebrew Novelist published in 1964 and republished in 1968; The Hebrew Novel in Czarist Russia published in 1964 with a second revised edition published in 1999; A Phoenix in Fetters published in 1990 and Tradition and Trauma published in 1994 (jointly edited with Dr Glenda Abramson). His translations include The King of Flesh and Blood by M. Shamir published in 1958; Out of the Depths by JHBrenner published in 1992, and Random Harvest: The Novellas of Bialiktranslated jointly with Professor Ezra Spicehandler, 1999 and republished 2002, while translations of novels by JH Brenner are due for publication in 2004.

Professor Patterson was awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2003 for “Services to Jewish Studies”. Since the inception of the award in 1917 this is the first time an honour has been awarded for services to Jewish Studies.