9/11 – 10: A Decade Lost for Immigrants
America’s collective unconscious cannot confront the anxiety of recognizing the central conflict: We are a nation of immigrants, but 9/11 would not have happened had we let the right immigrants in.
Toward a Dharmic Model of Chaplaincy in Semitic Settings II: Diversifying the Traditions of a Religious Campus
Open a map or walk through downtown New Haven and observe the roads that crisscross Yale University: Church Street, Chapel Street, Temple Street. These names undoubtedly refer to the Christian spirit of the university’s founders. Indeed, the official history of the university as recorded on the central website reads: “Yale’s roots can be traced back [...]
Toward a Dharmic Model of Chaplaincy in Semitic Settings: The Challenges of Translating Religion for Others
We first generation Hindu Chaplains must therefore find a way to translate our traditions for a broad audience without apologetics or sacrificing internal diversity in return. The enduring question: How do we do this?
Who Owns Yoga? Cultural Ownership in an Age of Globalization
A recent New York Times article, “Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga’s Soul” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/nyregion/28yoga.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1), has ignited controversy not just in the United States, but also in India with a Times of India reprint. Briefly, the Hindu American Foundation has nationally campaigned to acknowledge yoga’s origins as a way of highlighting Hinduism’s worldly contributions. This [...]
President Obama, Minority Religions, and American Politics
I recently attended a Diwali celebration in Connecticut. The event secured the major essentials of a second generation, Indian-American function: a late start [working to our advantage], a troupe of tweens and teens singing and dancing, their fawning parents frantically photographing and videotaping them, and a dynamic, devotional group of musicians that energized the audience [...]
Babri Masjid, Park51, and the Possibilities of Sacred Space
Many people in university chaplaincy must have asked the same questions that gripped me in starting this academic year at the height of the Park51 controversy. How do we convert this situation into an Obamaian “teachable movement” around religious pluralism in a democracy? How do we sensitively extract the central issues for those in favor [...]
Neil Krishan Aggarwal
Neil Krishan Aggarwal is a research psychiatrist at Columbia University. He graduated with a master's degree in South Asian religions and anthropology from Harvard University. Formerly Hindu Chaplain at Yale University while completing his psychiatric training, he is interested in cultural psychiatry, psychiatric anthropology, and global mental health among South Asians. His research is on developing psychotherapeutic styles from Hinduism, Sikhism, and South Asian Islam and the meanings of redemption/healing in these traditions.
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Contributing Scholars
Patrick BrownPatrick is the Digital Media Coordinator at Liturgy Training Publications and is working on a master's degree at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, IL.
Phillipe CopelandPhillipe Copeland is a Baha'i, a doctoral candidate in social work, a dedicated blogger, a husband and a father.
Jessica JoslinJessica Joslin is a Ph.D. student studying Higher Education at the University of Michigan. Jess is also in the ordination process in the United Church of Christ and has a Masters of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School.