Dean Varun Soni |
VARUN SONI is the Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California (USC). He is a University Fellow at USC Annenberg's Center on Public Diplomacy, an Adjunct Professor at USC's School of Religion, and a member of the State Bar of California, the American Academy of Religion, and the Association for College and University Religious Affairs. He serves on the advisory board for the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement, the Journal for Interreligious Dialogue, CrossCurrents, Hindu American Seva Charities, Truli Christian Media, and the Parliament of the World's Religions. Prior to joining USC, he spent four years teaching in the Law and Society Program at UC Santa Barbara. He produced the critically acclaimed graphic novel Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary, which is currently being adapted for television. He also produced and hosted his own radio show on KPFK/Pacifica showcasing music from South Asia and its diaspora. He holds degrees in religion from Tufts University, Harvard Divinity School, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Cape Town, as well as a law degree from UCLA School of Law.
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Philip Goldberg |
PHILIP GOLDBERG has been studying India’s spiritual traditions for more than forty years, as both a practitioner and an author. He is the author or coauthor of nineteen books, including Roadsigns on the Spiritual Path and his latest, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West, which was named one of the top ten religion books of the year by both the Huffington Post and the American Library Association’s Booklist. A public speaker and workshop leader, he has given presentations at venues throughout the country and has appeared in national media. An ordained Interfaith Minister and spiritual counselor, he blogs regularly on the Huffington Post and Elephant Journal. His websites are www.AmericanVeda.com and www.PhilipGoldberg.com. |
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Swami Atmavidyananda |
SWAMI ATMAVIDYANANDA is a Swami of the Ramakrishna Order of India. He joined the order in 1978 and took final vows in 1990. Currently he is the treasurer of the Vedanta Society of Southern California and the organist-choir director- composer . He was born in 1949 in Los Angeles. He received his BA degree in Mathematics from Occidental College, and a masters in teaching from Stanford University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His hobbies include gardening (especially raising and hybridizing bearded iris and camellias), astronomy, and alternative healing. In addition to being the treasurer and general office manager for the Vedanta Society of Southern California, he gives talks to school and church groups, conducts classes, and has both lectured on and organized seminars about the relationship of various subjects to Vedanta Philosophy. He has given lectures across the country and abroad. He is currently serving as the campus minister for Hinduism at USC. He served as president of the University Religious Conference at UCLA for four years. He also is a composer, having written two interfaith operas, three oratorios on the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, numerous choral works and over 20 instrumental works including one symphony based on songs to Rama.
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Sarba Das |
SARBA DAS received her B.A. in Philosophy and Film Studies from Yale University and an M.F.A. in directing from N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her feature directorial debut, Karma Calling premiered at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival to sold out audiences. The critically-acclaimed film has picked up Best Feature Film Awards at the New Jersey International Film Festival and the Philadelphia Film Festival, and an Audience Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The screenplay for Karma Calling was the 2006 recipient of the prestigious Richard Vague Production Grant and was released by Freestyle Digital Media in June of this year. It is currently available on itunes, amazon.com, and On Demand. Sarba has also worked in unscripted television and her credits as a producer include, ABC’s Emmy award-winning series Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and ABC's Secret Millionaire. She is currently an executive at ABC where she serves as Manager of Alternative Series. Sarba has been an exponent of Indian Classical Dance (Odissi Style) for over 25 years and has performed widely in the US, Canada and abroad. She is an avid student of Vedic scripture, yoga and meditation. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
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Dr. Rita Sherma |
Professor RITA D. SHERMA is the Swami Vivekananda Visiting Faculty in Hindu Studies at the School of Religion, USC. Dr. Sherma is a scholar of Hindu Studies and Applied Dharma Studies and holds an MA in Religion and a Ph.D. in Theology and Ethics. At USC, Professor Sherma is teaching The Living Traditions of Hindu Yoga; The Art and Music of Yoga, and Directed Research in Yoga Traditions, and Ecology & Hinduism. Dr. Sherma has published five edited books, and is currently editing the Hinduism Volume for the Springer Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Her new book Ecology, Ethics, & Enlightenment: A Hindu Ecological Philosophy is forthcoming. She has been involved in the creation of new academic initiatives in the study and teaching of Indic dharma traditions. A few of her enterprises include: (1) establishment of the first Program Unit (division) in Hindu Studies, at the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the principal international organization of scholars and teachers of the world’s religions; (2) co-founding the Dharma Academy of North America (DANAM), a scholarly society which sponsors the in-depth exploration of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh Dharma Traditions, produces books on Dharma Studies, and is one the largest additional symposia at the AAR; (3) initiation of the International Journal of Dharma Studies (a project of DCF); (4) establishment of the Dharma Civilization Foundation’s Center for Dharma Studies at Claremont Lincoln University (CLU), with the mission of promoting academic, spiritual, and cultural events in collaboration with the Hindu, Jain, and Sikh programs at CLU; and (5) development of the first comprehensive Hindu Chaplaincy Program. Dr. Sherma is the Editor of the International Journal of Dharma Studies.
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Vinayak Bharne |
VINAYAK BHARNE is a joint faculty of urbanism and planning at the Sol Price School of Public Policy and the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, and Director of Design at Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists in Pasadena, California. His work ranges from new towns, inner-city revitalization and campuses to urban policies and strategic advising for government and private clients in the United States, Canada, India, United Arab Emirates, Panama, Kenya and Mauritius, and has received numerous awards from the American Planning Association, Congress for the New Urbanism and United States Environmental Protection Agency. His academic research intersects city design, public policy, and the global water crisis, with ongoing projects in Banaras, India, Mie, Japan, and Yazd, Iran. He is the editor of "The Emerging Asian City: Concomitant Urbanities & Urbanisms”, a seminal 24-chapter book on the phenomenological aspects of urban Asia. He is also the co-author of “Rediscovering the Hindu Temple: The Sacred Architecture & Urbanism of India,” and contributing author of several books such as "Planning Los Angeles", "Los Angeles: Building the Polycentric Region", and "Aesthetics of Sustainable Architecture". A former Asia-Pacific Development Commission Traveling Scholar to Japan, and recipient of the prestigious Presidential Fellowship at the USC Marshall School of Business, he currently serves as a contributing editor of Kyoto Journal in Japan, contributing blogger of Planetizen in Los Angeles, expert commentator in the think tank The Urban Vision in India, Resource Council member at the Form Based Codes Institute in Chicago, and Advisory Board member of the international non-profit Global Urban Development.
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Dr. James McHugh |
JAMES MCHUGH teaches South Asian and Dharmic cultural courses through USC's School of Religion. His research interests are in the material culture of religions and the role of the senses in religion. He works on medieval South Asian materials using Sanskrit sources, and the focus of his first book is the sense of smell and the use of aromatics in South Asian religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. He is currently starting work on a project, projected to be a monograph, on the history of alcohol in South Asian religions. He is also interested in the technology of writing materials, the role of old age in religion, and gemstones in South Asian religions. Among his research specialties are material culture of South Asian religions, smell, aromatics and religion, history of perfumery, history of alcohol in India, Sanskrit literary and technical texts, and material culture theory. |