Annual Conference Backup Sept 21

2022 Annual Conference

विवेक

"Viveka: Discerning Ourselves and Our Work"
Saturday November 12 - Sunday November 13
Hybrid Conference
In person venue: Tufts University, Boston
Most sessions available via Zoom

This year we are delighted to offer a hybrid conference experience.

Join us in Boston or online as we discern ways to articulate our Hindu philosophies and practices to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) objectives, mental health support and community thriving.

Our speakers bring deep wells of knowledge, experience, and practice to share. They follow diverse spiritual pathways which beautifully intersect in their contemplative, heart-centered approaches.

Learn, Connect & Discern with us this November!

Conference registration (same for both in person and online) includes access to video recordings of the conference sessions at no additional fee. Conference recordings will be available for purchase separately to non-participants.

If you need your conference registration fee waived due to financial constraints please email [email protected] with the subject header “Conference small grant request.” Let us know your situation and why you would like to attend. Funds are limited for these grants.

If you are able to provide a gift of financial assistance to cover the conference registration for an attendee or additional aspects of the conference then please contribute using the button below.

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Preview and download our conference program.

Program

To register for the conference, please click the button below.

Keynote Speakers

Saturday Keynote

Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi

Khyati Y. Joshi is a public intellectual whose social science research and community connections inform policy-makers, educators, and everyday people about race, religion, and immigration in 21st century America. Professor Joshi earned her doctorate in Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is the co-founder of the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice and consults on equity and inclusion for schools, colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, and businesses. Dr. Joshi has appeared on or been quoted by numerous news outlets across the globe. She is Professor of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and part of the 2015 ground breaking Pew Research Report Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths. Most recently in 2022, as a member of the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) she is Co-Pi for a $1.1 million grant from the Luce Foundation to promote the research on Asian Pacific American Religions.

She most recently authored the book White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) which has received much acclaim. Dr. Joshi’s keynote will feature themes from this landmark book. Dr. Joshi’s extended bio, research, numerous publications and an interview with Senator Cory Booker may be found at her website: https://khyatijoshi.com/blog/live-with-cory-booker

Sunday Keynote

Dr. Melissa Wood Bartholomew

Melissa Wood Bartholomew (she/her), Ph.D., JD, MDiv, MSW, is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Harvard Divinity School. She is a Christ-centered minister and a racial justice and healing practitioner. Melissa is an attorney with nearly a decade of experience in public interest law. She is committed to a multifaith, multidisciplinary, Afrocentric approach to healing justice that is rooted in the African philosophy of Ubuntu, restorative justice, and love.

Melissa has studied restorative justice in Rwanda, where she learned about its capacity to help a nation advance justice in a communal way. She believes in the power of restorative justice to operationalize love and transform individuals and systems.

Melissa is witnessing the impact of applying the heart-centered restorative justice approach to advancing equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging at HDS through various DIB initiatives.

The DIB office provides structural support to help facilitate the collaborative work across departments and communities within HDS that are working together to advance the vision of a restorative, anti-racist and anti-oppressive HDS. Melissa teaches a course in restorative justice at Boston College Law School and a course in diversity and systems of oppression through a restorative approach at Boston College School of Social Work.

Saturday Panelists

Dr. Kavita Pallod-Sekhsaria

Dr. Kavita Pallod-Sekhsaria is the founder of KPS Psychotherapy, a private practice focused on providing psychotherapeutic services to the South Asian community in Maryland. Kavita's doctoral dissertation "Hindu Indian American Conceptions of Mental Health" aimed to unpack how understanding a Hindu worldview of mental health can enable greater access to mental healthcare by the underserved Hindu American population. Kavita is passionate about more broadly destigmatizing the use of spiritual means of coping in the therapeutic space. Kavita also serves as the volunteer Hindu Chaplain at American University.

Dr. Raj Balkaran

Dr. Raj Balkaran serves as McMaster University’s Chaplain of Indian Spirituality and runs a thriving private spiritual counsel practice where he helps guide people on their life journeys. He also hosts the New Books in Indian Religions podcast where he interviews academics on their cutting-edge research. Dr. Balkaran is a scholar of Sanskrit narrative texts and Tutor at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He is also the Founder of the online School of Indian Wisdom where he integrates scholarship, storytelling and spirituality to apply ancient Indian wisdom teachings to modern life. See https://rajbalkaran.com for more information.

Shamā Mehtā

Shamā Mehtā was born in India and now calls southeastern Michigan home. A lifelong practicing Hindu, Shamā is a Board Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains. She completed her Clinical Pastoral Education training at Oakwood Healthcare System (now Beaumont Health). Shamā holds a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry from Ecumenical Theological Seminary and is currently working on her Doctorate in Ministry. Currently employed with Michigan Medicine as a Certified Educator Candidate, Shamā has nearly a decade of experience in hospital chaplaincy. Shamā is also a Qualified Bilingual Medical Interpreter and is a frequent guest speaker at universities and hospital systems.

Saturday Workshop Leader

Rev. Dr. Monica Sanford

Rev. Dr. Monica Sanford is the Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry at Harvard Divinity School. As a Buddhist chaplain and minister, Dr. Sanford supports students who have been traditionally underserved by graduate level religious vocational education – such as Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Humanists, etc. Dr. Sanford conducts scholarly research on Buddhist chaplaincy across all employment sectors and college chaplaincy across all religious and spiritual traditions. As a Dharmic chaplain working in a primarily Christian profession, Dr. Sanford dedicates a large portion of her scholarship to building the academic field of Dharmic religious vocation and working in solidarity with members of other minority religious and spiritual traditions (including people with no religious tradition) to ensure that chaplaincy is a vocation open to all. She focuses on building bridges between existing professional standards and Dharmic wisdom.

Dr. Preeta Banerjee

Preeta Banerjee, Ph.D. is the Hindu Chaplain at Tufts University and a spiritual companion who draws on a broad and deep range of experience, having spent over 20 years in academia, coaching and consulting as an advocate, educator, researcher, and author.

Her passion lies in creating brave spaces at the intersection of contemplation, activism and healing and deepening in interreligious manyness, from a lens rooted in bhakti, gyan, karma, and raj yog. She is a founding board member of the North American Hindu Chaplains Association; Vice Chair of the Mystic Soul Project; and Advisory Council member of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network.

Co-founder and partner at WhiteLeaf Advisors LLC, she previously led a team at Deloitte and was a business school professor at Brandeis and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has a PhD in Strategic Management from the Wharton School; a BS in Computational Biology and Business from Carnegie Mellon; and has recently completed her Graduate Certificate in Interreligious Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.

Sunday Workshop Leader

Rev. Kate Smanik

Rev. Kate Smanik is the Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at Colby College. She is a graduate of the College of Wooster (2001, B.A.) and Yale University (2005, M.Div.) and has more than 17 years experience in higher education. Kate is a doctoral candidate in higher education administration at Indiana University where her research focuses on chaplaincy in higher education, the spiritual and religious education of young adults and the role that restorative practices can play in research and education. Kate received her training in Circle Process from Kay Pranis in the Spring of 2019 and further training in Restorative Practices from the Restorative Justice Project of Maine in the summer of 2021. Kate lives with her family on the Colby College campus in Waterville, ME where you can find them building fairy houses in the Colby arboretum and exploring the rocky coastline of Maine.