Christopher Jain Miller Vice President of Academic Affairs, Professor of Jain & Yoga Studies Arihanta Institute
Christopher Jain Miller, the co-founder and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Arihanta Institute, completed his PhD in the Study of Religion at the University of California, Davis. He is Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute, Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich's Asien-Orient-Institut, and Professor of Engaged Jain Studies at Claremont School of Theology. Christopher's primary fields of research interest are Yoga Studies and Engaged Jain Studies, and he currently serves as the co-chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit at the American Academy of Religion as well as on the steering committees for the Dharma Academy of North America (DANAM) and the Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana conference. Christopher is the author of Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation (Routledge 2024) and the co-editor of Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement (SUNY 2025) as well as Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age (Lexington 2020).
Cogen Bohanec Assistant Professor Arihanta Institute
Dr. Cogen Bohanec is Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute and is Affiliate Assistant Professor at Claremont School of Theology (CST). He teaches courses in Sanskrit and other South Asian languages (Pāḷi, Gujarati), Jain philosophy, philosophy of religion, and comparative dharma traditions. He has also taught courses on South Asian culture, religions, and Sanskrit at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley.

Dr. Bohanec specializes in the Jain, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions, with particular focus on comparative dharma studies, contemplative studies, philosophy of religion, and theo-ethics—including virtue ethics, environmental ethics, and animal ethics. A trained philologist, he is an expert in Sanskrit, Pāḷi, and Gujarati grammar, with advanced training in classical Indian literature and linguistic analysis. His scholarship includes over thirty academic publications across these disciplines. He holds a PhD in Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion with an emphasis in Hindu Studies from the GTU, where his research concentrated on ancient Indian languages, textual traditions, and philosophical systems. He also has an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies at GTU, where he focused on translating Pāḷi Buddhist scriptures in conversation with the Sanskrit Upaniṣads and their philological contexts.
 
Dr. Bohanec is the author of Bhakti Ethics, Emotions, and Love in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava
Metaethics (Lexington Books, 2024), an interdisciplinary study that brings together Hindu theology, ecotheology, ecofeminism, and feminist care ethics within a framework of bhakti-centered virtue ethics and psychology of emotion. He has served as editor for several books in Jain studies, including An Introduction to Jain Philosophy Based on the Writings and Discourses of Ācārya Sushil Kumar by Parveen Jain (DK Printworld, 2019), Contemplative Studies and Jainism (Routledge, 2024), Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement (SUNY Press, 2026, co-edited with Dr. Christopher Jain Miller), and Mantra Jñāna: A Passage Through the Sūkṣma Śarīra Based on the Writings and Discourses of Ācārya Sushil Kumar (by Parveen Jain, DK Printworld, 2026). His current projects continue to explore the Jain and Vaiṣṇava traditions through close textual study, philosophical inquiry, and translation of Jain Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Gujarati texts. He is actively publishing and lecturing on topics spanning religious studies, South Asian philology, ethics, and contemplative practice in both ancient and modern contexts.
Tine Vekemans Ghent University
Professor Tine Vekemans holds the Ācārya Mahāprajña Chair for Jain Studies at Ghent University. Additionally, she is a postdoctoral research fellow funded by the University’s Special Research Fund (BOF). Her approach to Jain studies combines ethnography with textual study, but always starts from practices and experiences of Jains. Over the past decade, her research touched upon diverse aspects of modern Jainism, including Jain migration history, changing lay- mendicant relations, Jainism in the digital age, and processes of knowledge transfer in the Jain diaspora. Her recent book, Digital & Diaspora – Intertwined Frontiers of Jainism, won the 2023 Bhagwan Kunthunatha Annual Best Book Award.
Venu Mehta Assistant Professor Claremont School of Theology
Venu Mehta, an Assistant Professor of Jainism & Comparative Spiritualities at the Claremont School of Theology, specializes in Jainism with a primary focus on Jain regional-vernacular devotional literature, narratives, and practices. Her PhD dissertation investigates the devotion to the Jain goddess Padmāvatī among the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat. Additionally, her work explores the Jain concepts such as forgiveness and non-attachment. Her recent research also delves into Jain-Hindu comparative theologies/spiritualities, particularly regarding goddess traditions. Mehta was a Fulbright Fellow (FLTA) at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2010-11. Mehta has authored essay on Anekāntavāda: The Jaina Epistemology in the volume, Constructing the Pluriverse: The Geopolitics of Knowledge, published by Duke University Press, and an essay on Jainism, Ecology and Ethics in Ecocultural Ethics: Critical Essays, published by Lexington Books. She has authored a book, Learn Gujarati, A Resource – Book for Global Gujaratis, Beginner’s Level published by Charotar University of Science and Technology: India. Mehta earned her first doctorate in Multicultural Education and Literature from Sardar Patel University, India.
Samani Pratibha Pragya Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor Florida International University
Dr. Samani Pratibha Pragya is a scholar of Jain Studies and her specializations include Modern Jain Yoga, Comparative Religion & Philosophy, Meditation & Spirituality and Jain Terapanth lineage, to which she belongs as a Samani (saint). At present she is working as Visiting Assistant Teaching professor at Florida International University, Miami, USA. Her current research centres on the history and methods of modern Jain meditation and yoga. She received her PhD on “Prekṣā Meditation: History and Methods” from SOAS.
Jeffery D. Long Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies Elizabethtown College

Dr. Jeffery D. Long is the Carl W. Zeigler Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College, in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where he has taught since receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School in the year 2000. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of twelve books, including Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds, which won the Rajinder and Jyoti Gandhi Award for Excellence in Theology, Philosophy, and Critical Reflection from the Dharma Academy of North America in 2022. His latest book is Discovering Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Thought. His work focuses primarily on the religions and philosophies of India, mainly the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions, and on such themes as nonviolence, pluralism and its metaphysical foundations, the pedagogy of teaching Indic traditions in a Western context, religion and popular culture, and the concept of rebirth. In 2021, he received an award from the International Ahimsa Foundation for his efforts to promote nonviolence through scholarship. In the same year, he received the Ranck Award for Research Excellence from Elizabethtown College. He has spoken three times at the United Nations and appears in documentaries for PBS and the History Channel.

Samani Rohini Pragya Associate Professor
Rohini Pragya, Samani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Non-Violence and Peace Studies at Jain Vishwa Bharti Institute (JVBI). She has been lecturer at Ācharya Kālu Kanya Mahavidyalya, Professor of Jainology and Comparative Philosophy and Religion at JVBI since 2004. She has also been Visiting Instructor in the Department of Religious Studies at Florida International University (FIU). She is also an initiate Jain Samani (nun) from last twenty-two years and is a disciple of Jain Śvetāmbara Terāpanth Guru H.H. Ācārya Śree Mahāśamaṇa Ji. She has authored many research articles, including books: “Jain View of Reality: A Hermeneutic Interpretation” (2020) JVBI, “Doctrine of Karma: A Jain Perspective,” “Translation of ‘Karmavāda’ by Ācārya Mahāprajña,” (2022) JVB, “Notion of Soul in Jainism,” Monograph (2024) JVBI. Her current research work focuses on Jain studies and comparative philosophy and religion, non-violence and peace studies, structural violence, and training in non-violence, Jain Yoga and Prekṣā Meditation. Other than many international forums, she has been attending and presenting at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and South Asian Studies Association (SASA) since 2016.
Parveen Jain President & CEO Arihanta Institute
Parveen Jain, PhD is the founder, CEO and Chairman of Arihanta Institute, and the author of An Introduction to Jain Philosophy. He had an exciting career of over thirty years as founder and chief executive of multiple technology companies, and a senior executive role at McAfee, the cyber security company, and in 2014, he retired from active corporate life to devote his full time to philanthropic activities.
 
Parveen has always cherished philanthropy and has held leadership roles in various non-profit organizations. He has been a long-time trustee of the International Mahavira Jain Mission, where he has been deeply involved with the growth of Siddhachalam, the first Jain tīrtha outside of India, from its founding. He led the team to build the Jain Temple in the San Francisco Bay Area, has served as chairman and president of Jain Center of Northern California, and continues to be an active advisor. Previously, he was a founding director of the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple, served as a trustee of the American Foundation for the Blind, was a founding team member of the South Asian Heart Center, and served as a founding director of Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education (Stanford-CARE).
 
Parveen is most passionate about furthering the initiatives inspired by Ācārya Sushil Kumar in the service of Jain tradition: promoting the message of nonviolence, creating Jain educational platforms, and applying Jain principles to everyday life among the growing global Jain community, for current and future generations.
 
Andrew Bridges Bhagwan Shantinath Lectureship California State University, Fullerton
Andrew Bridges holds the Bhagwan Shantinath Lectureship and California State University, Fullerton, where he teaches the course “Non-Violence, Animal Rights and Diet in Jainism,” and helps to organize the triennial Peace and Religion Symposium. He teaches in both the Religious Studies Department and Philosophy Department at Cal State Fullerton. His research interests include comparative epistemology, contemporary applications of anekāntavāda, utopian studies, and ethics.
Veena R. Howard Professor, Endowed Chair in Jain & Hindu Dharma California State University, Fresno
Veena R. Howard, Ph.D., is Professor of Asian Religious Traditions in the Department of Philosophy at California State University, Fresno. She also holds the Endowed Chair in Jain and Hindu Dharma. She also serves as the director of the newly endowed M.K. Gandhi Center: Inner Peace and Sarvodaya. Her publications include the books, Gandhi’s Global Legacy: Moral Methods and Moral Challenges (Lexington, 2023); The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Philosophy and Gender (ed.) (Bloomsbury, 2019); Dharma, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh Traditions of India (ed.) (IB Tauris, 2017); and Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism: Renunciation and Social Action (SUNY Press, 2013). She has also authored numerous peer-reviewed articles including, “The Nonviolence Conundrum: Political Peace and Personal Karma in Jain and Hindu Traditions” (Religions, 2023); “Oxford Bibliography Article: Mohandas K. Gandhi” (Oxford University Press, 2019); “Divine Light and Melodies Lead the Way: The Santmat Tradition of Bihar”(Religions, 2019); “The modern monastic Santmat movement of Bihar: building bridges between Sanātana Dharma and Sant-Mat (International Journal of Dharma Studies, 2017); “Lessons from ‘The Hawk and the Dove’: Reflections on the Mahabharata’s Animal Parables and Ethical Predicaments” (Sophia International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions, 2016), “Rethinking Gandhi's Celibacy: Ascetic Power and the Empowerment of Women” (The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2013), She has also translated three books from the modern Sant tradition from Hindi into English. She has served on the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Corinna May Lhoir Universität Hamburg
Corinna Lhoir, M.A., is a PhD student of South Asian Studies with focus on Classical Indology at University of Hamburg (Germany) and Ghent University (Belgium), as well as an entrepreneur with her own online learning platform with focus on studies of Yoga and Sanskrit (yogastudien.de).
She holds a B.A. in Languages and Cultures of India and Tibet with focus on classical Indology from Universität Hamburg, a M.A. in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation from SOAS, University of London and a M.A. in Oriental Languages and Cultures (India) with focus on Jainism from Ghent University in Belgium.
Her research primarily concentrates on yoga in medieval Jainism. She is currently preparing a critical edition of the Yogapradīpa, a Jain medieval text on yoga and meditation, and its vernacular commentaries.
Christopher Chapple Doshi Professor Loyola Marymount University
Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and Director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He has published more than two dozen books, including Reconciling Yogas: Haribhadra's Array of Views on Yoga(SUNY 2003) and Yoga in Jainism (Routledge 2016).
Pragya Jain Research Associate International School for Jain Studies
Pragya Jain is a research scholar at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, where she is pursuing her PhD on “Dhyāna: a Jain view with special reference to Śubhacandrācārya’s Jñānārṇava.” She holds two master’s degrees, one in Jainology from Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, Ladnun, and another in English Literature from the University of Pune. She also has an MPhil in “Aestheticism in Oscar Wilde’s short stories.” She has a rich and diverse experience in teaching, journalism, and research. She worked as an English Teacher and an Assistant Professor of Communication Skills for eight years in Mumbai, and then as a sub-editor and senior digital content producer for three years at leading media houses. She has been a student of Jainism since her childhood, having completed Siddhānt Viśārad, a five-year course from Todarmal Smarak. She has authored several papers and a book titled “Sant Vilas” in 2022. She is currently working as a research associate at the International School for Jain Studies, Pune, and is the assistant editor of ISJS-Transactions, an online journal.
Eileen Goddard Religious Studies Ph.D. candidate University of California, Santa Barbara
Eileen Goddard is a Religious Studies Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She teaches courses on Indian religious traditions at UCSB and the University of Houston. Eileen̍s research focuses on the sixteenth century Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition and comparatively analyzes Indian religious constructions of perfected minds and bodies. Eileen's broader research interests include Hindu and Indian philosophies, bhakti traditions, classical Sanskrit aesthetic theory (rasa), and gender and sexuality. Eileen completed her M.A. in Religion at Rutgers University and B.A. in Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alba Rodríguez Juan University of California, Riverside
Alba Rodríguez Juan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. She earned her MA in Yoga Studies from Loyola Marymount University with the support of a Fulbright scholarship. Her research explores South Asian philosophical and religious traditions, with a focus on the continuities and discontinuities between traditional and contemporary forms of Jain ethical and meditation practice. 
Tillo Detige Department of Religion at Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Tillo Detige’s primary research project investigates the Digambara Jaina ascetic lineages of early modern Western and Central India. He works with unpublished manuscript and epigraphic materials collected during extensive field work, surveying ascetics’ memorials and visiting Digambara temples and manuscript collections throughout the region. His work has been published in a number of journal articles and chapters in edited volumes, including Brill’s Encyclopedia of Jainism (2020). Tillo obtained his PhD (2024) from the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany), where he also taught Sanskrit and Hindi. Prior to this, he also worked and lectured at the Department of Languages & Cultures at Ghent University (Belgium, 2012 to 2018) and taught South Asian Buddhism at the Carleton- Antioch Buddhist Studies in India program at Bodhgaya (India, fall 2018). He currently holds the Alka Siddhartha Dalal Endowed Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jainism at the Department of Religion at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, where he also teaches an introductory course on Jainism.

Steven M. Vose University of Colorado-Denver
Steven M. Vose (PhD, South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and holder of the Bhagwan Suparshvanatha Endowed Chair in Jain Studies at the University of Colorado-Denver. A historian of Jain communities in western India from the early Islamicate period to the present, his work focuses on community formation and interactions with political powers. His first book, Reimagining Jainism in Islamic India: Jain Intellectual Culture in the Delhi Sultanate (Routledge, forthcoming), is the recipient of the Edward C. Dimock, Jr. Book Prize in the Indian Humanities, awarded by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS). His current research examines the effects of neoliberalism and globalization on transnational Jain communities.