Current students

Rahul Ahluwalia
UK
St Benet's Hall
2009

Rahul is studying for a BA (PPE).


Kristian Akselberg
UK
Pembroke College
2009

Kristian is studying for an M.St. in Theology.


Wahid Amin
UK
Pembroke College
2009

Wahid is study for an M.St. in the Study of Religions. His main interests are in Islam, philosophy, Hinduism, and anthropology.


Charlotte Batchelor
UK
Regent's Park
2009

Charlotte is working on her M.St. in the Study of Religion with a focus on Hinduism and Islam.


Jason Birch
Australia
Balliol
2009

B.Comm 1996, BA (Hons) 2005 University of Sydney

Jason is pursuing a D.Phil in Oriental Studies with a focus on Sanskrit and yoga.


Hrvoje Cargonja
Croatia
St John's College
2009

Hrvoje is a visiting from the University of Zagreb on the OSI/FCO Chevening Programme. He is studying religious experience and the phenomenology of religion.


Beatrice Cernuta
Italy
Worcester College
2010

Beatrice is studying Sanskrit and classics


Jessamine Dana
USA
Wolfson College
2006

BA, Simon's Rock College of Bard, 2001.

M Phil, in material anthropology and museum ethnography, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, 2005.

Currently pursuing DPhil, University of Oxford, in social and cultural anthropology. Research area: ritual anthropology of the senses, religious politics, phenomenology, Buddhist and Hindu Studies.

 


Kelly A. Dhru
India
University College
2009

A graduate of Gujarat National Law University, Kelly is doing a post-graduate course in law. Her main interest is in jurisprudence and political theory with a focus on relating Hindu philosophy to legal philosophy. 


Brian Dunn
Canada
Regents Park
2010

Brian is studying for his D.Phil. in Theology. His main areas of interest are comparative theology, Ramanuja, Srivaisnava and Visistadvaitin thought, Anglican sacramental theology, and second-century patrisitcs.


Tristan Edward Elby
UK
St Peter's College
2009

BA in Theology of Religious Studies at Cambridge.

Paul is working on his M.St. in the Study or Religion. His areas of interest are Hindu conceptions of 'sacred time', the 'renouncer' traditions, and Hindu and Buddhist tantic traditions.

Recipient of Ram Lal Patel Bursary of £500 in 2009; OCHS Book Grant of £50 in 2009.


Paul Gerstmayer
Germany
Balliol College
2010

Paul is studying for a BA in Sanskrit and Oriental Studies. His main interests are Sanskrit, Indology, and comparative religion.


Corin Golding
UK
Wolfson College
2009

MA at SOAS in South Asian Studies (language and religion).

Corin is pursuing a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies. His focus is on religious interaction in the Himalayas and the anthropology or the Indian and Tibetan Himalaya.

Recipient of Ram Lal Patel Bursary of £500 in 2009.
 


Ayush Goyal
USA
Balliol College
2007

BS Electrical Engineering, summa cum laude, Boise State University, USA, 2005. Recipient of Boise State Top Ten Scholar Award and Eta Kappa Nu Honourable Mention.

Currently pursuing a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford in AI (Artificial Intelligence) Modeling of Biological Systems. His research interests include Human versus Computer Cognition, Sanskrit Syntax in Modern Computation, Ethics of Computer Chip Implantation in Human Subjects, Social Repercussions of Genomic Engineering, and Distinguishing Humans from Computers in the Bionic Era.

Ayush is a recipient of a three-year Clarendon Fund Scholarship from the University of Oxford.


Gopal Hari Gupta
USA
The Queen’s College
2005

BS in Electrical Engineering, Boise State University, 2001. Recipient of the United States Achievement Academy National Engineering Collegiate Award.

MS in Artificial Intelligence, Boise State University, 2004. Thesis: “Principal Component Analysis and Bayesian Classifier Based Character Recognition,” published by the American Institute of Physics.

MSt in Science and Religion, University of Oxford, 2006. Thesis: “An Assessment of the Discussion of Self-Awareness in the Writings of Daniel Dennett in Light of the Bhagavad-Gita.”

Currently pursuing a D.Phil. in Science and Hinduism. Research interests include: conceptions of consciousness, nature and divine agency in classical and contemporary Hindu thought.

Gopal is a recipient of the Clarendon Fund Scholarship from the University of Oxford and the Cyril and Phillis Long Studentship from the Queen’s College.

 


Meijia Ling
UK
Wadham
2010

Meijia is studying for a BA in Sanskrit.


Rembert Lutjeharms
Belgium
Blackfriars
2004

Rembert holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Oriental Studies (Indology) from the University of Ghent, Belgium, 2003. His masters thesis was, "Hamsaduta of Rupa Goswami. A Study in Translation". he is currently pursuing a DPhil in Theology, Oxford University. Rembert's main area od research is in Sanskrit poetry and poetics, especially in relation to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.

Recipient of Ashvatta Narayanan Bursary of £500 in 2006; Jiva Gosvami Bursary of £1000 in 2007; OCHS Book Grant of £50 in 2007; Rajagopalan Bursary of £250 in 2008; Jiva Gosvami Bursary of £1000 in 2009.


Kiyokazu Okita
Japan
Pembroke College
2003

B.A. in Religious Studies, International Christian University, Tokyo, 2001. Thesis:"The Necessity for and the Possobility of Interreligious Dialogue".

MSt., in the Study of Religion, Oxford University, 2004.

Presently reading for a DPhil, in Theology Oxford University.

Recipient of Ashvatta Narayanan Bursary of £500 in 2006; Pandit Shyamaji Krishnavarma Medal in 2006; Pundit Abaji Bursary of £1008 in 2009.

 


Despoina Potari
Greece
Lady Margaret Hall
2009

Despoina is studying for an M.Phil. in Political Theory. Her main fields of interst are political ideologies, concepts of power, and conceptions of the 'political'.


Anna Rawlings
UK
Mansfield
2010

Anna's studies include a spatial analysis of Hindutva, the relationship between the brahman, renouncer and king in Hindu society and narrative analysis with reference to subalternity. She aslo has an interest in Islam, writing the particular and universal aspects of Islam into a single narrative.


Chao Ren
China
Pembroke College
2010

Chao is studying History on a Visiting Student Programme


Naama Shalom
Israel
Balliol
2008

MA from Hebrew University in Sanskrit and Hindu Studies.

Naama’s D.Phil. topic is the Mahabharata.

Recipient of Ashvatta Narayanan Bursary of £500 in 2009.


Sitara Thobani
Canada
St Antony's
2010

Sitara is studying for a D.Phil. in Social/Cultural Anthropology. Her areas of interest include South Asian Diaspora Studies and Indian Classical Dance.


Paul Trafford
UK
St Cross
2009

M.Sc in Maths, Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Paul is working on his M.St. in the Study of Religion. He is focussing on Buddhist ethics and the religious and cultural landscape in India in the time of the Buddha.
 


Jacob Louis Waldenmaier
USA
Wycliffe Hall
2009

Having previously studied at the Ashland Theological College, USA, Jacob is in Oxford studying for a D.Phil. in the Study of Religions. His main field is Comparative Theology, looking at the work of Ramanuja and Ibn 'Arabƒ´


Holly Welsh
UK
Regents Park College
2010

Holly is studying for a BA in Theology.


Bjarne Wernicke Olesen
Denmark
2008

BA in Classical Indology, Department of Indian Philology, University of Aarhus, 2003.
BA in the Study of Religion and Sanskrit, Department of the Study of Religion, University of Aarhus, 2006.
Intensive Hindi course at the Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg, 2006.
Intensive Buddhist Sanskrit course at the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Kathmandu University, 2007.
Recipient of a 4-year PhD scholarship at the Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus, 2007.

Currently spending a term (Michaelmas term) at the OCHS as a visiting scholar, 2008.

Research area: The PhD project is defined as a study of the Goddess and Sakta traditions as part of an effort to develop religio-indological studies in the Department of the Study of Religion at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. The project includes writing a Sanskrit grammar and Sanskrit reader in Danish.


Richard Williams
UK
Wolfson College
2010

BA in Theology, Oxford University, 2009. Currently reading for a MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies. His areas of interest are Saivism, approaches to ritual possession, gender in religious literature, and Brajbhasha devotional poetry.


Yi Zhu
Germany
Wolfson College
2010

 Yi is studying historical linguistics and Sanskrit.


Anton Zykov
Russia
St Antony's
2010

Anton is a student of Hindi, Urdu, and Indian/Pakistani history at the Oriental Institute. He has a particular interest in the history of caste and dalits among non-Hindu communities.