Faculty and staff

Past Academic Directors at the Centre

Prof. Pratap Kumar (Director of Academic Affairs 2004–5)
Pratap Kumar has studied in India for his undergraduate and postgraduate levels and received his Ph.D from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. He is the author of The Goddess Lakshmi: The Divine Consort in South Indian Vaishnava Tradition (Scholars Press, 1997),Hindus in South Africa (University of Durban-Westville, 2000) and has, together with Knut Jacobsen, edited the volume on South Asians in the Diaspora (E.J.Brill, 2004). He is also the Series Editor for the Numen Book Series of the International Association for the History of Religions. He is a Professor and Director of the School of Religion and Theology at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Francis Clooney

Prof. Francis X. Clooney SJ (Director of Academic Affairs 2001–4)
Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard University, USA, since 2005. Francis is a Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Society of Jesus. He was previously Professor of Comparative Theology at Boston College, where he taught since 1984, after earning his doctorate in South Asian languages and civilizations from the University of Chicago. He served as Academic Director of the OCHS from 2001- 2004. His primary areas of scholarship have been theological commentarial writings in the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India, and the developing field of comparative theology, a discipline distinguished by attentiveness to the dynamics of theological reading and writing in light of traditions other than one's own. He has also written on the Jesuit missionary tradition, particularly in India, and is interested in the dynamics of dialogue in a postcolonial world. He is on numerous editorial boards; was the first president of the International Society for Hindu-Christian Studies; and, from 1998 to 2004, was coordinator for interreligious dialogue for the Society of Jesus. Professor Clooney is the author of numerous articles and books, including Fr. Bouchet's India: An 18th-Century Jesuit's Encounter With Hinduism (Satyam Nilayam Publications, 2005), Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (Oxford University Press, 2005), and, most recently, Jesuit Postmodern: Scholarship, Vocation, and Identity in the 21st Century (Lexington Books, 2006). He is currently writing a book on surrender to God in the writings of Vedanta Desika (fourteenth-century India) and Francis de Sales (seventeenth-century Geneva).

M. N. Narasimhachary

Prof. M. N. Narasimhachary (Director of Academic Affairs 2000–1)
Founder Professor & Head (Retired), Department of Vaishnavism, University of Madras, India. His specialist subjects include the Pre-Ramanuja Religion and Philosophy, Pancharatra Agama Literature, Telugu and Sanskrit Literature and popularisation of Sanskrit as a spoken tongue. He has published a number of articles and monographs in academic journals on topics such as the Samskrita Svapnah, Bhakti & Prapatti in Srivaishnava Philosophy and the Pancaratra-kantakoddhara. Important Publications include: The Contribution of Yaamuna to Visistadvaita [Pub; Jayalakshmi Publications, Hyderabad]; Critical Edition and Study of Yaamuna's Aagamapraamaanya [pub: Gaekwad's Oriental Series, Baroda]; and an English translation of Sri Vedanta Desika's Padukasahasram and all of his 32 Stotras. Prof. Narasimhachary received the Certificate of Honour for Proficiency in Sanskrit from the President of India for the year 2004.

Prof. Joseph O'Connell

Prof. Joseph O'Connell (Director of Academic Affairs 1999–2000)
Prof. Joseph O'Connell is Professor Emeritus in the Study of Religion at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. Since his Ph.D studies on 'Social Implications of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Movement' at Harvard University (USA) and Government Sanskrit College (Calcutta), he has researched, taught and published extensively on religion and society in India and Bangladesh, especially on Vaishnavas and Muslims in Bengal. He has edited or co-edited several volumes on Bengali studies and Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Prof. Thomas Hopkins

Prof. Thomas Hopkins (Director of Academic Affairs 1998–9)
Prof. Thomas Hopkins is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College, USA. He is the author of The Hindu Religious Tradition and has published numerous articles and encyclopaedia entries on all aspects on Indian religious life ranging from the Indus Civilisation to modern Bengal Vaishnavism. His special interest in the Vaishnava devotional tradition led to his first meeting with A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in New York in 1966, which focused his attention on the newly emerging ISKCON movement and started a long-term study of ISKCON's history and theology.

Prof. Thomas Hopkins

Prof. Klaus Klostermaier (Director of Academic Affairs 1997–8)
Prof. Klaus Klostermaier is a distinguished and eminent scholar in the study of Sanskrit and comparative religion, specialising in Hinduism. He conducted a notable field study in Vrindavan, India where he researched Vaishnavism. He retired as University Distinguished Professor and Head of Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba, Canada in 1999. He is the author of many publications among which are: Hindu and Christian in Vrindaban (1969), A Survey of Hinduism (1989), and A Concise Encyclopaedia of Hinduism (1998).