The FUR Fellowship for Dalai Lama Studies encourages unprecedented multi-disciplinary research into the life, teachings and philosophy of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama.
The Fellows’ extensive exploration of their research topics culminated in the submission of monographs. Augmenting their capacities as ‘future teachers’ and expanding the horizons of their own learning, the Fellows have shared their research and lectured at various universities. The 2022 Fellows successfully presented their work in October.
Dawa Lokyitsang
PhD Scholar, Cultural Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Kinship and Sovereignty: Care Interventions & Education in the Tibetan Refugee Community
Dawa T. Lokyitsang’s work will focus on how institutions, specifically the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) and Central School for Tibetans (CST), have acted as contexts through which notions of “family” ground political sovereignty. Her work is based on an understanding that education and kinship highlight indigenous forms of social organization during times of social crisis, and can therefore provide important insights on governance in the informal landscape of exile.
Dawa T. Lokyitsang earned her MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Social Theory and Political Economy from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has been awarded the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Grant 2019 and Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant 2019. She was also the recipient of The Dalai Lama Trust Graduate Scholarship Program. She is fluent in Tibetan and English.
Dr. Latika Gupta
Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Delhi
Peace Teacher – His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
Latika Gupta will investigate the ideas of His Holiness Dalai Lama on the subject of teachers using a theoretical framework. Inspired from her own experience of teaching the peace education course to Bachelors in Education students at Delhi University , her work will focus on His Holiness’ ideas on teachers as propounded in Tibetan Buddhism and draw out insights in the frame of educational theory.
Latika Gupta earned her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Delhi for her thesis titled Development of Religious Identity and Gender: Implications for Education. She received her M. Ed. in the same field the University of Delhi and also holds a Master Degree in Social Work. She is the author Education, Poverty and Gender: Schooling Muslim Girls in India. She was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar (2008-09) at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.
Dr. Preeti Joshi
Head, School of Liberal Arts, MIT World Peace University, Pune
Fostering Interfaith Diversity, Harmony & Peace in Pedagogy – A Comparative Study on Curricular Frameworks on the Philosophy of The Dalai Lama & Other Philosophers
The project aspired to conceptualize the vision of HHDL and other philosophers of interfaith philosophies such as Saint Namdev, Swami Vivekananda, Bhagini Nivedita, and Raymond Panikker. Preeti Joshi hopes that her research will help in the designing of an outline of the curricular framework that will help in fostering Interfaith Diversity, Harmony and Peace.
Preeti Joshi earned her Ph.D. in English from University of Pune before and received her M. Phil. in the same field from Institute of Advance Studies in English, University of Pune. She is the author of a reference book titled Lingua Shrunka of Modern Communication.
Dr. Smita Patil
Assistant Professor, School of Gender & Development Studies, IGNOU, Delhi
Embracing Samata: Exploring the Concept and Practice in the Worlds of The Dalai Lama, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar & Others
Smita Patil intends to examine the fundamental question of equality (Samata). She will study and work with the writings of Savitribai Phule and Jotirao Phule, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and His holiness Dalia Lama to argue that the concept of Samata is nurtured by comradery of ideas between these individuals.
Smita Patil completed her Masters in Political Science and M.Phil in Political Studies on Dalit Feminism in Maharashtra from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She earned her PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is the recipient of prestigious fellowships such as Dr. Avabai Wadia & Dr. Bomanji Khurshedji Wadia Archives for Women Fellowship, 2020-21, Asia Leadership Fellowship Program, Japan, 2017, Research Excellence Program USC-India (PEIN) fellowship, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2014.