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Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad

Professor; Associate Dean for Research, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Degree: B.A. M.A. (Sri Sathya Sai Institute) M.A., D.Phil. (Oxford)

Current Teaching

I am not teaching at present because of my appointment as Associate Dean for Research, FASS

Research Interests

Areas of Expertise

Indian and comparative epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of religion; religion and politics, especially foreign policy; South Asian religious identities in contemporary Britain; the conceptual sources of modern Hindu life and beliefs.

Books and other publications

Papers: Over forty-five papers in a wide range of journals like Philosophy East and West, Journal of Indian Philosophy, Ageing and Society, Contemporary South Asia, Journal of Hindu Studies, etc., and edited volumes.

Books:

Knowledge and Liberation in Classical Indian Thought, Library of Philosophy and Religion Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2001

Advaita Epistemology and Metaphysics: An Outline of Indian Non-Realism Routledge Curzon, London; 2002

Eastern Philosophy, Weidenfield and Nicholson London, 2005

India: Life, Myth and Art Duncan Baird, London, 2006

Indian Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge: Themes in metaphysics, ethics and soteriology Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007

My main current areas of research are as follows:

1. Theories of self: As PI, I am working with Prof. Jonardon Ganeri of Sussex University on a major AHRC research project: Hindu Senses of the Self; Responses to Buddhist Critiques.

2. Theories of consciousness derived from classical Indian thought, for which I held an award from the John Templeton Foundation. My work at the National Institute for Advanced Studies, Bangalore in 2006-07 was primarily on the reconceptualisation of the cognitive science agenda through classical Indian theories of consciousness, with Dr Rajesh Kasturirangan; we have been awarded a seed grant from Microsoft Research India for this project.

3. Religion and politics, with a focus on the theoretical possibilities offered in interpeting political and public religion in the world, outside the constraints of the modern liberal Western experience. I am currently researching for a book in this area. In the more specific area of religion and identity in Britain, I have been working under a Home Office Grant with Gwen Griffith-Dickson of the Lokahi Foundation, London, to develop an account of integration of Hindus and Muslims into British society.

4. Comparative study of Indian and Chinese philosophies, especially on the issues of self and knowledge. I am co-chair with Tao Jiang of Rutgers University of a five-year Seminar Series on Comparative Studies in the Philosophy and Religion of India and China at the American Academy of Religion Conferences.

Potential Doctoral Proposals

Indian Philosophy - classical and modern, especially in: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, consciousness studies

Comparative Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, consciousness studies,and political thought

Hinduism

Indian Buddhism

Jainism

Religion and politics: South Asia, and comparative studies

Indian diaspora

Multiculturalism and British society

Career details

Career details

I studied Politics, Sociology and History in India, and took a doctorate in Philosophy at Oxford. I taught at the National University of Singapore and held Research Fellowships at Trinity College Oxford and Clare Hall, Cambridge before joining Lancaster. I have also been Visiting Fellow at Benares Hindu University, Ecole Francaise d' Extreme Orient, Pondicherry, De Nobili College, Pune, and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. In 2006-07, I was Visiting Fellow, National Institute for Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

I have a range of interests in global and comparative studies, and I am on the academic advisory council of the Global Religion and Ethics Forum and the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. I was Asia advisor for the Templeton Foundation's Global Perspective on Science and Spirituality Programme, 2004-6.

I am South Asia Reviews Editor of Philosophy East and West; and sit on the editorial and advisory board of the Online Forum of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, Blackwell Compass Religion, Diskus, the online journal of the British Association for the Study of Religion, and Fu Jen International Religious Studies.

I regularly lecture at universities in the US, Europe, East Asiaand India. Recent major lectures include plenary address at the 9th East-West Philosophers' Conference in Hawaii, 2005; Weidenfield Lecture, Glasgow University, 2006; Bimal Matilal Memorial Lecture, Jadavpur University, 2007; Swami Haridas Memorial Lecture, Madras University, 2007.

ePrints Publications Repository

Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad has 23 publication records in the Lancaster University ePrints repository. Use links to access abstracts and full text where available. View all records to sort by date, type and title.

Other Interests and Hobbies

Calligraphy, glass engraving, cooking and cricket.

Associated Keywords: Asian spirituality, Buddhism, Cognition, Comparative, Comparative philosophy, Consciousness, Cross-cultural encounters, Hinduism, Identity, India, Indian diaspora, Integration, Intercultural studies, Metaphysics, Migration and diaspora, Modernity, Multiculturalism, Mysticism, Philosophy, Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of religion, Religion

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